One of the advantages of turning fifty, I was told on my fiftieth birthday in 2005, is that you
earn the privilege to reminisce and people tend to listen to you a little more attentively, even …

Stories about origins, whether of an ethnic group, a ruling dynasty, or social relations,
present some of the most perplexing problems for historical interpretation. Yet they, too, can …

This year has been fortuitous one for publishers that have produced books on the early
history of Africa. With modern African politics changing daily and stories of genocide …

An observer of the general scene in South African history today cannot but be struck by a
paradox. On the one hand, South African historical scholarship has for almost two decades …

Muthi, intelezi and associated rituals have played an important role in the lives of Africans for
many centuries. For almost everything they do, muthi and rituals are applied, more so during …

The public and professional significance of precolonial History as a discipline has declined
markedly across much of sub-Saharan Africa over the last forty years: History has been both …

Cynthia Kros, John Wright, Mbongiseni Buthelezi, and Helen Ludlow, is an interesting and
accessible book that provides a tangible lesson: that archives come into being through …

Merrick Posnansky's diagnosis of the changes that occurred in the writing of African history
in the early postcolonial period captures a major shift in perspective as well as what came to …

The article focuses on a study that examined the use of biographies by historians to
challenge common ways of understanding agency and chronology in relation to the colonial …