We have aimed to write this book on the prickly pear for a general audience. About half the book (especially chapters 2-5) is largely based on documentary sources, and the other half (chapters 1 and 6-9) largely on interviews and observation. We have tried to cross-reference throughout. We did some interviews separately and some jointly. We have decided not to identify the specific interviewers on each occasion. Broadly speaking, we did the interviews and observations in Fort Beaufort township, and on some farms, together. Luvuyo Wotshela did the great bulk of interviewing in the former Ciskei while William Beinart (sometimes assisted by Troth Wells, who also took a number of the photographs) did most of the interviews with experts.

The original archival research was mostly done in the 1990s as part of a larger project funded by a British Academy grant. Interviews and subsequent research were funded by a grant from the Nuffield Foundation, UK, by the Rhodes Chair of Race Relations, University of Oxford, and by the Govan Mbeki Research Office, Travel and Subsistence Fund, University of Fort Hare. The Oppenheimer Fund at the University of Oxford made it possible for Luvuyo Wotshela to visit Oxford for a spell of joint writing. The Nuffield Foundation grant was held jointly with Dr Karen Middleton, with whom William Beinart co-authored some preliminary comparative papers, and who has published on the history of opuntia in Madagascar. Thanks are due to all of these institutions for their financial assistance.