Kings, Commoners and Concessionaires. The Evolution and Dissolution of the Nineteenth-Century Swazi State

(Johannesburg: Ravan Press, 1983) 0869751506. 213 x 140 mm; laminated pictorial wrappers; pp. viii + (ii) + 315, incl. index; maps; some text figures. Fine condition. A volume in the 'New History of Southern Africa Series'. "This is the first full-length study of the political economy of one of the African states which formed in the course of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century 'Zulu' revolution. The early chapters examine the evolution of the Swazi state up to the mid-nineteenth century, paying particular attention to the 'layering' of society through conquest and differential incorporation, and the simultaneous integration of the state through age regiments and the elaboration of a national ideology centred on the Swazi royalty. Dr Bonner then sets the Swazi state in the wider context of south-eastern Africa. He examines Swazi relations with the Zulu and shows how the Zulu kingdom was the axis around which regional politics turned. The Boer republics of the Transvaal were by contrast a much less formidable force, and Dr Bonner goes on to challenge the orthodox view of Boer superiority and dominance over their African neighbours. This situation only changed after the defeat of the Zulu and the Pedi by British armies during the annexation of the Transvaal (1877-81) and the discovery of gold on the Rand in 1886. The final chapters of the book trace the gradual subversion of the Swazi state in this changed environment, analysing the role of the great mining companies and their associated white concessionaires in the demise of Swazi independence." .