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Theoretical and methodological matters pertaining to school textbook analysis are an under-researched and under-documented area of specialisation. In this article I attempt to contribute to this field by reflecting on my own experience of grappling with these issues as relevant to the study of a number of South African school history textbooks. The topic of investigation is that of race and racism. I use this as a vehicle for operationalising the theoretical and methodological issues at hand. A key issue is whether historians and other 'scientists' make the methods of their disciplinary discoveries explicit or not, and the implications this could have for developing historical understanding. In the second part of the article, I explain the theoretical position I assume towards the object of my study. It is a hermeneutic realist stance; a stance that attempts to use the researcher's (own) particular historically and culturally conditioned mindset in the interpretive process. In some cases, this led to an interpretation of the messages communicated in the textbook as flat and sterile, reinforcing stereotypes, while in others the reader is drawn into a discourse that tends to appeal to his or her humanity rather than judgement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the history lessons produced by the History Workshop that were published in the Learning Nation section of The New Nation newspaper between 1986 and 1990. Specifically, I examine the rhetorical dimensions of these historical narratives, which not only provided readers with factual information about the past, but also offered black South Africans a new framework, a new 'conception of reality', to that provided within the Department of Education and Training (DET) schools of the apartheid era. This new framework provided by these historical narratives was significant for two reasons. First, it offered black South Africans alternative ways of understanding and analysing conditions in apartheid South Africa. Second, by examining the heroic acts of resistance by everyday people and prominent leaders in the past, these narratives also sought to provide inspiration and encourage continued acts of resistance during a very violent and fraught period in the anti-apartheid struggle. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bridging the somewhat arbitrary divide between history and archaeology remains a critical aim of the study of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries in the South African interior. Despite the prejudice inherent in the oral records collected by state ethnologist P.L. Breutz and others, it is argued that they still play a fundamental role in ascribing a historical identity to the countless Late Iron Age stone-walled sites that have been attributed to Tswana speakers. The focus of this study is on the settlement sequence of a Tlokwa branch along the Kgetleng (Elands) River in the Rustenburg region of present-day North West Province. More specifically, it examines the evidence that identifies the stone ruins on Vlakfontein and adjoining farms as Marothodi, the capital of the Rustenburg Tlokwa, prior to their dispersal during the difaqane. Though it was renowned for its copper industry and constituted one of the largest African towns in the interior prior to the difaqane, Marothodi has largely faded from historical memory. This article explores the historical roots of the Tlokwa, their settlement history at Marothodi, and their interaction with near neighbours, such as the Fokeng, the Tlhako and the Kgatla. It highlights the potential contribution of an integrated historical and archaeological study of late precolonial Tswana society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents a conference session on writing and teaching urban history in Africa in the twenty-first century, during the University of Cape Town History Department Centenary Colloquium in South Africa. Theme; Keynote speakers; Topics discussed.

Presents a conference session on writing and teaching the history of unfree labor in Africa and the Indian Ocean in the twenty-first century, during the University of Cape Town History Department Centenary Colloquium in South Africa. Theme; Keynote speakers; Topics discussed.

Presents a conference session on writing and teaching gendered history in Africa in the twenty-first century, during the University of Cape Town History Department Centenary Colloquium in South Africa. Theme; Keynote speakers, Topics discussed.

Presents a conference session on writing and teaching the history of land and environment in Africa in the twenty-first century, during the University of Cape Town History Department Centenary Colloquium in South Africa. Theme; Keynote speakers, Topics discussed.

Presents a recap on the panel of discussion on the role of University of Cape Town in writing and teaching history in Africa in the twenty-first century, during the University of Cape Town History Department Centenary Colloquium in South Africa. Theme; Keynote speakers; Topics discussed.

Presents a conference session on writing and teaching race and ethnicity in South African history in the twenty-first century, during the University of Cape Town History Department Centenary Colloquium in South Africa. Theme; Keynote speakers; Topics discussed.

Examines developments in film and history studies in South Africa. Overview of case studies including the representation of the holocaust and of apartheid on screen and the long-history of the war-film genre; Emphasis on the reception of cinema in colonial Zimbabwe; Factors influencing African cinematic tastes; African responses to cinema.

Discusses claims made for the social power of academic history in South Africa. Reasons for the decline in history's status as a school subject; History's potential ability to influence actions and events; Functions of historical consciousness; Ordering of the past so as to attribute continuity to life; Representation of the past in a way that is meaningful to the present.

Focuses on a school curriculum in South African known as 'Curriculum 2005.' Argument of the curriculum's possible detrimental effect on the teaching of history; Contradictory impulses of the curriculum; Understanding of why history offers challenges to certain vested interests; Paradoxical defense of the content of history.

Discusses South African academic historians' perceptions of the changing nature of history, both in society generally and on university campuses. Effects of deep-seated political, economic and cultural shifts that have national and international dimensions; Politics of history in South Africa in the 1990s.

Discusses the implications of Curriculum 2005 for teaching history in South African schools according to the South African Historical Society. Nature of Curriculum 2005; Areas in which Curriculum 2005 did not benefit the teaching of history; Value of history as a discipline; Strategy for teaching history in grades 10-12; Role of history professors.

Argues for the need to review filmic representations of South Africa's past in the study of the country's history. Example of the use of motion pictures in the study of history in the United States; Visual history.

Presents a conference session on reflections on writing and teaching history in Africa in the twenty-first century, during the University of Cape Town History Department Centenary Colloquium in South Africa. Theme; Keynote speakers; Topics discussed.

Presents a conference session on writing and teaching the history of health, disease and medicine in Africa in the twenty-first century, during the University of Cape Town History Department Centenary Colloquium in South Africa. Theme; Keynote speakers, Topics discussed.

Presents a conference session on writing and teaching national history in Africa in an era of global history, during the University of Cape Town History Department Centenary Colloquium in South Africa. Theme; Keynote speakers; Topics discussed.