Building the homestead: Agriculture, labour and beer in South Africa’s Transkei

This title was first published in 2001. This is also a study of rural Xhosa identity and community, and its survival in the face of the overwhelming odds stacked against it by colonialism and apartheid. The maintenance of homestead production can be properly understood only if this wider context is taken into consideration. The analysis is thus directly relevant to current debates about agrarian change, land reform and economic development in South Africa’s communal areas, since it shows how some rural Xhosa are able to maintain a sense of community and identity, and of how they are able to harness the socio-cultural resources at their disposal to engage in productive activity, with some success. –BOOK JACKET.