Research Catalog

Title

Building the homestead : agriculture, labour and beer in South Africa's Transkei / Patrick McAllister.

Author

McAllister, P. A.

Publication

Aldershot, Hampshire, England : Ashgate, ©2001.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Additional Authors

Rijksuniversiteit te Leiden. Afrika-Studiecentrum.

Description

xi, 199 pages : illustrations, maps; 24 cm.

Summary

"This book is an ethnography of consumption and work. It deals with beer drinking and co-operative agricultural labour among Xhosa-speaking people in South Africa's Transkei region. It analyses the underlying social, moral and religious principles on which labour and beer drinking are based and which connect them, and the historical and socio-political contexts in which this developed. The connection between beer and labour is encapsulated in the vernacular phrase ukwakh' umzi, 'building the homestead', and is manifested in practice through providing for the homestead's material needs, and through the fulfillment of its social and ritual obligations." "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.

Series Statement

African Studies Centre research series ; 16

Uniform Title

African Studies Centre research series ; 16.

Subject

• Xhosa (African people) > South Africa > Transkei > Social conditions
• Xhosa (African people) > Agriculture > Social conditions. > South Africa > Transkei
• Agricultural development projects > South Africa > Transkei
• Agricultural development projects
• Xhosa (African people) > Social conditions
• South Africa > Transkei

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (p. 192-199).

Contents

Fieldwork in Shixini 1 -- Building the homestead 6 -- Agrarian development in South Africa's communal areas 12 -- 2. Shixini and Its People 15 -- Historical and administrative background 15 -- Physical characteristics and settlement 20 -- Ecology and demography 24 -- Making a living 32 -- Migrant labour 36 -- 3. Subsistence Agriculture, or 'Scratching about in the Soil'? 40 -- Land and livestock 40 -- An agricultural ethos 45 -- Maize yields: What is a 'harvest'? What is 'maize'? 58 -- Implications for rural development 71 -- 4. Co-Operative Labour in Africa: an Overview 88 -- Exchange labour and festive labour 90 -- Efficiency and uses 93 -- Who works for whom, and why? 97 -- Work parties and rural differentiation 100 -- Reciprocity 102 -- 5. Work Parties and the Transformation of Rural Production 111 -- Historical context: changing rural production 116 -- Development of beer drinks 122 -- Kinship and neighbourhood organization 124 -- Organisation of agricultural labour 125 -- Agricultural companies and work groups 136 -- Umgqibelo and other labour combinations 143 -- 6. Drinking and Working 148 -- Occasions for beer 148 -- Rules of beer drinking 152 -- Work party beer 159 -- 7. Beer, Labour and the Homestead 177.

ISBN

• 0754618455
• 9780754618454

LCCN

2002391676

OCLC

• ocm47192345
• 47192345
• SCSB-8945180

Owning Institutions

Princeton University Library