The Tail-End of The Tale
A History of South Africa, Fourth Edition, Leonard Thompson (author), Lynn Berat (editor), Yale University Press, 2014
A History of South Africa, Fourth Edition represents Bantu and Khoisan with disturbing ignorance and indifference. Like Giliomee and Mbega, Thompson portrays Bantu as if they have always existed in the current ‘tribal’ designations, when in fact the latter are relatively new creations by the colonialists. Amongst many deficiencies, he also fails, like Landau, to […]
The role of culture in country development
In his opening address at the Rixaka Forum’s Cultural Diversity Celebration dinner marking Nelson Mandela’s centenary, Professor Muxe Nkondo had this to say about the value of cultural community: “Cultural community has considerable value in virtue of meeting a powerful human need or desire to belong or to feel that one belongs, or a need […]
Less emotion, more critical thinking
Land reform is in the spotlight. The passing of a resolution by the ANC’s 54th national conference to amend the Constitution to allow the state to expropriate land without compensation; the release of the Land Audit Report (2018); and the passing of a motion in Parliament to draft the constitutional amendment on land reform are […]
History of South Africa, Roger B. Beck, Greenwood Press, 2000
Beck’s History of South Africa covers the entire period of history of South Africa from pre-colonial, colonial and then democratic times. It is well chronicled and can be useful in understanding the history of South Africa in general. However, and perhaps understandably so, Beck’s account is firmly from the point of view of the colonialists. As a […]
The Making of Modern South Africa (third edition), Nigel Worden, Blackwell Publishing, 2000
Nigel Worden’s The Making of Modern South Africa provides plenty of information on South Africa’s Colonial past. The representation of Bantu in the book is highly incoherent, with, for example, distinction being made between the Xhosa and Nguni when in fact this is the same group. Also, the coverage of Bantu in pre-colonial times is no more […]
Popular Politics in the History of South Africa, 1400 to 1948, Paul S Landau, Cambridge University Press, 2010.
Popular Politics in the History of South Africa’s account of the origins of the non-white people of the country is interestingly ignorant of the movement of Bantu into the region. Also, probably because the book fails to paint the bigger and correct picture of the origins and movements of Bantu, but instead emphasise on “eyewitness […]