Sorcery and sovereignty: taxation, witchcraft, and political symbols in the 1880 Transkeian rebellion

The paper examines the causes of the 1880 Transkeian Rebellion and attempts to build upon previous explanations. In particular, the paper looks at the way in which taxation and witchcraft beliefs combined to make the colonial state appear especially malevolent. The information on hut tax registers represented a potential threat to the African population, a threat that was both material and supernatural. With that information, state officials could confiscate property, deny bridewealth claims, and do harm through the means of sorcery. This threat motivated many Africans to rally behind the precolonial authority and social harmony symbolised by the chiefs and to rebel in October 1880. Once colonial forces had squashed the rebellion, however, the collection of hut taxes became a state ritual that recreated and reinforced bonds between ruler and ruled. A high proportion of Africans paid their hut taxes in the years after the revolt: in the 1887–97 period in the three districts discussed, compliance rates averaged in the 80–100 per cent range. Yet, this was a period in which officials were often reluctant to use physical coercion or property seizure to enforce collection, because of the fear of provoking more unrest. The high compliance rates can instead be explained by the symbolic content of tax payments. Believing that state officials had access to supernatural powers and knowing that they had overcome the power of the chiefs, Africans paid their taxes as a way of deflecting those powers, thereby enabling themselves to farm in relative peace. Compliance with tax laws reflected an acknowledgement of the historical reality of the loss of African independence, but it also helped create and maintain the political reality of colonial control in the aftermath of the rebellion.