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WAR, RACISM, AND THE TAKING OF HEADS: REVISITING MILITARY CONFLICT IN THE CAPE COLONY AND WESTERN XHOSALAND IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 January 2015

DENVER A. WEBB
DENVER A. WEBB*
Affiliation:
University of Fort Hare
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Abstract

The emergence of scientific racism and the taking of heads and skulls in the nineteenth-century colonial wars in Southern Africa have received limited attention from historians. Closer examination of head-taking in colonial wars fought in the western parts of Xhosaland and the Cape Colony suggests that the rise of scientific racism alone does not explain the complex interplay between military discourse on Africans, atrocities committed, and commonplace racial attitudes. A detailed examination of the incidents of head-taking in the colonial conflicts against the Xhosa indicates the practice evolved over time, had several causes, and became an increasingly common part of the construction and re-enforcement of a racial identity and culture of domination by British and colonial soldiers. It also suggests that for the Xhosa, the taking of heads was a behaviour acquired from the British.

Keywords

South Africaracismviolencewarmilitary
Type
Conflict and Power in South Africa
Information
The Journal of African History , Volume 56 , Issue 1 , March 2015 , pp. 37 - 55
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2015 

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Footnotes

*

I wish to extend a word of appreciation to Gary Minkley and Jeff Peires for encouragement, guidance, and support in the preparation of this article. Financial assistance for this research from the NRF (SARChI) through the University of Fort Hare is also gratefully acknowledged. The comments by anonymous readers of The Journal of African History are also appreciated. Author's email: [email protected]

References

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49 Interview with amaQwathi chiefs at Askeaton by Wandile Kuse and Denver Webb, 12 Sept. 2013. For the 1880–1 Transkei Rebellion, see Saunders, C. C., ‘The Transkei Rebellion of 1880–81: a case study of Transkeian resistance to white control’, South African Historical Journal, 8:1 (1976), 32–9CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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109 Ibid. 76.

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