Conflict in Qumbu: rural consciousness, ethnicity and violence in the colonial Transkei, 1880–1913

In 1912 and 1913, a 'wave of lawlessness' swept over Qumbu district, Transkei. I At its peak, it took the form of a series of violent clashes between neighbouring locations. The scale of violence was not dramatic - perhaps five people were killed and some thirty homesteads burnt in the major encounter of October 1913 - but it was sufficient to persuade officials to send in the military, dismiss a headman, and bring charges against some of those involved. Moreover, officials recognised that the open conflict was an expression of tensions which had been simmering in the district since, it had been taken over by the Cape Colony in the 1870s, and therefore regarded the episodes in a more serious light than many of the numerous local fights with which they had to deal. They had no hesitation in identifying the lines of