Rural resistance in South Africa: the Mpondo revolts after fifty years, ed. by Thembela Kepe and Lungisile Ntsebeza. Brill, 2011. 282p bibl index afp (Afrika-Studiecemtrum series, 22); ISBN 9789004214460 pbk, $58.00. Reviewed in 2012may CHOICE. • New from Brill •

Leading scholars in South African history provide an engaging retrospective of the nature and meaning of a series of important rural revolts by Africans against the apartheid government. As the authors show, the revolts in the Pondoland area of the Transkei during the 1950s comprised a series of protest actions against the introduction of the hated Bantu Authorities Act. These culminated in killings and open rebellion in 1960. Thereafter, widespread rural opposition to the state persisted through the decade. The well-crafted chapters explore the revolts in three related sections. Chapters in part 1 reexamine the nature of resistance and the context in which it emerged. Part 2 chapters explore the broader implications of the revolts for other forms of African resistance. Part 3 provides chapters that analyze the meaning of the revolts and how they influenced historical memory in South Africa. Despite its limited focus, this volume sheds new light on a critical period in the country's history as well as on rural African history and the post-colony in general.
Summing Up: Recommended. Graduate students and above. -- A. S. MacKinnon, University of West Georgia