Book Description

This study by Monica Hunter Wilson, originally published in 1936, and reissued in a second edition in 1961, was one of the first to provide a detailed account of an African people in the process of change from rural cattle-raising tribesmen to urban and agricultural wage-earners in a European-dominated economic system. It also broke new ground in its attempt to apply anthropological methods to the study of an African community living in urban conditions. The book is divided into three main sections. The first, and most extensive, studies the effects of culture contact upon the Pondo living in the reserves, the second discusses urban life and the effects of urbanization, and the third describes the position of Africans living on European-owned farms. A final section discusses future 'Tendencies' as they appeared at that time. This new edition, being published on the centenary of this pioneering anthropologist's birth, contains two major essays - one an appreciation of her life and work in the South African and wider African contexts, by her elder son, Professor Francis Wilson; and the other a reflection by Dr James G. Ellison on the circumstances in which Monica Hunter Wilson undertook the research and writing of this volume, and its significance for anthropology more generally at the time. The author is also well-known for a number of detailed studies of the Nyakyusa of Central Africa.