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It is hardly surprising, in a context like South Africa, that modern Tshidi consciousness should hinge on the contrast of work and labor. For the past 135 years, after all, others have sought to induce them into the market economy and, more often than not, to transform them into labor- ers. In fact, one of their earliest recollections of the Boer presence in their midst goes back to 1851-52, when their chief refused the settlers military support for a punitive raid against an- other "recalcitrant" Tswana chiefdom (Molema 1966:41f.). Southern Tswana had always showed deep suspicion of anyone who threatened their autonomy; so much so that, as early as 1820, some royals of the neighboring Tlhaping fled their capital after warning the ruler that "the missionaries will make you their servant" (Campbell 1822(1):77). And there is no question that the Tshidi believed the call for military aid to be a pretext (Molema 1966): "The Boers only wanted to make us work (bereka) for them, to make us pay taxes," we were told in 1969 by a 90-year-old woman. The Tshidi were correct. Abused and attacked for their refusal, they were forced into a lengthy exile-from which they returned to find themselves being drawn ever more tightly into the colonial arena and its market for manpower and goods. Inasmuch as the past century in South Africa has "entailed the making of an African working class" (Marks and Rathbone 1982:2), its history, from the perspective of the victims, is above all else a labor his-