Picturing a Colonial Past

“Isaac Schapera’s photographs magnificently capture everyday life among the Kgatla at a period of great social change through a seemingly artless focus on artifacts and architecture, dress and deportment. In their introduction, Jean and John Comaroff—Schapera’s most outstanding successors—provide a scintillating and thought-provoking portrait of Schapera as ethnographer and photographer. This splendid volume will be a most valuable resource to anthropologists and historians and a source of illumination and enjoyment to readers interested in southern Africa.”

“These spectacular photographs reveal a much more complex Schapera than his writings allow and provide a more complete and aesthetically charming supplement to his work. The combination of clear, insightful, and entertaining scholarship—written by some of the foremost anthropologists of the region—and stunning photographs makes this a highly original and important book with a wide appeal. Readers will gain a better understanding of the history of anthropology as well as visual anthropology and African studies.”