The Land Wars - The Dispossession Of The Khoisan And AmaXhosa In The Cape Colony by John Laband

ISBN: 9781776094998

Publisher: Penguin Books, July 2020

Paperback, 356 pages

Highly useful and relevant approach to SA history in view of the "stolen land" spat. It is probably most essential reading matter for many of those who are most likely not to read it. For one I am however disappointed that the misidentification (by several historians) of nkosi Qoba, son of Mahote of the imiDange is being perpetuated. He was the brother of Jalamba and Godissa. He is correctly identified in the Record of Moody (published by Balkema 1959) and an article by Peires, 2008: The other side of the black silk handkerchief, Quarterly Bullitin of NLSA 62(1) in which he corrected the error which was also contained in his book: The House of Phalo. This is a significant matter as they were not mere petty chiefs but in fact the sons of Mahote, the Regent of Phalo at the time and therefore actually the foremost Xhosa royalty, which throws a significantly different light on the seriousness of the atrocities against them and thus also fails to address or explain some significant related events. More importantly it is however to note that the book concentrates on the rather well known eastern frontier wars with some reference to the so-called Khoi rebellion and resistance, but it really contains nothing more than a co-incedental mention here and there of the lesser known, more than 200 year ghastly onslaught on the existence the San hunter-forager community. The promotional script and subtitle of the book is therefore somewhat misleading in this regard.