The Land Wars. The Dispossession of the Khoisan and AmaXhosa in the Cape Colony

Title: The Land Wars
Subtitle: The Dispossession of the Khoisan and AmaXhosa in the Cape Colony
Author: John Laband
Publisher: Penguin Random House South Africa
Imprint: Penguin Books
Cape Town, South Africa 2020
ISBN 9781776094998 / ISBN 978-1-77-609499-8
Softcover, 15 x 23 cm, 336 pages, several b/w and colour images and maps

About: The Land Wars. The Dispossession of the Khoisan and AmaXhosa in the Cape Colony

The Land Wars-The Dispossession of the Khoisan and AmaXhosa in the Cape Colony is an immensely readable and valuable account of a brutal process, the conquest and dispossession of the Khoisan and amaXhosa on the frontiers of colonial expansion during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. John Laband has produced a work of elegant synthesis, fast moving and sharply detailed, incisive in judgement and infused with a deep sympathy for the tragic dimensions of the events described. Though the book displays Laband's characteristically keen appreciation of military matters, this is far more than a traditional "trumpet and drum" military history. Its pages are populated by some of the most colourful characters in South African history, brought alive by vivid thumbnail sketches. But the narrative of their heroic or criminal deeds helps to illuminate the involvement of countless nameless South Africans who endured or perished in these violent times. The Land Wars-The Dispossession of the Khoisan and AmaXhosa in the Cape Colony will help his readers to a better understanding of this complicated and decisive period. Above all it is a timely reminder of the centrality of land as a source of power, wealth and conflict in South African society.

Content: The Land Wars. The Dispossession of the Khoisan and AmaXhosa in the Cape Colony

Abbreviations
Maps
Genealogical Table
Introduction: The Land Has Died
The AmaXhosa and the San
The Khoikhoin and the AmaXhosa
The Cape of Good Hope
De Kaap
The Expanding Frontier: Trekboers, Commandos and the Khoisan
The First and Second Cape Frontier Wars, 1779-1781 and 1793
The Graaff-Reinet Rebellion and the First British Conquest of the Cape, 1795-1796
The Third Cape Frontier War, 1799-1803, and the Second British Conquest of the Cape, 1806
The Fourth Cape Frontier War, 1811-1812
The Fifth Cape Frontier War, 1819-1820 (Makhandas War)
The Albany Settlers, the Ceded Territory and the Battle of Mbholompo
The Kat River Settlement and the Expulsion of the AmaXhosa from the Ceded Territory
The Sixth Cape Frontier War, 1834-1835 (the War of Maqoma, or of Hintsa), and the Coming of the AmaMfengu
The Treaty System and the Great Trek
The Seventh Cape Frontier War, 1846-1847 (the War of the Axe, or the War of the Boundary)
British Kaffraria
The Eighth Cape Frontier War, December 1850-March 1853 (the War of Mlanjeni), and the Kat River Rebellion
The Cattle-Killing
The Ninth Cape Frontier War, August 1877-August 1878 (the War of Ngcayecibi)
The Aftermath
Acknowledgements
Guide to Further Reading
Notes
Index