After each chapter, there is a short profile on a person from the period under discussion. And the 13 year olds will also read profiles on Abraham Esau, resistance leader in Calvinia in the 1880s, Lilian Ngoyi, leader of the ANC Women's League in the 50s, and Archbishop Desmond Tutu, although there's no mention of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. But the new history is not just about famous people. Far more emphasis is placed on understanding how a particular event influenced people. But it goes one big step further.
History is no longer about learning facts but about learning by doing.
Instead of giving information, the book shows pupils how to gather information in order to make deductions. Pupils will learn about the principles of archaeology by emptying out dustbins to see what the contents reveal about the lifestyle of their users. The workings of an 1800 Tswana market will be absorbed by role-playing the activities and trading Photostatted copies of articles such as gunpowder, iron knives, horses and bags of dagga. And then Van Riebeeck is mentioned merely as the head of a household to which a Khoikhoi woman, Krotoa, is sent to learn Dutch. A few pages later, Van Riebeeck's establishment of a refreshment station at the Cape in 1652 gets four lines.