ABSTRACT
The people whose religion is described in this book call themselves Tlhaping, and live in a South African native reserve called Taung, in the Northern Cape, in what used to be known as British Bechuanaland. According to tradition the Tlhaping, who belong to the Tswana cluster of tribes, had inhabited various parts of what is the Northern Cape for a considerable time before their first encounters with Europeans—unsettled missionaries, travellers, and others—at the turn of the previous century. Unfortunately there are no reliable official figures for the Bantu population of the Taung Reserve or the Phuduhutswana chiefdom. In the 1951 census 22,568 were enumerated in the whole reserve, of which approximately 18,628 were in the Phuduhutswana chiefdom. Tribal solidarity and the authority of the chief have also been adversely affected by the diversification of a formerly homogeneous society through the introduction of missions, schools, hospitals, and voluntary associations.
