This study was embarked upon while I was a student at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, and completed after I had taken up a teaching position at the University of the Witwatersrand. It bears the imprint of the varied intellectual concerns of scholars at both institutions. The SOAS African History Seminar, the SOAS and Institute of Commonwealth Studies Societies of Southern Africa Seminar and the University of the Witwatersrand African Studies Seminar each helped influence the direction this enquiry has taken. Thanks are due to all those participants who wittingly or unwittingly guided me on my way, and in particular to Dr Shula Marks, who introduced me to southern African studies and supervised the thesis upon which this study is based. Without her encouragement and support this book would never have been written.

A debt of gratitude is also owing to all those who gave their assistance and encouragement to my researches in Swaziland – in particular to Prince Makhungu Dlamini, who opened doors which would otherwise have remained closed; to Arthur Dlamini for giving me the benefit of his wide knowledge of Swazi history and oral historians, and for his unstinting help in a variety of other ways; to Mr T. Simelane and Mr F. Buckham for their excellent translations of interviews; to Mr J. Masson and to Mike and Fiona Armitage for smoothing my way after my arrival in Swaziland; and to a host of officials from the Department of Local Administration and Community Development who helped with my interviewing in their individual districts.