Thursday, August 24, 2017

black Russians

In southern Africa, the Xhosa were defeated in eight "Kaffir wars," driven from much of their land and plagued by persistent droughts and cattle epidemics. ... Helping them would be "new people", known as "Russians". The Xhosa had recently heard that the much hated former Cape governor, George Cathcart, had been killed in the Crimean war, and concluded that the people who had killed him were strong, black, and - since they were fighting the British - Xhosa ancestors too.

- Slezkine, pg 100

ex libris

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