The Micro-History of a South African Murder

Jeremy Krikler

Journal of Southern African Studies, 2017, vol. 43, issue 6, 1255-1272

Abstract: This article explores a murder that took place on a Transvaal farm in the early 20th century. By subjecting it to the techniques of micro-history, it demonstrates that the killing, far from having merely a narrow personal or criminal significance, casts a powerful if lurid light on important historical processes and phenomena. Central among these are the following: the social power of Boer landowners over an impoverished white tenantry; the intimacy and violence of master–servant relations between the races in the countryside; the new mode of policing in the wake of the South African War; and the fact that black action in that conflict continued to affright Boer/Afrikaner consciousness. In short, the article offers a study of how a wider history is embedded in, and illuminated by, a single criminal case. The startling evidence of the trial is also used to convey the relationships of power on a particular agrarian estate, and how these were challenged as the state enlisted servants as witnesses against their masters.

Date: 2017
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DOI: 10.1080/03057070.2017.1381908

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