249pp., illus., map, paperback, Pietermaritzburg, 2020

This study of the origins, causes and nature of the violent conflict between supporters of the United Democratic Front and Inkatha in the Natal Midlands in the 1980s and 1990s focuses on the rural community of KwaShange in the Vulindlela district.

"This book does not make for easy reading. South Africa owes Mxolisi Mchunu a debt of gratitude for showing us a side of the ending of apartheid that very few South Africans are prepared to discuss." Jacob Dlamini, author of The Terrorist Album

"Mchunu brings a much-needed perspective to the Natal Midlands' violence, combining first-hand experience of survival with academic examination of the gendered and spiritual activities of men and women that shaped the path of violence. He sensitively portrays how people on both sides of the conflict understood their activities - a tremendous feat - and how they lived and live daily with the violence and its aftermaths." Jill Kelly, author of To Swim with Crocodiles: land, violence, and belonging in South Africa, 1800-1996

Mxolisi R. Mchunu is an honorary lecturer at the University of KwaZulu-Natal and a research associate at the University of Johannesburg and the University of Cape Town.

VIOLENCE AND SOLACE, the Natal civil war in late-apartheid South Africa

: Mchunu (M.)

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