Archives of Times Past: Conversations about South Africa’s Deep History explores particular sources of evidence on southern Africa’s time before the colonial era. It gathers recent ideas about archives and archiving from scholars in southern Africa and elsewhere, focusing on the question: ‘How do we know, or think we know, what happened in the times before European colonialism?’ Historians who specialise in researching early history have learnt to use a wide range of materials from the past as source materials. What are these materials? Where can we find them? Who made them? When? Why? What are the problems with using them? The essays by well-known historians, archaeologists and researchers engage these questions from a range of perspectives and in illuminating ways. Written from personal experience, they capture how these experts encountered their archives of knowledge beyond the textbook. The book aims to make us think critically about where ideas about the time before the colonial era originate. It encourages us to think about why people in South Africa often refer to this ‘deep history’ when arguing about public affairs in the present. The essays are written at a time when public discussion about the history of southern Africa before the colonial era is taking place more openly than at any other time in the last hundred years. They will appeal to students, academics, educationists, teachers, archivists, and heritage, museum practitioners and the general public.
Table of Content
List of Illustrations Acknowledgements Editorial Note Map Part I First Thoughts about the Archive Chapter 1 Exploring the Archive of the Times before Colonialism — Cynthia Kros, John Wright, Mbongiseni Buthelezi and Helen Ludlow Chapter 2 A Young Woman’s Journey of Discovery — Cynthia Kros and John Wright Chapter 3 Where Are the Deep Conversations about the Past? — Cynthia Kros and John Wright Chapter 4 ‘Ask the Old People’; ‘Ask the Professors’ — Cynthia Kros and John Wright Part II Commentaries and Conversations Chapter 5 Notes on a Kholwa Writer’s Life: Magema Fuze — Hlonipha Mokoena Chapter 6 An Archive in an Old Tin Trunk — Rachel King Chapter 7 Making ‘Tribal Histories’: The Work of Paul-Lenert Breutz — Fred Morton and Jan Boeyens Chapter 8 Conversations with Sekibakiba Lekgoathi — Sekibakiba Lekgoathi, Cynthia Kros and John Wright Chapter 9 Unpacking Olden Times — John Wright Part III Becoming Explorers Chapter 10 From ‘Nature Study’ to ‘Nature’s Archives’: My Journey into Environmental History — Muchaparara Musemwa Chapter 11 Nervously Entering the World of Carl Hoffmann and His Interlocutors — Lize Kriel Chapter 12 Dreams and Destinies: Stepping into the World of Archaeology — Ndukuyakhe Ndlovu Chapter 13 Life with the James Stuart Archive — John Wright Part IV Engaging with Archaeology and Rock Art Chapter 14 Digging Historic Cave: An Archaeological and Historical Quest — Amanda Esterhuysen Chapter 15 Storm Shelter: Rediscovering an Archive of Rock Art — Geoffrey Blundell Chapter 16 A Lion’s Life: Tracking the Biography of an Archaeological Artefact — Justine Wintjes Part V Conflicting Opinions Chapter 17 A Neglected Archive – and an Academic Pact — Sifiso Mxolisi Ndlovu Chapter 18 Mapungubwe Imagined — Himal Ramji Chapter 19 Mkhize Historians Dispute the Past — Grant Mc Nulty Part VI Further Thoughts Chapter 20 Making Journeys into the Archive — Cynthia Kros Chapter 21 The Archive in Pictures: Visual Essay — Justine Wintjes Glossary Contributors Index
About the author
Justine Wintjes is a curator in the Department of Human Sciences at the Kwa Zulu-Natal Museum in Pietermaritzburg and a research associate of the Wits Institute of Social and Economic Research (Wi SER) and the School of Arts at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg.
More ebooks from the same author(s) / Editor
224,853 Ebooks in this category
