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The Maphumulo Uprising: War, Law and Ritual in the Zulu Rebellion. By Jeff Guy. Scottsville, South Africa: University of KwaZuluNatal Press, 2005. Distributed by International Specialized Book Services, Portland, Oreg. Pp. xii, 276. $34.95 paper.
This book examines the last part of what is popularly called the Bambatha Rebellion that occurred in the British territories of Natal and Zululand during 1906. Since Bambatha, a Zulu chief and rebel leader, had almost nothing to do with the events discussed in this book, it becomes apparent that the term Zulu Rebellion is more appropriate. Professor Guy begins by looking at the haunting image of an emaciated Mbombo kaSibindi Nxumalo, a traditional healer who performed a purification ritual on the Qwabe community in Natal just before the outbreak of violence, was later arrested by colonial forces and died after being released on bail. Qwabe desire for purification originated from anxiety over the impact of colonial rule including the greater prevalence of disease brought by the new railway, increased rent and evictions by white settlers who controlled much of the best land, and the announcement that Africans would have to pay a new tax, a poll tax on individuals, on top of many other existing taxes. In fact, as other historians have pointed out, the new poll tax was the main cause of the overall rebellion as it diminished the power of older male homestead heads who usually collected money from their young men to pay hut tax. Those young men now had...