Volume 56, Issue 2, 2011
Historia - Volume 56, Issue 2, November 2011
Volume 56, Issue 2, November 2011
The Union of South Africa censuses 1911 - 1960 : an incomplete record
Author A.J. Christopher
Source: Historia 56, pp 1 –18 (2011)
The census is one of the most intrusive and comprehensive investigations undertaken by the state in its quest for information concerning the population which it controls and serves. The information sought is more than a mere headcount. It reflects the official need for statistics on a wide range of human activities and attributes, in order to execute the functions of the modern bureaucratic state because it came into being in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Census questionnaires require not only purely demographic statistics on the number of people by sex, age and marital status, but also economic information on education, occupation, and income and most contentiously on questions of identity including race, language, religion and nationality. Indeed it was the census authorities who through the collection and tabulation of vast quantities of individual items of data, provided: "the descriptions which &apos;speak to power&apos; with &apos;useful&apos; information". In order to make the data intelligible to the state bureaucracy it was necessary to simplify and to classify the population into defined categories or groups, for which the census authorities also possessed the prerogative of naming.
The state and the profession : initiatives and responses to the organisation of the accounting profession in South Africa, 1904-1951
Source: Historia 56, pp 19 –42 (2011)
The formation of the Union of South Africa in 1910 signified the emergence of a single political and economic entity from two predominantly British colonies and two British colonies with a predominantly white Afrikaner population. Economic progress based on the rationality of a single market constituted a powerful motive for the constitutional union. In promoting economic cooperation, markets were liberalised to allow the free movement of capital, labour and goods. The South African economy was largely a primary economy by 1910, dependent on agricultural and mining production for foreign exchange revenue. Domestic business linked to the mining sector created demand for small industrial enterprises and financial institutions. After the discovery of diamonds and gold in the last quarter of the nineteenth century, international interest in the South African economy exploded. Together with foreign mining entrepreneurs, exploration and digging activities gave rise to urban centres where business enterprises increased rapidly.
Dié wat Gewen het : Feite en Fabels van die Bosoorlog, J. Geldenhuys : boekresensie
Source: Historia 56, pp 26 –228 (2011)
Op 26 Augustus 2011 was dit 45 jaar sedert die sogenaamde "Grensoorlog" of "Bosoorlog" in die noorde van die destydse Suidwes-Afrika (SWA, sedert 1990 amptelik bekend as Namibië) uitgebreek het - &apos;n stryd waarna, volgens hierdie resensent, eerder as die Namibiese Vryheidsoorlog (1966-1989) verwys moet word. Derduisende lede van die destydse Suid-Afrikaanse Weermag (SAW) - meestal nasionale dienspligtiges - het een of ander tyd aan "die grens" diens gedoen, en meer as 700 het in aktiewe diens gesterf. Die Suid-Afrikaanse veiligheidsmagte wou aanvanklik bloot keer dat die guerrillas van die South West Africa People&apos;s Organisation (SWAPO) nie SWA infiltreer nie, maar in 1975 het die SAW by die burgeroorlog, wat in Angola uitgebreek het toe dié Portugese kolonie onafhanklik geword het, betrokke geraak. Hulle het derhalwe vir meer as &apos;n dekade lank in die suide van Angola bly opereer.
Author Gustav Hendrich
Source: Historia 56, pp 43 –58 (2011)
In die ekonomiese geskiedenis van Rhodesië (vandag Zimbabwe) het die verbouing van tabak deurgaans as vername landboukommoditeit en uitsonderlike bron van ontwikkeling vir die land as geheel gedien. Internasionaal het Rhodesië toenemend vir die lewering van hoogstaande tabakkwaliteit bekend geword. Binne die raamwerk van die Rhodesiese landbou-ekonomie het talle Afrikanerboere tot die ontwikkeling van die tabakbedryf bygedra. Sedert 1890 het Afrikaners vanuit Suid-Afrika, merendeels weens die soeke na verbeterde lewensomstandighede en werksgeleenthede, geleidelik hulle weg na die gebied noord van die Limpoporivier gevind. Die georganiseerde en individuele Afrikanertrekke en die sporadiese verhuising van Afrikanerimmigrante na Rhodesië sou die fondamente van &apos;n selfonderhoudende, dog geografies wydverspreide bevolkingsgroep lê. Afrikaners sou op feitlik alle lewensterreine oorheers en groot verskaffers van werksgeleenthede word. Die aanloklike landboumoontlikhede, veral die tabakbedryf, het nie bloot as werksgeleenthede by Afrikaners aanklank gevind nie, maar het veral ook &apos;n geleentheid tot rykdom gebied. In hierdie artikel sal daar spesifiek op die aanvanklike probleme wat in die bedryf voorgekom het, asook die welslae en prestasies van Afrikanertabakboere, gefokus word.
Kent gij dat volk : the Anglo-Boer War and Afrikaner identity in postmodern perspective
Author John Boje
Source: Historia 56, pp 59 –72 (2011)
Professional historians have proved resistant to the claims of postmodernism, which they see as highly theoretical, rather theatrical and decidedly threatening. As a result, the debate has become polarised, with proponents of postmodernism dismissing traditional historians as "positivist troglodytes", while reconstructionist and constructionist historians speak in "historicidal" terms of deconstructionism.
Authors: Jaco De Bruin and Andre Wessels
Source: Historia 56, pp 73 –93 (2011)
Sedert die einde van die Anglo-Boereoorlog in 1902, het vele fasette van dié oorlog die onderwerp van &apos;n groot aantal studies en publikasies gevorm. Dit is egter opmerklik dat regspleging minder aandag geniet het. Hierdie artikel het ten doel om die militêre verhore in die Oranje-Vrystaat (OVS) tydens en kort na afloop van die oorlog te bestudeer. Daar bestaan baie min bronne rakende militêre verhore en ten einde die verhore te rekonstrueer, is daar dus van bronne soos dagboeke en oorlogherinneringe gebruik gemaak.
Narratives from North Africa : South African prisoner-of-war experience following the fall of Tobruk, June 1942
Source: Historia 56, pp 94 –112 (2011)
This article aims to present to the reader previously unknown narratives of former prisoners of war (POWs) immediately following the fall of Tobruk in June 1942. The intention is not to explain the events that led to the fall of Tobruk or to lay blame with any specific leader or Allied nation involved in the Western Desert Campaign. The focus is rather on the events during and following the battle, specifically the experiences of the South Africans who were captured and became prisoners of war. Of the 33 000 Allied soldiers captured on 21 June 1942, 10 722 were South Africans who were all part of the 2nd South African Infantry Division under command of Major General H.B. Klopper. Making use of oral testimony, published and unpublished personal memoirs, as well as post-war statements found in the Department of Defence Archives and in the Ditsong National Museum of Military History, the article hopes to portray events as experienced by the ordinary rank and file men, giving a different perspective from that usually portrayed in military history publications which for the most part focus on the perspectives of those in command. Through this approach it should also become possible to extract the individual experience from the general experience, as each of the former POWs understood and interpreted what was happening to them in unique ways.
Source: Historia 56, pp 113 –132 (2011)
This article represents an attempt to reconstruct a startling incident in the history of South Africa and to establish its significance. It searches for the answers to three related questions. What happened on that fateful morning of 6 February 1838 when the Voortrekker leader Piet Retief and his companions were overwhelmed at Mgungundlovu, the stronghold of the Zulu king Dingane? Why did the Zulu king order his warriors to kill Retief and his men; and what is the historical significance of this event? No reconstruction of any historical event is a simple undertaking. In this case the challenge for the historian is to establish, on the basis of a rather restricted pool of inconclusive evidence of which the trustworthiness is questionable, how and why Retief and his men were killed. It is never easy to establish beyond reasonable doubt why national leaders make specific decisions.
Author Salomon Hoogenraad-Vermaak
Source: Historia 56, pp 133 –153 (2011)
Die moontlike rol en bydrae van die Suid-Afrikaanse blanke sakegemeenskap om saam met ander rolspelers in die Suid-Afrikaanse samelewing (byvoorbeeld burgerlike bewegings, kerke, ensomeer) &apos;n politieke transformasie in die Suid-Afrikaanse politiek - weg van apartheid - te bewerkstellig, is &apos;n baie sensitiewe onderwerp wat meestal wye reaksie ontlok. Die mees algemene reaksie is gewoonlik dat blanke sakelui nie so &apos;n rol gespeel het nie, gegewe die persepsie dat die apartheidstelsel vir blanke sakelui voordelig was. Hierdie reaksie kom ten spyte van navorsing van Merle Lipton, &apos;n liberale geskiedskrywer, waarin sy die positiewe rol en bydrae van Suid-Afrikaanse Engelssprekende sakelui beskryf. Sy wys daarop dat selfs die neo-radikale skool van geskiedskrywing toegegee het dat Suid-Afrikaanse sakelui wel &apos;n positiewe rol gespeel het, al meen hulle steeds dat sakelui se optrede deur eie belange gemotiveer was. Onlangse navorsing wys daarop dat ook Afrikaner-sakelui tydens die transformasieproses &apos;n positiewe rol en bydrae gelewer het. Verder is die mite dat politieke bevoordeling noodwendig tot ekonomiese voordeel moes lei en dat Afrikaner-sakelui in terme van hierdie persepsie die meeste moes gebaat het, ook deur die navorsing van Herman Giliomee verkeerd bewys.
Authors: Barend Van der Merwe and Marietjie Oelofse
Source: Historia 56, pp 154 –168 (2011)
Met die veranderinge wat in Suid-Afrika gedurende die 1980&apos;s op politieke gebied aan die gang was, het vrae ontstaan rondom die ondersteuning wat die Nederduitse Gereformeerde Kerk (NGK) in Suid-Afrika aan die Nasionale Party (NP) regering gebied het deur middel van die teologiese regverdiging van apartheid. Die NGK was teen die 1980&apos;s in die unieke situasie vasgevang dat ongeag van watter koers dit sou inslaan, dit onafwendbaar was dat die eindresultaat onsamehorigheid en onenigheid sou wees.
Authors: Katalin Morgan and Elizabeth Henning
Source: Historia 56, pp 169 –190 (2011)
History textbooks have a significant role to play, especially in South African classrooms, where many teachers have no access to any other media or subject knowledge. The importance of textbooks was also highlighted by the Report of the History / Archaeology Panel to the Minister of Education, which emphasised that "history textbooks cannot but remain central to the cause of an improved history education". This was more recently echoed in a speech by the Minister of Basic Education, Angelina Motshekga, who opined that the textbook is the most effective tool to ensure better quality instruction. Against this background, this article aims to show how texts discursively construct or encode a cultural mindset prevailing in a particular Zeitgeist, namely as represented in some of the recently published history textbooks for grade 11. In the table below the textbooks used in this study are identified.
Wanneer &apos;n Geskiedenisdepartement sy materiële erfenis verloor : herinneringe / reminiscence
Source: Historia 56, pp 191 –192 (2011)
Vrydagmiddag, 10 Desember 2010, was &apos;n tipiese voornaweekmiddag aan die einde van die akademiese jaar, met byna al die studente, behalwe nagraadse vasbyters, wat reeds vir die somervakansie vertrek het. Die jaarlikse rektorsete vir die pas-gegradueerde doktorale studente, hulle gades en studieleiers in die Wallenburgsentrum, het teen 16:00 ten einde geloop. Om ongeveer 16:15, &apos;n kwartier voor die administratiewe huistoegaantyd, het die lot van die 106 jaar oue Geskiedenisdepartement van die Universiteit Stellenbosch, sedert 1965 in die Wilcocksgebou gesetel, dramaties en onomkeerbaar verander.
Religion in the Emergence of Civilization : Çatalhöyück as a Case Study, I. Hodder (Ed.) : book review
Source: Historia 56, pp 193 –196 (2011)
Research pertaining to the origins and growth of early complex societies is an ongoing project in the social sciences. Sadly, many attempts at addressing this fascinating conundrum constitute mere variations on previous intellectual efforts. This volume edited by Ian Hodder (Stanford, Archaeology) is a welcome, original endeavour. Hodder invited a number of specialists to comment on the results of his excavations at Çatalhöyück, the World Heritage site in Anatolia that has provided extensive evidence for humanity&apos;s transition into sedentary life. The volume promotes an unusual brand of social inquiry that cuts across disciplinary boundaries. In addition, Hodder&apos;s work is of particular interest to those researchers, like myself, who continue to be inspired by the central tenet of the &apos;New Archaeology&apos; which states that Archaeology can be either History or nothing.
Popular Politics in the History of South Africa, 1400-1948, P.S. Landau : book review
Author Fraser G. McNeill
Source: Historia 56, pp 196 –198 (2011)
Ilha de Moçambique byna Hollands : Portugese Inbesitname, Nederlandse Veroweringspogings en die Opbloei en Verval van Mosambiekeiland, O.J.O. Ferreira : boekresensie
Source: Historia 56, pp 198 –199 (2011)
O.J.O. (Cobus) Ferreira is een van Suid-Afrika se toonaangewende kultuurhistorici; trouens, daar kan beweer word dat hy inderdaad die mees hoogaangeskrewe kultuurhistorikus is wat Suid-Afrika die afgelope twee dekades of langer opgelewer het. Sedert sy aftrede by die Universiteit van Pretoria gaan hy voort om navorsing te doen en die een belangwekkende publikasie na die ander die lig te laat sien. Wanneer &apos;n nuwe boek van hom verskyn, verwag &apos;n mens dus &apos;n teks van hoogstaande akademiese gehalte, en dít is beslis nou weer die geval met sy 26ste boekpublikasie, naamlik Ilha de Moçambique byna Hollands: Portugese Inbesitname, Nederlandse Veroweringspogings en die Opbloei en Verval van Mosambiek-eiland.
A Living Man from Africa: Jan Tzatoe, Xhosa Chief and Missionary, and the Making of Nineteenth-Century South Africa, R.S. Levine : book review
Source: Historia 56, pp 200 –203 (2011)
Roger Levine&apos;s biography of Jan Tzatoe, Xhosa chief and missionary, is a welcome addition to the growing canon of biographies of African intellectuals emanating from southern African historical studies in recent months. Written in the mould of the "new narrative history", the literary techniques employed by the author are as intriguing as the life experiences of the protagonist, Tzatoe; such that A Living Man from Africa is simultaneously engrossing for the content it conveys and for how it does so. In this work, the story and the style of story-telling are inseparable; together they provide a valuable glimpse into the possibilities of history writing which are more engaging, and perhaps even more entertaining, than traditional history writing methods. For this Levine should be commended.
Deeglike streeksgeskiedenis &apos;n waardige bydrae
Môrewind oor die Karasberge : &apos;n Kultuurhistoriese Verkenning van die Karasstreek van die Laat Negentiende Eeu, E.L.P. Stals : boekresensie
Author Gerald Groenewald
Source: Historia 56, pp 203 –206 (2011)
Dit is geensins &apos;n verrassing dat &apos;n nuwe boek oor die Namibiese geskiedenis uit die pen van professor Ernst Stals verskyn nie. Hy het hom alreeds oor etlike dekades heen as sowat die voorste Suid-Afrikaanse kenner van die koloniale geskiedenis van Namibië bewys.
A Century of Postgraduate Anglo-Boer War (1899-1902) Studies : Masters&apos; and Doctoral Studies Completed at Universities in South Africa, in English-Speaking Countries and on the European Continent, 1908-2008 : book review
Source: Historia 56, pp 206 –207 (2011)
André Wessels is professor of History at the University of the Free State in Bloemfontein, South Africa. In the past he has published extensively on the Anglo-Boer War including acting as editor for Lord Roberts and the War in South Africa (2000) and Lord Kitchener and the War in South Africa (2006). Of late, much of his research energy has gone into publications on the history of the South African National Defence Force. With this publication, however, he returns to the Anglo-Boer War to update a source publication that first saw the light of day in 1987 under the title, Suid-Afrikaanse Verhandelinge en Proefskrifte oor die Geskiedenis van die Anglo-Boereoorlog: &apos;n Bronnestudie.
The War for South Africa : The Anglo-Boer War, 1899-1902, B. Nasson : book review
Author Iain R. Smith
Source: Historia 56, pp 208 –211 (2011)
The centenary of the South African War of 1899-1902 (still more widely known as the Anglo-Boer War in South Africa) stimulated a spate of publications amongst which Bill Nasson&apos;s general overview of that war (1999) was especially useful. Now, a decade later, he has revised and extensively re-written his account to include the recent literature and preoccupations of historians, and he also contributes a new, original title (of which Milner would have approved!) to the unresolved issue of what to call this war. To this new book he also brings a certain present-mindedness, finding "plenty of comparative historical resonance" not only with the American Civil War but also with more recent conflicts in the Falklands, Iraq and Afghanistan. Thomas Pakenham&apos;s best-selling account (1979) of this war now seems rather dated, in more ways than its title, although for detailed coverage of the military history it has yet to be surpassed.
Boereverraaier : Teregstellings tydens die Anglo-Boereoorlog, A. Blake : book review
Source: Historia 56, pp 211 –212 (2011)
Over 100 years after the South African War, the subject of the betrayal of the cause by the so-called hendsoppers and joiners remains an emotional one, as correspondence in the Afrikaans press indicates. Ultimately several thousand Boers took the oath of neutrality and withdrew from the conflict, while a smaller but not inconsiderable number took up arms against their countrymen. Albert Blake points out that until recently, however, the memoirs of participants gave no names and the archival files were closed until 2000. This extreme sensitivity is by no means unique to South Africa.