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EventThe ship São José is wrecked
The Portuguese battleship São José Paquete Africa (also, São José-Paquete de Africa) was grounded in Camps Bay, Cape, with nearly 500 slaves on board. The ship…
BiographyDr Alfred Bitini Xuma
Alfred Bitini Xuma was born on 8 March 1893, in Manzana, Ngcobo District, in the Eastern Province (now Eastern Cape). Xuma was the seventh child of Abraham…
ArticlePretoria (Tshwane): The Naming of a City
Introduction Pretoria is located in the north east of South Africa, to the north of Gauteng, and 60 Kilometres away from the north east of Johannesburg [i] …
Kingdoms of southern Africa: Thulamela
The city of Thulamela from the air. It has walled areas like the ruins at Great Zimbabwe, which separate royalty from commoners. Source: www.chico.mweb.co.za …
Contact, conflict and dispossession on the Cape eastern or northern frontiers in the nineteenth century
The situation in the Eastern Cape in the early late 18th and early 19th century (approximately1780 - 1850) was as follows: There were three groups of people: …
PlaceDiamond Hill Battle, Garden of Remembrance
The site of the Battle of Diamond Hill, which took place on the 11th and 12th June 1900, in which 14000 British soldiers and 4000 Boers engaged in battle…
‘African Gandhi’: The South African War and the Limits of Imperial Identity by Goolam Vahed
Mahatma Gandhi achieved greatness for the struggles that he fought on the political, economic, cultural and moral fronts. His ideas about love, truth, soul…
ArticleCuba and the struggle for democracy in South Africa
The revolution in Cuba, culminating in Fidel Castro’s seizure of power on 1 January 1959, was from the beginning based on a non-racial ethos, and revolutionary…
ArticleGeneral South African History Timeline: 1940s
1940 Dr. A.B. Xuma is elected President-General of the African National Congress (ANC). Walter Sisulu joins the African National Congress. The population…
BiographyEugène Ney Terre’Blanche
Eugene Ney Terre'Blanche was born in Ventersdorp to staunchly Afrikaner nationalist parents on January 31, 1944. The progenitor of the Terre'Blanche name was…
ArticleSouth African Defence Force (SADF)
Early years The history of the South African Defence Force (SADF) can be traced to the 1660s. When Jan van Riebeeck landed at the Cape in 1652, he had with…
PlaceKing Williams Town, Amatola
Founded as a Missionary Station in 1826, King William’s Town later (after 1835) served as a military headquarters for British Kaffraria and as a centre for…
ArticleNelspruit Timeline 1815-1996
1815 Louis Trichardt and Hans van Rensburg cross the Oranje/Gariep river. June 1836, Van Rensburg leaves Trichardt while Potgieter goes on an expedition to…
PlaceMiddle Campus, University of Cape Town, Rondebosch
The Upper, Middle and Lower Campuses together are often referred to as the 'main campus' The Campus as it stands today was laid out by architect J.M. Soloman…
BiographyStella Nyanzi
Dr Stella Nyanzi was born in Masaka District, Buganda Kingdom in Uganda on 16 June 1974. Also known as Nnalongo (which means mother of twins), she is a medical…
BiographyMichael Guthrie Scott
This article was written by Ben Forstate and forms part of the SAHO Public History Internship Michael Guthrie Scott was born on 30 July 1907 in the village…
BiographyMohandas Karamchand Gandhi
*Note: The focus of this biography is on Gandhi's life and times in South Africa. Early life and education Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was born to a…
The National Arts Festival
In 1974, an inaugural festival titled the 1820 Settlers National Monument was opened as a memorial to the British immigrants in South Africa. They established…
ArticleJune 16 Soweto Youth Uprising timeline: 1976-1986
1976 According to the government-appointed Cillie Commission of Enquiry 575 people died. Police action resulted in 451 deaths. 3 907 people were injured…
BiographyWendy Heather Woods
Wendy Heather Woods (neè Bruce) was born on 5 February 1941 in Mthatha (formerly Umtata), Transkei (now Eastern Cape Province). An outstanding pupil in school,…
ArticleEarly African Civilisations: Ancient Egypt, Nubia and Swahili
Ancient Egypt The ancient Egyptian civilisation grew for thousands of years intact because the Nile River Valley and Mediterranean and Red Sea border kept…
ArticleThe spread of these ideas to Europe and Australia
The indigenous inhabitants of Australia The continent of Australia was settled about 60,000 years ago. Before European settlement, most of the inhabitants of…
ArticlePolitical changes from 1750 to 1835
The section below on the Mfecane can be used as an introduction to this section. It is important to note that CAPS 2011 does not require it to be covered in…
ArticleEuropean trading systems in the Middle Ages - fourteenth to sixteenth centuries
Expanding European frontiers The Trek Boers, with their servants and slaves, move inland From the late 1600s and into the 1700s, the Cape settlers moved…
71.The Group Areas Act
From the book: A Documentary History of Indian South Africans edited by Surendra Bhana and Bridglal Pachai When the Group Areas Act was passed in 1950, all…
ArticleTimeline of the German and Herero, Nama War and Genocide
1904 6 January, The settler Frau Sonnenberg tells German soldiers stationed at the Waterberg, including the Sergeant in charge, Sergeant Rademacher, that…
EventMalawi switches over to a new decimal currency, the Kwacha
Malawi officially replaced the Malawian pound with the Kwacha on 28 August 1970. The country had circulated the Pound sterling, the Rhodesian Dollar and the…
EventThe British attack in the battle of Colenso
During Anglo-Boer War 2, the British troops under General Redvers Buller launched a frontal attack in the Battle of Colenso with the intention to relieve the…
EventMethane gas explosion kills 68 mine workers
30 years today, sixty-eight mine workers were killed after an underground methane gas explosion at the Hlobane coal mine near Vryheid in Kwazulu-Natal . The…
EventCelebrated South African photographer, David Goldblatt, receives Hasselblad honours
Celebrated South African photographer, David Goldblatt was honoured for his portrayal of social and political life in the country of his birth. David Goldblatt…