Book focuses on North-West's history

The exciting new book by two of the NWU Mafikeng Campus professors, "Land, Chiefs, Mining: African Societies in North-West Province 1840-2013", takes readers on a journey through the history of the North-West province.

Authors Andrew Manson and Bernard Mbenga explore the experience of the Batswana in the thornveld and bushveld regions of the province.

The seven chapters focus on the following: the important Tswana chief Moila II of the Bahurutshe; the South African War and its aftermath; land acquisition; economic and political conditions in the reserves; rural resistance against Lucas Mangope's Bophuthatswana; the liberation struggle; and the modernisation of the region with platinum mining, national parks and casinos.

The book is richly illustrated with photos and maps. It also opens up avenues for further research.

Both Manson and Mbenga have been studying and writing on the region's past. They are also co-authors of "People of the Dew: A history of the Bafokeng of the Pilanesberg Region, South Africa, from early times to 2000".

"Land, Chiefs, Mining: African Societies in North-West Province 1840-2013" is available from Wits University Press publication. It can be ordered online from www.witspress.co.za or you can phone Corina van der Spoel at 011 717 8705 for advance orders. The official launch is on 30 September at Wits University