210 AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST 182, 19801

Jewish South Africans: A Sociological View of the Johannesburg Community. Allie A . Dubb. Grahamstown: Institute of Social and Economic Research, Rhodes University, 1977. xi + 190 pp. $6.35 (paper).

Brian M. du Toit University of Florida

More than half (53.6%) of the Jewish popula- tion of South Africa resides in Johannesburg. Dubb’s aim is “to provide a description, in some breadth, of patterns of Jewish identification” (p. 8) in that city. The research, carried out in the early 1970s, was conducted by ethnic Jews wear- ing a Star of David pendant.

The author offers good time depth in his his- torical survey, presenting figures on Jewish mi- gration to South Africa between 1800 and about 1940 and census data from the first official cen- sus, in 1904, to the 1970 census. In general, he notes a decline in the use of Yiddish, less reli- gious orthodoxy, an urban concentration of Jews (98.6% of all South African Jews are urban residents), and a clustering in certain residential neighborhoods. Most of these persons are eco- nomically in the upper and upper middle class.

The bulk of the study is based on a statistical analysis of eight attitude clusters: religion- tradi- tional and reform; ethnocentrism-in-group sur- vival and i n - p u p superiority; anti-Semitism and self-hatred; Zionism; social relations and asso- ciational preferences; and attitudes about South Africa. In the social and religious spheres the least educated group identified most positively: “they exhibited a more marked preference to as- sociate with other Jews, they were more religious and they favoured orthodox Judaism” (p. 49).

In spite of the role of religion-based ethno- centrism and an absence of the melting-pot philosophy in South Africa, Dubb concludes that it “would be incorrect to speak of a Jewish subculture in Johannesburg” (p. 97). Instead, he discerns a moral community, although this concept is illustrated from case studies rather than from a clear definition. In the last analysis, though, the author does meet his goal of pre- senting a description of patterns of Jewish iden- tification.

This is an interesting study not only because it begins with a prior model of “Jewishness” but because it deals with the basic elements of ethnicity and group identification. It should be of interest to social scientists of different disci- plinary hues.

Sobhuza 11: Ngwenyama and King of Swaziland. Hilda Kuper. New York: Africana Publishing, Holmes and Meier Publishers, 1978. xiv + 363 pp. $30.00 (cloth).

Angela P. Cheater University of Rhodesia

In this immaculately printed edition, com- plete with photographs of considerable histori- cal interest, Hilda Kuper presents us with a very detailed account of “an African model of an in- tegrated government under an inclusive king- ship” (p. 172), asserting that “kingship has been the core of Swazi national identity” (p. 347). In many ways, in the wealth of data, the reader learns more of the kingship and of national in- terests than of the king himself, the man who gives the book its title. Although one is prepared for an official biography right at the beginning (“His Majesty also made it clear that this was not a personal biography, but the story of his role in the history of his country,” [p. vii]), this reader at least experienced the disappointment, at the end of two readings, of not really knowing the monarch as a person and wondering what really lies behind the public face of Sobhuza 11.

This deficit is particularly acute, paradoxi- cally, in the field of politics. Much is learned of the detailed history of colonialism in Swaziland, the usual sorry tale of misunderstanding and mistrust, exacerbated by the British Colonial Office’s reluctance to redress valid land griev- ances. In addition to the rich data on the formal channels of petition to and argument with suc- cessive authorities, one learns also- with tanta- lizing hints-of the possibility of cultural na- tionalism being used in the struggle to regain land and independence. Yet, nowhere is Sob- huza pictured as politician, only as statesman.

Perhaps this bias is inevitable. An official biographer of a living king, working with an ad- visory committee, especially one who is also a personal friend of long standing, must be na- turally reluctant to violate monarchical privacy. But for those with an interest in political an- thropology, or indeed in the politics of Swazi- land, the omission of the king’s role in the politics of the royal family, for example, must be regarded as a severe limitation. Kuper tells us, inter a h : of disturbed periods at the deaths of Queen Mothers Lomawa (1938) and Nuk- wase (1957), hinting at witchcraft associated with abnormal troubles and indicating that Sob- huza’s own personal appearance reflected these troubles; of assassination bids on Sobhuza’s life;