BLACK MOUNTAIN, land, class and power in the Eastern Orange Free State, 1880s to 1980s

xiv + 340pp., illus., map, paperback, Washington, 1992 

"Black Mountain is a chronicle of the struggles of many of the people - black and white - whose lives were rooted in one district of the South African highveld over the last hundred years. Thaba Nchu (Black Mountain) was the territory of an independent African chiefdom until it was annexed by the Orange Free State Republic in 1884. By 1977, one-third of the original territory had emerged as part of "independent" Bophuthatswana, giving rise to acute inter-ethnic antagonisms. As a result, on an adjoining piece of bare veld, there sprang up the largest rural slum in South Africa, Botshabelo - a massive concentration of poverty and unemployment. The stories told by the inhabitants of the slum in 1980 led Colin Murray to ask the questions that ultimately shaped this book." Taken from the book.