In June and July 1979 a workshop on Nguni history was held at Rhodes University. Most of the leading researchers in the field were there. It was a good time to meet because the first major achievements of many of these scholars werejust appearing in print: Jeff Guy's work on the Zulu civil war; Phil Bonner's on Swazi origins; Patrick Harries' on Gaza forced labour; Leroy Vail's on the Ngoni; Charles Ballard's studies of trade and labour along the southeast coast; J. B. Peires' book on the early Xhosa chieftaincies. The collected papers of the workshop, thought- fully edited by Peires, capture an interesting moment in the evolution of precolonial Southern African studies. Old approaches were being consciously jettisoned. The concept of modes of production was being tried out as a new aid to understanding. It clearly did provide some new insights. But it also proved to have limitations