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Notes preface 1. Marashea is the term for the group, Lerashea is a single member, and Borashea refers to the phenomenon of Marashea and might best be interpreted as Russianism. A number of the founding members of Marashea served with the British military in the Second World War and had heard that the Russians were formidable fighters. 2. The Rand (from Witwatersrand) or the Reef refers to the belt of urban settlement that runs some one hundred kilometers from east to west and has Johannesburg at its center. It has long been South Africa’s mining and industrial heartland. 3. Basotho are natives of Lesotho, a small country completely surrounded by South Africa. Mosotho is the term for an individual of that country, and Sesotho is the language and culture. 4. See the appendix for interview dates and locations, as well as some biographical data. Informants are identified in text by their initials only. 5. Guttenplan, “Holocaust on Trial,” 62. 6. Thomson, “Anzac Memories,” 300–301. 7. Bonner, “Russians,” 188. 8. Portelli, “What Makes Oral History Different,” 67. 9. Blee, “Evidence, Empathy and Ethics,” 335. 10. Mineworkers, mining officials, and numerous retired Marashea reported that BM’s group battled with union supporters. chapter 1 1. For example, more than twenty thousand murders were recorded in South Africa in 2000. Nearly sixteen hundred police officers were murdered between 1994 and 2000, and reports indicate that South Africa trails only Russia and Colombia when it comes to the prevalence of organized crime. South African Police Services Official Website, http://www.saps.org.za; Servamus, October 2000; Mail and Guardian, 13 February 1998. 163 You are reading copyrighted material published by Ohio University Press/Swallow Press. Unauthorized posting, copying, or distributing of this work except as permitted under U.S. copyright law is illegal and injures the author and publisher. 2. Many of the township residents interviewed for this study, as well as the media, make this linkage. For academic analyses see Taylor, “Justice Denied”; Wilson, The Politics of Truth and Reconciliation in South Africa; Segal, Pelo, and Rampa, “Into the Heart of Darkness”; Simpson, “Shock Troops and Bandits.” 3. Van Onselen, New Nineveh. 4. Van Onselen, New Babylon. 5. For migrant and mining gangs see Van Onselen, New Nineveh; Breckenridge , “Migrancy, Crime and Faction Fighting”; Bonner, “Russians”; Guy and Thabane, “The Ma-Rashea”; Kynoch, “Marashea on the Mines.” 6. Van Onselen, New Nineveh, 195. 7. La Hausse, “The Cows of Nongoloza,” 108. 8. Breckenridge, “Migrancy,” 63. 9. Bantu World, 22 June 1953. 10. Glaser, “The Mark of Zorro,” 47. 11. Pinnock, “Stone’s Boys and the Making of a Cape Flats Mafia,” 427. 12. For a discussion of the different tsotsi gangs, see Glaser, Bo-Tsotsi. 13. A chilling glimpse into the world of the latest generation of young urban criminals is provided by Segal, Pelo, and Rampa, “Heart of Darkness.” For a historical overview of South African gangs, see Kynoch, “Ninevites.” 14. Van Onselen, New Nineveh, 55. 15. Brewer, Black and Blue, 200. 16. Glaser, “Zorro,” 59. 17. See Kynoch, “Friend or Foe?” 18. Bonner and Segal, Soweto, 138. 19. See, for example, Adam and Moodley, “Political Violence, ‘Tribalism,’ and Inkatha”; Ellis, “The Historical Significance of South Africa’s Third Force”; Jeffrey , The Natal Story; Marks, Young Warriors; Minaar, ed., Patterns of Violence; Morris and Hindson, “South Africa”; Segal, “The Human Face of Violence”; Sitas, “The New Tribalism.” 20. Two notable exceptions include Pinnock, The Brotherhoods; and Glaser, Bo-Tsotsi. 21. A survey of the literature on colonial cities raises the specter of South African exceptionalism. The urban centers of South Africa seem to have experienced a greater degree of violence between the colonized than colonial cities elsewhere in Africa. For example, the gang wars so prominent in the South African setting do not appear to have troubled colonial cities north of the Limpopo. Youth gangs were a feature of urban life in cities such as Dar es Salaam, but they limited their activities to petty theft and the occasional mugging. See Burton, “Urchins, Loafers and the Cult of the Cowboy.” Archival evidence, newspapers, popular publications like Drum magazine, biographical accounts, and academic works all portray South African townships as dangerous places where criminals terrorized law-abiding folk. Whether these differences are attributable to deficiencies in the 164 w Notes to Pages 2–6 You are reading copyrighted material published by Ohio University Press/Swallow Press. Unauthorized posting, copying, or distributing of this work...

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