Son of Tiyo Soga, the first black South African to be ordained, John Henderson Soga (1860-1941) was a Xhosa minister and scholar. Like his father, he was one of the first of his people to receive an education in Europe and to marry a European woman. His perspective on his people's history is therefore distinctive. Driven by a desire to record Xhosa traditions before they were lost in a changing world, Soga collected oral histories during his work at mission stations in South Africa, producing this historical survey of three branches of the Bantu family. Including genealogies of the main tribes, and tracing their traditions, beliefs and conflicts, the work first appeared in this English version in 1930, having been translated by the author from his native language. His equally authoritative work of social anthropology, The Ama-Xosa: Life and Customs (1932), is also reissued in this series.

Son of Tiyo Soga, the first black South African to be ordained, John Henderson Soga (1860 1941) was a Xhosa minister and scholar. Like his father, he was one of the first of his people to be educated in Europe and to marry a European woman. His perspective on his people's history and culture is therefore distinctive. Conscious of the effects of modernity on Xhosa traditions, he published this work of social anthropology in 1932 to record their way of life as distinct from other tribal communities in South Africa. Soga traces the historical development of their clan system and laws, while offering uniquely informed insights into their beliefs and practices, such as the function of witch doctors and the customs of circumcision, lobola or 'bride price', and polygamy. The South-Eastern Bantu (1930), Soga's earlier survey of three branches of the Bantu family, is also reissued in this series."