Mohamed Adhikari - The Anatomy of a South African Genocide

And in memory of the anonymous San woman whose preserved skin formed the centrepiece of a private zoological collection and was put on auction along with animal pelts in Hamburg in July 1840; Koerikei, the San leader, who shouted at trekboers from a clifftop, while out of range of their guns, to leave the land or face the wrath of his people; and the elderly San shaman, !Huin T Kuiten, who passed on the protocols of rain-making to a younger man despite being mortally wounded by a Boer commando.

I would like to thank Mathias Guenther, Robert Hitchcock and Nigel Penn, reviewers appointed by the publishers, for many helpful suggestions that have resulted in significant improvements to the manuscript. I am also grateful to Jared McDonald and Ed Cavanagh for their enthusiastic support and detailed commentary on an earlier draft of the book. Their numerous keen insights have helped sharpen the analysis presented here. Many thanks to Kjell Lindt for some useful perspectives unknowingly provided during our discussions and for sharing his e-library with me. Long-standing friends Juliette Milner-Thornton, Les and Hazel Switzer and Harry Valentine provided cordial hospitality and companionship when work related to this manuscript took me abroad. I am deeply appreciative of their warm-hearted welcome and for generously opening their homes to me. A number of librarians, particularly at the University of Cape Towns African Studies Library, have been extremely helpful. I would specifically like to acknowledge the assistance of Sandy Shell, Tanya Barben, Sue Ogterop and Allegra Louw. Special thanks are due to the UCT Press team that collaborated with me on this project; to Sandy Shepherd for her unfailing good humour, consummate proficiency and for finding creative solutions to the obstacles facing the publication of this volume; to Sharon Hendrickse for her singular blend of congeniality, grace and dexterity on the job; and to Alfred LeMaitre for his first-rate editing of the manuscript.

Junior faithfully stood by me throughout the time this book was written. At one point he got a little hot under the collar, at another he was running cold, but depend on him I could! As always, this book is dedicated to my sons Rafiq and Zaheer, whose love and warmth make my life a joy. In their inimitable ways, they have constantly managed to remind me of what really matters.

Genocide is the intentionala physical destructionb of a social groupc in its entirety, or the intentional annihilation of such a significant partd of the group that it is no longer able to reproduce itself biologically or culturally, nor sustain an independent economic existence.e

a. Genocide cannot happen accidentally. Its execution is deliberate to the extent that there needs to be intent either to eradicate the social group in question or to cripple its social life permanently. The intent need not be explicitly declared and can take the form of an exterminatory attitude, as, for example, within a settler community towards indigenes, or may be inferred from the actions of perpetrators. Opposition to the killing from within the perpetrators society, such as the church or even the government, does not invalidate such intent. It is sufficient only that the perpetrators exhibit genocidal intent. Genocidal intent does not have to be present at the start of the violence as objectives can change during the course of an atrocity. Once the consequences of socially destructive actions which can include conquest, land expropriation, massacre, forced labour, forced migration, the destruction of environmental resources, confiscation of food, the spread of disease and child removal are recognised as possibly leading to extinction, to persist in these actions is to display genocidal intent. It does not matter whether these acts are perpetrated in an unplanned, incremental fashion or as part of a concerted campaign. If perpetrators could reasonably be expected to foresee the genocidal consequences of their actions, the criterion of intent is fulfilled. Intent is therefore not equivalent to motive and does not require premeditation. The perpetrator does not have to be a state, a representative, or part, of a state.