Product Description

"Anyone who thinks that South Africa's problems began with the Afrikaners and apartheid should read this book." -- Richard Dowden, The Independent

"... should remain the last word for the foreseeable future." -- Choice

"Peires is the premier historian of the Xhosa people. He speaks the language, knows the terrain, has collected oral traditions and has made an exhaustive study of the documented sources. The result is a fascinating and authoritative account of this astonishing catastrophe... The Dead Will Arise is fine scholarship and a good read. " -- The Washington Post, Book World

" [Peires] has done a splendid job, combining a narrative of epic tragic sweep with a deep grasp of the Xhosa language and society... this is a powerfully wrought work, one of the best in recent years on a precolonial South African people... " -- African Studies Review

"... The Dead Will Arise is remarkable for its clarity and accessibility.... It is bold, imaginative challenge to an orthodoxy which has persisted for one hundred and thirty years. The sophistication and scope of its analysis and its breath-taking literary style qualify The Dead Will Arise for the accolade 'brilliant.' " -- International Journal of African Historical Studies

"... gripping reading. It is now one hundred and thirty years since the tragic events of the Xhosa Cattle-Killing and yet this book is the very first thoroughly researched and authoritative account ever to be written on the subject." -- Journal of Religion in Africa

"One of the great strengths of this study is the rich biographical material that Peires provides on the various personalities involved in the incident." -- American Historical Review

Drawing on private letters, spy reports, oral traditions, and obscure Xhosa texts, Peires explains for the first time the motivations which drove 100,000 Xhosa to kill their cattle, destroy their crops, and slowly starve to death -- an extraordinary event that has defied historical explanation for over 130 years.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #959145 in Books
• Published on: 1989-09-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 376 pages

Review
In 1856 the Xhosa tribe of South Africa slaughtered all their cattle, cut down their crops and sat back to wait for their ancestors to rise from the dead. By the end of the following year they themselves were dead, mostly from starvation... 'This must be the only case in human history of mass suicide on such a scale for the sake of a religious fantasy. It seems incredible that there has never been a book on the subject before. In an attempt to disprove the thesis that this was just an inexplicable reaction of a primitive people, Mr Peires sets out to prove that the cattle killing was a logical response to the Xhosa predicament... 'In the face of such evil Mr Peires turns to the only identifiable devil - the British and in particular Governor George Grey... 'The phenomenon defies logic. It is simply one of those eruptions from hell which Africa sometimes experiences... 'Anyone who thinks that South Africa's problems began with the Afrikaners and apartheid should read this book' - Richard Dowden in The Independent 'The reading of history - especially South African history - has been all but ruined in our school system. Peires restores it by combining a magical mystery tour with the elegant baroque of the Victorian novel. At weighty moments he breaksthe text, offering the impatient mind a quick route to a new section, or with a considered pause to reflect on the wider issues at work in the mid-19th century. It is an especially liberating style and a fine example of the imaginative, thoughtful historian's craft. 'The genre heightens the pathos of this gory and desperately sad tale; a tale which changed the balance of power in South Africa.' - Peter Vale in The Weekly Mail