PATRIOTIC DUTY OR BRUTAL REPRESSION, OR BOTH?

摘要

The Umvoti Mounted Rifles (UMR) was one of several Natal colonial Militia regiments which were mobilised on various occasions in 1906 and 1907 to crush black protest against a poll tax introduced by the Natal Government in the previous year. It was the poll tax that gave rise to one of the many names given to the insurrection -'war of the heads' (iMpi yama-khanda).