This study traces the social and political history of the peoples of early precolonial southeastern Africa, including the regions of modern KwaZulu-Natal, Swaziland, southern Mozambique from Maputo Bay southward, and Lesotho. The emergence in the early nineteenth century of well-known southern African kingdoms such as the AmaZulu, AmaSwazi, and BaSotho kingdoms was the culmination of centuries of sociopolitical developments, during which political control was consolidated in the ruling descent lines of small-scale chiefdoms. Providing the first comprehensive scholarly examination of recorded...