History Matters
History Matters
A blog promoting citizenship and democracy in South Africa
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What is a South African?
We lack a unifying national identity, but there is a way forward, writes Ivor Chipkin May 10, 2010 11:49 PM | By Ivor Chipkin. Time live The Big Read:There is renewed interest in the question of whether “South Africans” exist. Both the Helen Suzman Foundation and the Gordon Institute for Business Science have recently made [...]
Continue reading...Its Time for True Transformative Justice in SA
7. May 2010
Its Time for True Transformative Justice in SA Suren Pillay Cape Times 2010-05-06 On a recent visit to a government agency- as a citizen, not a researcher- I began chatting with an affable front desk consultant. After some general conversation on the dire state of the world, she – of Afrikaner descent – confided to [...]
Continue reading...Contested Indian Identity in Contemporary South Africa
30. April 2010
By Imraan Buccus Date posted: 29 April 2010 on http://sacsis.org.za/site/article/472.1 One hundred and fifty years ago the first indentured Indians were brought to South Africa to work in sugar cane fields. They were soon joined by ‘passenger Indians’ who came of their own free will to trade. The indentured Indians were not the first Indians [...]
Continue reading...150 Anniversary ; Anxieties of Commemoration – Towards a National Dialogue
18. April 2010
by Omar Badsha and Jon Soske During the latter half of 2010, a series of events commemorating the 150th Anniversary of the first Indian indentured laborers in Natal will take place across South Africa. The preparations have already inspired wide-spread debate; individuals from a variety of communities and political perspectives have raised similar questions: to [...]
Continue reading...The Question of National Identity: Is There Any Meaning to It at Present?
10. April 2010
By Saliem Fakir The death of Eugene Terreblanche and the racial rousing that Malema stokes, brings out from the underbelly of racial and ethnic discord, the remnant question – can we ever be a nation? Terreblanche’s death and these war songs also come at a time when the world will soon be descending upon South [...]
Continue reading...Rewriting the history of transition the first step down a dangerous path
21. February 2010
By Mondli Makhanya – Sunday Times 21st February 2010 At the height of the battle between Josef Stalin and Leon Trotsky, the former was doing everything in his power to ensure that Lenin’s mantle passed on to him. In later years, having won the struggle, Stalin went to the extreme lengths of airbrushing Trotsky out [...]
Continue reading...The meanings of Robben Island
13. November 2009
Seelan Naidoo Representations of the Robben Island Museum in the public domain have over the past five months been characterised by confusing commentary, accumulating unanswered questions, significant omissions and even serious misrepresentation. This opinion piece is in the interest of a beleaguered institution that continues to incur reputational damage that it emphatically does not deserve. [...]
Continue reading...Rendering race irrelevant
8. September 2009
The Times – 8 September 2009 Yusuf Dadoo’s legacy is our tradition of non-racialism, writes Yunus Momoniat AT A conference last week, delegates mulled over the legacy of Yusuf Dadoo, a leader of the Transvaal Indian Congress, a communist leader and respected activist. The key theme of the conference was the question of non-racialism and [...]
Continue reading...The Times – Mine the precious asset of history
6. July 2009
The Sunday Times July 4th 2009 Too much emphasis on suffering and sacrifice can leave a hard residue of victimhood and entitlement We Are a nation-in-the-making and we cannot afford to squander our assets. Our knowledge about ourselves — our identity as a nation — depends on our understanding of our past and how others [...]
Continue reading...The Ogoni Nine–Shell settlement: Victory, but justice deferred?
13. June 2009
Sokari Ekine and Firoze Manji 2009-06-11, Issue 437 http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/56914 With Shell having agreed an out-of-court settlement of $15.5 million with the families of the Ogoni Nine activists killed in 1995, Sokari Ekine and Firoze Manji argue that a victory should not be confused with justice. Though representative of an emerging movement in bringing a multinational [...]
Continue reading...History contradicts itself
29. January 2009
Nomfundo Xulu Published:Times Jan 29, 2009 THOUGH the history of South Africa has always been fascinating, some elements do not make sense because every historian has a different story to tell. One such historical era involves the respected and feared Shaka Zulu. While Zulu people usually sing his praises and say he was the saviour [...]
Continue reading...History contradicts itself
29. January 2009
Nomfundo Xulu Published:Times Jan 29, 2009 THOUGH the history of South Africa has always been fascinating, some elements do not make sense because every historian has a different story to tell. One such historical era involves the respected and feared Shaka Zulu. While Zulu people usually sing his praises and say he was the saviour [...]
Continue reading...A common South African heritage of tragedies, triumps and truths
28. December 2008
Mondli Makhanya Published:Dec 27, 2008 Sunday Times When he announced his candidature for the American presidency in February 2007, Barack Obama invoked the legacy of Abraham Lincoln. He stood on the steps of the Old Capitol, where the man regarded as one of the greatest American presidents had delivered the iconic A House Divided speech [...]
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Upcoming Events 
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WISER and CISA invite you to a public lecture on
‘The Life and Death of Dr. Abu Baker ‘Hurley’ Asvat, February 23, 1942-January 27, 1989’
By Jon Soske (Centre for Indian Studies in Africa, Wits)
Wednesday, 19th May 2010
18h30WISER Seminar Room, 6th Floor, Richard Ward Building
East Campus, Wits UniversityAt the time of his murder in 1989, Dr. Abu Baker ‘Hurley’ Asvat was widely revered as ‘the people’s doctor’ based on almost two decades of medical work in Soweto and over a dozen health projects initiated across the Transvaal as AZAPO’s Secretary of Health. Yet despite his close relationship with leading ANC figures like Albertina Sisulu and his significant role in major political events, Asvat’s name rarely appears in histories of the liberation struggle and his life’s work has been almost completely overshadowed by the controversial circumstances of his death. This lecture will discuss Asvat’s biography from his childhood in the multiracial Johannesburg neighbourhood of Vrededorp to his medical study and political activism as part of a PAC-aligned student group in Pakistan; from his leading role in non-racial cricket to his emergence as a central figure in Soweto’s life and politics. This talk will also reflect on the relationship between Lenasia and Soweto as social spaces during the years of apartheid and interrogate the ways in which apartheid racial categories—particularly ‘African’ and ‘Indian’—continue to structure how South African historians represent the recent past.
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11. May 2010
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