This book presents a social and political history of KwaZulu-an ethnically defined self-governing bantustan for Zulu people under apartheid.

Ashley Parcells investigates bantustan state formation through a multi-tiered study of white bureaucrats, African elites, and everyday people caught up in this tumultuous process. She examines how KwaZulu came to include populations and land that had never been part of the pre-conquest Zulu kingdom; how people, especially those who previously did not identify as Zulu, experienced systems of ethnically defined bantustan citizenship that suddenly dictated their access to jobs, urban residential sites, and other forms of basic livelihood; and finally, explores how this ethnicized system of land and authority was reincorporated into South Africa's post-apartheid democracy.

Breaking from a tradition of studying ethnogenesis (or how people “became Zulu”), Parcells explores how the apartheid state and competing African elites sought to define ethnicity as a bureaucratic category that corresponded with territorial boundaries. This bureaucratic category, moreover, was the foundation for new forms of political subjecthood and “citizenship.” Rather than seeing state definitions of ethnicity as determinants of consciousness, she emphasizes how individuals and communities navigated and at times strategically challenged government regimes of ethnic classification.

This book offers a multi-faceted approach to the study of ethnicity that encompasses local political competition, factionalism within the central state, and the lived experiences of everyday people who became bantustan citizens.