"In a creative and illuminating look at the role of African men in colonial armies and police forces, Hlonipha Mokoena makes a compelling argument about why these men served in institutions bent on the oppression of African societies. To call them mercenaries, Mokoena argues, is to miss the complexity and density of the motivations that shaped their actions; it is to miss the ways in which these men carved out opportunities in colonial settings" – Jacob Dlamini, Associate Professor, Department of History, Princeton University "Mokoena invokes the figure of the nightwatchman to drive a project of moving through and beyond colonial abjection. Exploring the traces of aestheticised bodies, sartorial choices, desire and curiosity in provocative and oblique ways, the book rocks our sense of the possibilities of the available archive." – Carolyn Hamilton, Professor, Department of Historical Studies, University of Cape Town "Nightwatchman is in a class of its own. At the centre of Mokoena's original book are aesthetically attired shapeshifters whose agency, prowess and beauty Africanised colonial culture. This is a provocative and powerful story." – Benedict Carton, George Mason University