75 Not Out: Reflections

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Notes

1 P. Kapp, ‘Sinvol of sinister? Die Historiese Genootskap van Suid-Afrika vyftig jaar oud’, Historia, 51, 2 (2006), 1–43.

2 B. le Cordeur, ‘The South African Historical Journal and the Periodical Literature on South African History’, South African Historical Journal, 20, 1 (1988), 13.

3 Even the latter still have their uses, as Peter Limb found out recently when researching the history of the Free State, for they drew on Dutch sources not elsewhere exploited: P. Limb, email to author, 9 March 2024.

4 Le Cordeur, ‘The South African Historical Journal’, 7 n 32: Davenport to Van Schuur, 10 February 1969. Axelson, who championed African history at the University of Cape Town, had a narrow conception of history, being an extremely empirical historian himself. He later moved into university administration. P. Harries and C. Saunders, ‘Eric Axelson and the History of Portugal in Africa’, South African Historical Journal, 39, 1 (1998), 165–175.

5 For the early history of the journal, see, especially, C. Saunders and B. le Cordeur, ‘The South African Historical Society and its Antecedents’, South African Historical Journal, 18, 1 (1986), 1–23; Le Cordeur, ‘The South African Historical Journal’ – the article he wrote for the twentieth issue. That issue contained an index to the first 20 issues.

6 One of the first non-South Africans to write for the journal was Alan Jeeves of Queen’s University, Canada. A. Jeeves, ‘Aftermath of Rebellion – The Randlords and Kruger’s Republic after the Jameson Raid’, South African Historical Journal, 10 (1978), 102–116. In 1983, the SAHJ carried contributions by George ‘Sam’ Shepperson of Edinburgh on Cecil Rhodes and by John Galbraith of the University of California, Los Angeles, on British war measures in the Cape. G. Shepperson, ‘Cecil John Rhodes: Some Biographical Problems’, South African Historical Journal, 15 (1983), 53–67; J. Galbraith, ‘British War Measures in Cape Colony, 1900–1902: A Study of Miscalculations and Mismanagement’, South African Historical Journal, 15 (1983), 68–84.

7 M. Wilson and L.M. Thompson, The Oxford History of South Africa, Vol. 1 South Africa to 1870 (Oxford: Clarendon, 1969); L.M. Thompson, ed., African Societies in Southern Africa: Historical Studies (London: Heinemann, 1969).

8 P. Lewsen, review of Monica Wilson and Leonard Thompson, eds, The Oxford History of South Africa, South African Historical Journal, 5 (1973), 105–108.

9 Legassick’s article, entitled ‘The Frontier Tradition in South African Historiography’, first appeared in the University of London’s Collected Seminar Papers 12 (1972), 1–33. It was later included in S. Marks and A. Atmore, eds, Economy and Society in Pre-Industrial South Africa (London: Longman, 1980), 44–79.

10 One of the first of these was C.C. Saunders, ‘The Transkeian Rebellion of 1880–81: A Case-Study of Transkeian Resistance to White Control’, South African Historical Journal, 8 (1976), 32–39. By 1986, the journal was carrying, for example, Patrick Harries’s article on ‘Capital, State and Labour on the 19th Century Witwatersrand: A Reassessment’, South African Historical Journal, 18, 25-45.

11 The volumes are now available online: https://www.tandfonline.com/loi/rshj20. See also the journal’s aims and scope which can be accessed from this landing page.

12 The wider range of articles is illustrated by, for example, the December 2016 issue (Vol. 64, No. 4) which included articles on the Pan-Africanist F.Z.S Peregrino, gender at the South African College, civilian internment, nursing training in Swaziland, posters of the Union Defence Force, and film.

13 T. Simpson, ‘Editor’s Note’, in T. Simpson, ed., ‘Tswana History’, Special issue, South African Historical Journal, 66, 3 (2014), 417. This issue followed the SAHS conference in Gaborone.

14 Le Cordeur, ‘The South African Historical Journal’, 15.