Offers an incisive biography of the life and work of South Africa's foremost social anthropologist, Monica Hunter Wilson, between the 1920s and 1960s.

Introduction Andrew Bank; Part I. Pondoland and the Eastern Cape: 1. Family, friends, and mentors: Monica Hunter at Lovedale and Cambridge, 1908¿30 Andrew Bank; 2. The 'intimate politics' of fieldwork: Monica Hunter and her African assistants, Pondoland and the Eastern Cape, 1931¿2 Andrew Bank; 3. City dreams, country magic: re-reading Monica Wilson's East London fieldnotes Leslie J. Bank; Part II. Bunyakyusa: 4. Pondo pins and Nyakyusa hammers: Monica and Godfrey in Bunyakyusa Rebecca Marsland; 5. Working with the Wilsons: the brief career of a 'Nyakyusa clerk', Leonard Mwaisumo (1910¿38) Sekibakiba Peter Lekgoathi, Timothy Mwakasekele and Andrew Bank; Part III. Fort Hare and the University of Cape Town: 6. 'Your intellectual son': Monica Wilson and her students at Fort Hare, 1944¿6 Seán Morrow; 7. Witchcraft and the academy: Livingstone Mqotsi, Monica Wilson, and the Middledrift healers, 1945¿57 Leslie J. Bank; 8. 'Speaking from inside': Archie Mafeje, Monica Wilson, and the co-production of Langa: A study of social groups in an African township Andrew Bank with Vuyiswa Swana; Part IV. Legacy: 9. 'Part of one whole': anthropology and history in the work of Monica Wilson Seán Morrow and Christopher Saunders; 10. Gleanings and leavings: encounters in hindsight Pamela Reynolds; Bibliography.