Research Articles (Historical and Heritage Studies)

Permanent URI for this collectionhttp://hdl.handle.net/2263/2620

Browse

Now showing 1 - 20 of 263

ʼn Kwalitatiewe evaluering van Atteridgeville as ʼn model native township in Suid-Afrika gedurende die 1930’s en 1940’s
Sevenhuysen, Karina (South African Society for Cultural History, 2025-06-01)
AFRIKAANS : Die “model native township”-verskynsel, met sy praktiese vergestalting in enkele swart stedelike woonbuurtes in Suid-Afrika gedurende die eerste helfte van die 20ste eeu, is die fokus van hierdie artikel en word vanuit ’n historiese evalueringsoogpunt ondersoek. Daar word spesifi ek gekyk hoe die swart woonbuurt van Atteridgeville in Pretoria aan die hand van eietydse kwalitatiewe kriteria as ’n “model native township” geëvalueer kan word. Die teoretiese, kontekstuele en konseptuele raamwerk waarbinne hierdie navorsing plaasvind, berus op die konsepte van modernisme, die Britse welsynstaatgedagte en die sanitasie-sindroom wat die idee van die “model”-behuisingstoestande vir die werkersklas gedurende die eerste helfte van die twintigste eeu onderlê het. Paternalisme en segregasie, in hierdie begrippe se vele genuanseerde betekenisse, het die daarstelling van “ideale” swart stedelike woonomstandighede in Suid-Afrika op ’n rassebasis laat plaasvind. Die praktiese realiteit van die fi nansiële las op plaaslike stedelike owerhede en die swak ekonomiese posisie van die swart inwoners het, te midde van uitdagende omstandighede tydens die Tweede Wêreldoorlog (1939–1945), hierdie idealistiese planne ondermyn. Die metodologiese lens wat gebruik word om hierdie verskynsel te ondersoek, berus op bewese historiese navorsingsbeginsels, aangevul met bydraes uit ’n verskeidenheid van relevante dissiplines. Die kritiese omgaan met en lees van bronnemateriaal; die gebruikmaking van ’n klasse- én rasse-ontledings- en verklaringsmodel; en die noodsaaklikheid van postmodernistiese bevraagtekening is toegepas. Die daarstelling van historiese begrip, en gebalanseerde en verantwoordbare gevolgtrekkings en evaluerings vorm die grondslag vir hierdie navorsing.
The cost of union : Smuts and the price for the Rhodesian 'Province'
Mlombo, Abraham (Routledge, 2023)
This article discusses the central role played by the prime minister of the Union of South Africa, General Jan Smuts, in the search of establishing a union between Southern Rhodesia and South Africa in the early 1920s. It begins by contextualising South Africa’s and Smuts’s ambition of incorporating Southern Rhodesia into South Africa. Southern Rhodesia’s constitutional future had come into question by 1914 when the British South Africa Company’s administrative term in the colony had ended. Though company rule was extended for another decade, Southern Rhodesia’s constitutional future remained unresolved. The two main political formations which advanced the future position of the country were the Responsible Government Association and the Rhodesian Union Association. The latter received support from Smuts. Smuts would ultimately use it and South Africa’s financial muscle to influence the political process in Southern Rhodesia for his benefit and that of those sympathetic towards the British Empire. The article demonstrates that Smuts’s financial offer to pay out the company for its administrative debts and his generous offer to Southern Rhodesia to join the union to its south failed when Southern Rhodesia was granted responsible government in 1923. This ended Smuts’s territorial expansionist ambition.
Flags, stamps and coats of arms : symbols and the making of identity in Southern Rhodesia
Berry, Bruce Beresford (Routledge, 2025-10-02)
The result of the 1922 referendum saw the white settlers in Southern Rhodesia vote for ‘responsible government’ rather than become the fifth province of the Union of South Africa. Prior to the granting of responsible government in September 1923, the territory had been governed by the British South Africa Company. It was the company’s arms and flag which were first used in the territory. These remained true to the prescripts of the company’s charter by reflecting its British origins and character. This nascent settler identity would evolve and consolidate around an essentially British character which highlighted allegiance to the Crown. This article shows how these, and the set of national symbols subsequently adopted by the colony, were a visible manifestation of the settlers’ ‘exceptional attachment’ to Britain and a reflection of their identity as being primarily British rather than Rhodesian.
For what it's worth : reflections on stepping aside as editor
Simpson, Thula (Routledge, 2024)
No abstract available.
Documenting South African exile in the Polish People’s Republic in the 1980s : Patrick Mabinda, Beverley Marcus, and the Lodz Film School
Macqueen, Ian; Kochajkiewicz, Adam (Routledge, 2024)
This article explores the documenting of activists' experiences in the Polska Rzeczpospolita Ludowa (Polish People’s Republic, PRL) in the 1980s. It discusses the exile of Patrick Mabinda from South Africa, via Tanzania, in the PRL. Mabinda was arrested on terrorism charges in January 1977, but, after a daring escape from John Vorster Square in April 1977, he succeeded in fleeing the country and gaining a visa to Poland, facilitated by the African National Congress in Dar es Salaam. Arriving there in November 1977, he was one of a handful of South African refugees who met Beverley Joan Marcus, a South African student studying as a junior film director at the Szkoła Filmowa w Łodzi (Lodz Film School). The declassified records of the Communist Secret Police apparatus provide an (albeit limited) perspective into the level of operational interest into African National Congress associates in Poland. The close examination of two individual exile experiences of South Africans in the PRL, and their documentation through film, provides an opportunity to develop a textured analysis of the diversity of exile experiences, revealing tensions that speak to the awkward position the PRL took towards the South African liberation struggle.
Alternative narratives of human-centric development in the Indo-Pacific : perspectives from the Indian Ocean Commission (IOC) and Pacific Islands Forum (PIF)
Marggraff, Daniela Bianka (Routledge, 2024)
The Indo-Pacific has become a focal point for competing narratives among major powers, often centred on traditional, militarized concerns. In contrast, island states in the region—represented through the Indian Ocean Commission (IOC) and the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF)— emphasise that geopolitics is not their primary concern, instead articulating human-centred priorities. Given the limited scholarly attention to these organisations, particularly the IOC, this article examines the narratives they construct within the Indo-Pacific seascape. Drawing on Entman's (1993. Framing: Toward clarification of a fractured paradigm. Journal of Communication, 43(4), 51–58) framing theory and strategic narrative scholarship developed by Miskimmon et al. (2017. Strategic narratives: communication power and the new world order. Routledge) and Blas (2023. Beyond storytelling. Æther: A Journal of Strategic Airpower & Spacepower, 2(1), 46–57), the article analyses speeches, declarations, reports, and visual media, demonstrating that militarized narratives are not universally accepted.
Understanding historical connections : mining mineral migrant movements
Harris, Karen Leigh (Historical Association of South Africa, 2025-05)
While Duncan Money’s article presents an intriguing account of the connectivity between Cumberland and Johannesburg, it also mirrors other similarities that extend beyond the global North and United Kingdom. It sheds light on a similar situation that played out among other migrants in the shadows of the Witwatersrand mining headgear, having consequences that rebounded far beyond the mineral mecca in South Africa.
Rediscovering the South African games : a neglected chapter in South African sports historiography
Lotter, Duncan Rudolf (Historical Association of South Africa, 2025-05)
ENGLISH : By the early 1960s, South Africa faced increasing international pressure due to its policy of apartheid. This pressure took many forms, among them a sports boycott of racially segregated sports during the apartheid era. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) was one sporting body that issued an ultimatum to the South African National Olympic Committee (SANOC) to abandon racial discrimination in sport or face possible exclusion from the 1964 Tokyo Olympics. This set in motion a ‘counter-offensive’ by the South African government to stage the first in a number of organised sports meetings they called the ‘SA Games’; a model of the Olympic Games presented in South Africa. Although the international sports boycott on South Africa has received adequate attention from academics – some of whom have traced and analysed its origins and, in certain instances, focused on its impact on specific sporting codes – the response to these boycotts at home, and in particular, the staging of an apartheid version of the Olympics, has not been researched adequately. This paper addresses that lacuna and studies the staging of various sports meetings known as the SA Games, a largely forgotten episode of South African sports history.
Reflections on D. Money's piece on Cumberland miners and the Rand
Krikler, Jeremy (Historical Association of South Africa, 2025-05)
We are all familiar with the method of comparative history, pioneered for South Africa by scholars such as George Fredrickson, John Cell and Stanley Greenburg, and which has been much developed since then. But, as Shula Marks emphasised many years ago at an international conference on race and class in Oxford, we should be alive not just to comparison but to connection. Duncan Money’s piece reminds us of the importance of Marks’s point. For his study illuminates, not by comparing mining on the Rand and in Kimberley with that in Cumberland, but by demonstrating how and why these areas were linked – and intensely so – for a time. And his detailed tracing of the connections unearths the contrasting economic histories of the regions that were central to forging the connection. In effect, the decline of iron mining in Cumberland – which deprived miners there of livelihoods – was coincident with the rise of the giant mining industry on the Rand which drew these iron miners, with their crucial skills, from the north of England to the Witwatersrand.
Exploring exploitation in Southern Africa : gender in the heritage tourism sector
Matsoso, Matikoe; Harris, Karen Leigh (Africa journals, 2025)
The aim of this article is to explore the place of women in the heritage and cultural tourism (HCT) sector with a particular focus on exploitation. It specifically considers the often-overlooked issue of gender, particularly among those who form the backbone of this industry. The objective was to investigate the potential existence of exploitative practices affecting these women in their daily lives. The analysis makes use of an intersectional methodology to consider the complex and nuanced nature of the situation. It employed an exploratory research methodology using purposive snowballing to examine the well-being of women working in the field of HCT within seven southern Africa countries using semi-structured interviews with service providers operating in both the formal and informal economy. The findings reveal that the industry subtly subjects its female workforce to various forms of exploitation and highlights the concerning reality that, even in the twenty-first century, situations resembling Kafkaesque scenarios can still arise for this vulnerable group. The study emphasizes the need for a fresh perspective that underscores the importance of conducting further critiques to enhance visibility and protection for this vulnerable group in the HCT industry. It also develops a novel diagrammatic wheel of exploitation to highlight and potentially address these issues in the sector.
Mobilising cultural heritage for locally owned adaptation
Donovan, Kate; Jackson, Rowan; O’Connell, Siona; Karunarathna, Dulma; Retnowati, Arry; Anantasari, Esti; Cha, YoungHwa; Niemand, Dominique; Harvey, David C.; Dugmore, Andrew (Springer, 2025-11-19)
Climate change adaptation planning and implementation has been criticised for following linear steps that can limit local suitability, scalability and sustainability. We argue that meaningful climate change adaptations incorporate a diversity of voices using cultural heritage for situated and multi-generational interventions. Here, we present examples of risk narratives and adaptive strategies developed through engagement with cultural heritage, balancing knowledge of environment with local livelihoods, histories, values and meaning.
Solomon Islands' 'friends to all : enemy to none' foreign policy : reconceptualising international friendship
Marggraff, Daniela Bianka (Routledge, 2026)
In recent years, states from various parts of the world have embraced the concept of a ‘friends to all, enemy to none’ foreign policy. Such states include Namibia, the Philippines, Singapore, Bangladesh, and Papua New Guinea. Solomon Islands, in the south-west Pacific Ocean, has also maintained this stance consistently and fervently. Despite the frequent use of the term ‘friendship’ or ‘friend’ in the diplomatic rhetoric of states, the concept of a ‘friends to all foreign policy’ remains underanalysed in the field of International Relations and Foreign Policy Analysis. Drawing on Oelsner and Koschut’s framework for international normative friendship, this article finds that Western-oriented IR conceptions are limited in explaining Solomon Islands’ policy of friendship. It is argued that Solomon Islands pursues what this article labels ‘pragmatic friendship.’ This form of friendship is influenced by the cultural and religious contexts of Melanesian society and is both normative as well as strategic. The addition of this term expands International Relations theory to incorporate a non-Western perspective and illustrates how small states can effectively manoeuvre geopolitical competition between major powers.
'Scientific salvation' and development : Britain, South Africa and the African regional scientific conference, October 1949
Chetty, Suryakanthie (Taylor and Francis, 2025-08-22)
The African Regional Scientific Conference took place in Johannesburg, South Africa in October 1949. With delegates drawn from South Africa, Britain, France, Portugal and Belgium, the Conference was an attempt to chart a way forward for development in Africa. This article draws upon the voluminous correspondence and reports held at The National Archives Kew, supplemented with other primary and secondary material, to consider the workings of the Conference from its inception with its commitment to delineate a distinction between science and politics to its culmination and the subsequent formation of the Scientific Council for Africa South of the Sahara. The Conference was contextualised by development policies predicated upon colonial and South African expertise and leadership which created a sense of tension and contradiction related to the racial exclusions of the apartheid state, the attempt to maintain colonial hegemony through science and impending decolonisation. This paper therefore uses the Conference as a lens to explore the changing relationship between Britain and the apartheid state and nevertheless shows that, while Britain and South Africa held opposing views regarding African development, the shared assumptions of western ‘civilisation’ led to the maintenance of hierarchies of power and knowledge that excluded those at whom development was aimed – indigenous Africans.
Interrogating the South African garrison state (1930s-1940s) : Oswald Pirow and Jan-Hendrik Hofmeyr
Kirsten, Frederik Fouché (Routledge, 2026)
This article uses a comparative biographical study of Jan-Hendrik Hofmeyr and Oswald Pirow as a foundation to interrogate South Africa of the 1930s and 1940s as a garrison state. It examines Harold Lasswell’s concept of the garrison state, a ‘developmental construct’ regarding the future path that democracies could take in their confrontation with fascism and communism in the mid-twentieth century. Hofmeyr and Pirow are representative of two opposites in the political-intellectual debates of the 1930s and 1940s within white society and both can be seen as guarantors of power. Pirow, a renowned fascist, wanted the creation of a Nazi-like state in South Africa. Hofmeyr, in contrast, espoused a liberal vision. This article is located within new scholarship on South African anti-fascism and the garrison state is cast as one counter-intuitive response to fascism.
The Oranjemund shipwreck, Namibia. The excavation of sub-Saharan Africa’s oldest discovered wreck
Werz, Bruno E.J.S. (Society of Cultural Studies and Social Sciences, Hong Kong, 2009)
On 1 April 2008, parts of an historic shipwreck were unearthed during diamond-mining operations near Oranjemund, Namibia. Initial investigations undertaken during that same month indicated that it was, most probably, the remnants of an outward-bound Portuguese ship that foundered during the second quarter of the sixteenth century. The Oranjemund shipwreck is the oldest wreck ever found in sub-Saharan Africa and received world-wide attention in the media. After an initial survey was undertaken and a representative sample of artifacts and ecofacts recovered, the site was reburied. Following this, the Namibian Government stepped in and took control of the project. A Second Phase investigation was undertaken under supervision of the author during September and October 2008, resulting in full-scale excavation of the site. This article describes aspects of archaeological fieldwork.
Shipwrecks of the United Dutch East India Company (VOC) in Table Bay, South Africa during the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries
Werz, Bruno E.J.S. (Routledge, 2025-12)
During the nearly two centuries of its existence from 1602 to 1799, the United Dutch East India Company (Verenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie or VOC) used hundreds of vessels for its intercontinental trade. A considerable number of these foundered along South African shores. Table Bay, near the Cape of Good Hope, saw many marine incidents mainly due to its role as a halfway station on the long and dangerous voyages. This article describes the potential of VOC shipwrecks in the bay, which is an important resource for maritime archaeological studies.
Sub-Saharan Africa's oldest shipwreck : historical-archaeological research of an early modern-era Portuguese merchantman on the Namibian coast
Werz, Bruno E.J.S. (Routledge, 2010)
No abstract available.
“There cannot be two bulls in one kraal” : insights from the political conversions of Nelson Samkange on governance and opposition disruption in Zimbabwe, 1960s–2000s
Marmon, Brooks (Taylor and Francis, 2026)
ABSTRACT : This article examines the public life of Nelson Samkange, who was active in Zimbabwean politics from 1961 to the eve of his death in 2013. Samkange repeatedly shifted his party allegiance throughout Zimbabwe’s liberation struggle, but consistently opposed the ultimately victorious liberation movement, Zimbabwe African National Union – Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF), until the early 1980s. After two decades of public service in parastatals, Samkange finally achieved prominence in ZANU-PF circles in 2003. His strategic nomination as provincial governor is emblematic of a pragmatic tactic of co-optation that ZANU-PF deployed to solidify support amidst the fallout from a prolonged national crisis that began in the late 1990s. The study also shows how Samkange’s variegated political heritage paradoxically coalesced to make this long-time opponent a staunch ZANU-PF demagogue who shored up the party’s revolutionary credentials at a time of strain.
Ecological heritage and relational informal learning for youth development in southern Africa
Mkwananzi, Faith; Cin, Melis; Ncube, Glen; Muntanga, Willard; De Bruyn, Paul; Mehl, Seth (Routledge, 2026)
This paper situates itself at the nexus of youth development and ecological heritage in Southern Africa, critically engaging with enduring challenges such as unemployment, poverty, and the gradual erosion of cultural identity. It examines the potential of Moringa oleifera as a key ecological resource for fostering sustainable livelihoods and reinforcing localised ecological and cultural heritage. Drawing on participatory methodologies including intergenerational learning sessions, field visits, policy dialogues, and knowledge exchanges, complemented by a short documentary, we explore how ecological heritage and relational informal learning can cultivate collective productive capabilities within emerging Moringa industries. Two key insights emerge from the study. First, relational informal learning rooted in community, land, and intergenerational ties demonstrates that ecological heritage can support sustainable livelihoods through culturally embedded knowledge, locally accessible resources, and ecologically resilient practices. Second, the interplay between intergenerational learning and ecological heritage produces collective productive capabilities that foster shared, economically oriented agency, enabling communities to create, organise, and sustain livelihood possibilities while engaging youth in socio-ecological care.
'We should not sit in judgement on a difficult social and political problem six thousand miles away.' Dwight D. Eisenhower and apartheid South Africa
Michel, Eddie (Routledge, 2025-09-01)
My article explores how geostrategic and economic factors dictated the nature of the bilateral relationship between Washington and Pretoria during the Presidency of Dwight D. Eisenhower. In the context of the early Cold War, the vehement anti-communism of the National Party government combined with the vast mineral wealth of the apartheid state led to friendly relations with the practitioners of apartheid. The growth in trade and investment ties further tightened the bond between the two nations. While the Eisenhower administration occasionally offered a mild critique of South African racial policy, the White House sought no tangible disassociation from Pretoria even in the aftermath of the shootings at Sharpeville.

Browse

Recent Submissions