Property Relations Amongst the Edendale Kholwa 1850–1900

Abstract

Although the colonial power which sptarheaded the process of conquest and colonial settlement in Natal was an industrial'poWer, it did not automatically bring with it relations of property ownership and surplus appropriatiotrassociated with the productive enterprise of factory or mine. Instead, it brought to Natal the foremnners of capital accumulation, merchants and land speculators, who hoped to make fortunes for themselves by opening Natal to European settlement. Conquest, however, had not led to the complete destruction of indigenous kinship societies within the territorial boundaries of Natal. The colonial polity and economy emerged as an articulation of pre-capitalist and mercantile social relations