Identity? Theory, Politics, History

Volume 1 in the series

In 1996, as South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission was beginning its hearings, Nicholas Gcaleka, a healer diviner from the town of Butterworth in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa, set off on a journey to retrieve the skull of Hintsa, the Xhosa king. Hintsa had been killed by British troops on the banks of the Nqabarha River over a century and a half before and, it was widely believed, been beheaded. From a variety of quarters including the press, academia and Xhosa traditional leadership Gcaleka's mission was mocked and derided.

This is the story of one mans single-minded, unremitting, always creative, campaign to provide material support to South Africas liberation struggle, assisting leaders like Nelson Mandela and ordinary township and rural activists, as well as families who suffered because their loved ones were political prisoners, had fled into exile or been killed by the apartheid regime.

Drawing on one of the most comprehensive surveys of post-apartheid attitudes to date, and employing innovative conceptual and methodological tools, Gibsons analysis offers both encouraging and disheartening insights into the success of the truth and reconciliation process. This is a major contribution to the literature on transitional justice and conflict resolution.

Many were filled with hopes as high as Mahjoub's stars as they crossed the kala pani (the sea) making their way from India to Durban in southern Africa in the late 1800s. But dreams of a better life and the opportunity to save money and return to the village as 'success stories' were not to be for many who returned 'home' with less than they had started out with, and found that home was no longer the place they had left. Neither were they the same people. Caste had been transgressed, parents had died and spaces for reintegration closed as colonialism tightened its grip. Home for these wandering exiles was no more.