a note on termInology My central focus in Bulletproof is on the Xhosa people, who for centuries have inhabited the eastern Cape of southern Africa, now demarcated as the Eastern Cape province of the Republic of South Africa. In referring to different aspects of Xhosa society, I borrow basic elements of the prefix system in the Xhosa language: the Xhosa language is referred to as isi­ Xhosa, the Xhosa people collectively are amaXhosa, and Xhosa territory is kwaXhosa. My concern is to examine how the Xhosa past has been revived over the past 150 years, and my use of sources ranging from the early nineteenth century to the present reflects sometimes confusing shifts in orthography and terminology. I have chosen to retain the terminology and spelling used in these sources, while using currently accepted forms in my own sentences. Thus the young woman prophet Nongqawuse is sometimes referred to as Nongqause or Nonqause; her father Mhlakaza is referred to as Umlakasa; the Gcaleka Xhosa chief Sarhili as Kreli or Krili; the warrior- prophet Nxele as Lynx or Makana; and the prophet Mlanjeni as Umlangeni. The Tyhume River and the mission station named for it may appear as Chumie. Nineteenth-century colonial discourse referred to black inhabit- ants of southern Africa, and specifically the amaXhosa, as Kaffirs (from —— xiii —— xiv / note on terminology the Arabic for infidel): thus the western part of kwaXhosa, adjacent to the Cape Colony, was demarcated as British Kaffraria.Kaffir is now regarded as a term of abuse. It appears in my study only in citations from nineteenth- century documents..