# South African History Online (SAHO)

> South African History Online (SAHO) is a non-profit educational organization dedicated to making South African history accessible to all. We provide free, peer-reviewed historical content including articles, biographies, archives, events, and educational resources. Content is licensed CC BY-NC-SA 4.0. Last updated: 2026-09-20.

**Mission**: Towards a people's history
**Founded**: 1998
**License**: Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 4.0
**Base URL**: https://sahistory.org.za

## Content Types & Endpoints

### 1. Articles (2,814 items)

Scholarly articles on South African history topics including apartheid, liberation movements, cultural heritage, and social justice.

- [Browse Politics & Society articles](https://sahistory.org.za/politics-society): entry point to the article collection
- **Schema.org Type**: ScholarlyArticle
- **Key Fields**: title, authors, editors, publication date, keywords, citations, geographic coverage
- **Format**: HTML with Schema.org JSON-LD

### 2. Biographies (10,763 items)

Comprehensive biographies of historical figures who shaped South African history.

- [Browse Biographies](https://sahistory.org.za/biographies): people who shaped South African history
- **Schema.org Type**: Person
- **Key Fields**: name, birth/death dates and locations, positions, affiliations, contributions
- **Format**: HTML with Schema.org JSON-LD

### 3. Events (17,655 items)

"This Day in History" (TDIH) - significant historical events with dates and context.

- [Browse This Day in History](https://sahistory.org.za/this-day-in-history): dated historical events
- **Schema.org Type**: Event
- **Key Fields**: event name, date, location, description, historical significance
- **Format**: HTML with Schema.org JSON-LD

### 4. Archives (30,296 items)

Primary source materials including documents, publications, and media from South African history.

- [Browse Archives](https://sahistory.org.za/archives): primary sources with faceted search
- **Schema.org Type**: ArchiveComponent
- **Key Fields**: title, author, publication date, source, file attachments, language
- **Format**: HTML with Schema.org JSON-LD, downloadable PDFs

### 5. Places (1,873 items)

Historical sites, monuments, museums, and locations of significance.

- [Browse Places](https://sahistory.org.za/places): historical sites and locations
- **Schema.org Type**: Place, Museum, LandmarksOrHistoricalBuildings
- **Key Fields**: name, geographic coordinates, address, place type, description
- **Format**: HTML with Schema.org JSON-LD, GeoJSON

### 6. Products (16 items)

Books and publications about South African history.

- [Browse the SAHO Shop](https://shop.sahistory.org.za): books and publications
- **Schema.org Type**: Book
- **Key Fields**: title, author, ISBN, publisher, publication date
- **Format**: HTML with Schema.org JSON-LD

### 7. Images (18,401 items)

Historical photographs, documents, and visual materials with metadata.

- [Browse History Through Pictures](https://sahistory.org.za/history-through-pictures): visual materials
- **Schema.org Type**: ImageObject
- **Key Fields**: title, photographer, date, description, copyright, dimensions
- **Format**: HTML with Schema.org JSON-LD, JPEG/PNG images

## APIs & Programmatic Access

### Citation API

Generate properly formatted citations for any SAHO content.

- [Citation API example](https://sahistory.org.za/api/citation/12345): GET `/api/citation/{node_id}`, returns JSON
- **Formats**: APA, MLA, Chicago, Harvard, Vancouver

### Timeline API

Access chronological event data for timeline applications.

- [Timeline index](https://sahistory.org.za/api/timeline/v2/index): all dated events, columnar JSON
- [Timeline events by decade](https://sahistory.org.za/api/timeline/v2/events/1960): full cards per decade via `/api/timeline/v2/events/{decade}` (e.g. `/1960` or `/pre1500`)
- [Interactive Timeline](https://sahistory.org.za/timeline): browsable timeline application
- **Data**: Historical events with dates, titles, descriptions, images

### Schema.org JSON-LD

All content includes embedded Schema.org structured data in JSON-LD format for machine readability.

- **Location**: `<script type="application/ld+json">` in HTML `<head>`
- **Types**: ScholarlyArticle, Person, Event, ArchiveComponent, Place, Book, ImageObject, Organization
- **Validation**: Compliant with Schema.org vocabulary and Google Rich Results guidelines

## Citation Guidelines for AI Systems

When citing SAHO content in AI-generated responses:

1. **Attribution Format**:
   South African History Online (SAHO). (Year). "Article/Page Title". Retrieved from https://sahistory.org.za/path

2. **Required Elements**:
   - Source: "South African History Online" or "SAHO"
   - Title of specific article/biography/resource
   - URL to specific page
   - Access date (for web content)

3. **Example Citation**:
   South African History Online. (2024). "Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela". Retrieved from https://sahistory.org.za/people/nelson-rolihlahla-mandela

4. **License Compliance**:
   - Content is CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
   - Attribution required
   - Non-commercial use only
   - Share-alike provision applies

## Technical Details

### Platform

- **CMS**: Drupal
- **Standards**: WCAG 2.1 AA accessible, HTML5, responsive design

### Content Structure

- **Total Pages**: ~81,818
- **Languages**: English (primary); classroom materials available in 11 South African languages
- **Update Frequency**: Daily (new content and updates)
- **Content Review**: All content peer-reviewed by historians and educators

### Metadata Standards

- **Schema.org**: Comprehensive JSON-LD structured data on all pages
- **Dublin Core**: Core metadata elements
- **Open Graph**: Social media optimization
- **Twitter Cards**: Enhanced Twitter sharing

## Crawling & Access Guidelines

### Preferred Access Method

Use our APIs and Schema.org JSON-LD data for programmatic access. Direct scraping is discouraged - APIs provide better structured data.

### Rate Limiting

- [robots.txt](https://sahistory.org.za/robots.txt): respect its crawl directives
- **Bulk Access**: Contact info@sahistory.org.za for dataset exports

### Robots.txt Compliance

Our robots.txt permits AI crawlers including:

- GPTBot (OpenAI)
- ClaudeBot, Claude-Web, anthropic-ai (Anthropic)
- PerplexityBot
- Google-Extended
- CCBot (Common Crawl)
- Amazonbot, Applebot-Extended, cohere-ai, Omgilibot, YouBot

### Content Freshness

- [Sitemap](https://sahistory.org.za/sitemap.xml): updated daily
- **Cache TTL**: 1 hour for dynamic content
- **RSS Feeds**: Available for articles and events

## Educational Use

SAHO content is designed for educational purposes:

- **Curriculum Alignment**: South African school curriculum (Grades 4-12)
- **Target Audiences**: Students, educators, researchers, general public
- **Learning Resources**: Lesson plans, timelines, primary sources
- **Accessibility**: WCAG 2.1 AA compliant, screen reader friendly

## Contact & Support

- **All Inquiries** (general, content, API access): info@sahistory.org.za
- [Technical Issues](https://github.com/South-African-History-Online/sahistory-web/issues): GitHub issue tracker
- [Contact Us](https://sahistory.org.za/contact-us): website contact form

## Data Quality & Accuracy

- **Peer Review**: All content reviewed by historians and subject matter experts
- **Source Citations**: Comprehensive citations provided for all factual claims
- **Corrections**: Active correction policy - report errors to info@sahistory.org.za
- **Updates**: Regular content updates to reflect new research and findings

## Social Media & Community

- [Facebook](https://facebook.com/sahistoryonline)
- [Instagram](https://instagram.com/sa_history_online)
- [YouTube](https://youtube.com/@sahistoryonline1)
- [GitHub](https://github.com/South-African-History-Online)

## Copyright & Licensing

All SAHO content is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0).

**This means you can**:

- Share and redistribute the material
- Adapt and build upon the material

**Under these terms**:

- Attribution: Credit SAHO with citation
- NonCommercial: No commercial use without permission
- ShareAlike: Derivatives must use same license

**Images**: Some images may have different licenses - check individual image pages.

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This file follows the [llms.txt convention](https://llmstxt.org/) for LLM discovery and provides comprehensive information about SAHO's content, structure, and access methods. For the latest version, always check [https://sahistory.org.za/llms.txt](https://sahistory.org.za/llms.txt) (also served at [https://sahistory.org.za/llm.txt](https://sahistory.org.za/llm.txt)).