SAHO global search
17,854 records
Archive“A Black Rather Well-Known South African Recently Arrived in London”: Critical Responses to Todd Matshikiza’s Chocolates for My Wife
In Todd Matshikiza’s autobiography, Chocolates for My Wife (1961), which describes the exiled South African writer and musician’s first two years in London, he…
ArticleWhen, why and where the first African farmers settled in Southern Africa
What is farming? Farming is the practice of breeding animals or growing crops for food or clothes. Human ancestors stopped relying on hunting and gathering…
ArticleNelson Mandela Timeline 1800-1899
1800: Historical Context Nelson Mandela traces his lineage back to the Thembu Chief Nxeko, one of the early Thembu Kings who ruled over Thembuland, a…
ArticleUnited Democratic Front timeline 1983-1990
1983 On 23 January, Allan Boesak makes a call for the formation of a ‘united front’ at an anti-SAIC Committee (TASC) conference in Johannesburg. Boesak…
ArticleNdebele architecture and settlement patterns
Glossary of Ndebele building terms APOKORWAN - Eaves overhang AMAKAPA - Roof AMAKAPA IBALELO - Timber roof rafter AMAOBA - Enclosed room located in the…
The Court’s position in the justice system
The Constitutional Court is South Africa's highest court on constitutional matters. So its jurisdiction - the scope of its authority to hear cases - is…
PlaceCape Town, Western Province
"Cape Town has just been voted as the top city in the world by the prestigious Time Out publication. And I fully agree with this, having just returned from my…
The Ideology of the Black Consciousness Movement
The emergence of the Black Consciousness movement that swept across the country in the 1970s can best be explained in the context of the events from 1960…
Luli
Deep Level Mining Only twenty years after the first mine was started at Langlaagte, gold had become the most important industry in South Africa, bringing…
ArticleCape Town the Segregated city
Contents Early settlement patterns of exclusion Towards racial segregation Segregated city Conclusion Once the fort and the early settlement were…
ArticleSilverton and Soekmekaar trial
On 14 April 1980 the nine accused appeared in the Pretoria Magistrate's Court in one of the most highly publicised South African guerrilla trials, the…
ArticleSouth African General Timeline 1976
January 1976, a group of people with Mosima Sexwale are taken by two cars a Fiat and a Soviet-origin vehicle to Dar es Salaam Airport where they flew in a…
ArticleThe Anti-Pass Campaigns 1960
1959-1960: Formation, Sharpeville and Banning For many years there was tension inside the African National Congress (ANC) between those with more moderate…
PlaceAmathole Mountain Region, Eastern Cape
The Amatola Region is one of the most beautiful and diverse in the Eastern Cape. The Amathole's stretch into the hinterland just North of Grahamstown and West…
ArticleQuotations by Oliver Tambo
"We seek to create a united Democratic and non-racial society. We have a vision of South Africa in which black and white shall live and work together as equals…
Dr William Fehr (1892-1968), collector of art as history
The name of Dr William Fehr should be familiar to many of those who have visited Castle Good Hope in Cape Town at least once during the last fifty years. Young…
Political revolution between 1820 and 1835
The Mfecane (a Zulu word which translates to “the crushing”) or Difiqane (a Sotho word which translates to “forced removal) was a series of Nguni and other…
Federation of Unions of South Africa (FEDUSA)
Background On 1 April 1997, the Federation of Unions of South Africa (FEDUSA) was established with a membership of around 515 000, becoming the second largest…
ArticleStudent protests in democratic South Africa
Student protests in democratic South Africa South Africa has a long history of student protests going way back to the anti-Apartheid marches that predated…
ArticleWomen’s resistance in the 1960s - Sharpeville and its aftermath
As the 1950s gave way to the 1960s the African National Congress (ANC) and Pan Africanist Congress (PAC) both announced plans to tackle the pass laws for…
ArticleIndian Passive Resistance in South Africa: 1946 - 1948
1946 Passive Resistance Campaign Introduction ↵ An acute labour shortage forced White settlers in Natal to plead to the Indian Government to send its…
ArticleMissionary settlement in Southern Africa 1800-1925
A study of missionary settlement and the spread of Christianity in southern Africa during the period 1800 - 1925, including a piece on the role of missionaries…
Article1949 Anti Indian Pogrom in Durban
On 13 January 1949 an Indian store-keeper in central Durban assaulted an African youth. This incident resulted in a wave of violence, starting at the Indian…
ArticleNguni Stick Fighting
Introduction This article looks at the history of an indigenous Nguni sport known as Stick Fighting, which was popular in the Nguni ethnic group (Zulu). It…
The Afrikaanse Handelsinsituut
The Afrikaanse Handelsinsituut (AHI – in English the Afrikaans Commercial Institute) was formed during WWII to create Afrikaner businesses and represent their…
ArticlePrehistory of the Cape Town area
Prehistory of Southern Africa The Dutch East India Company (VOC) established Cape Town as a refuelling station in 1652 for their ships sailing between Europe…
ArticleGrade 9 - Term 4: Turning points in modern South African History since 1948
For this complex period to be studied, the Sharpeville massacre, Soweto uprising and the release of Nelson Mandela and unbanning of liberation movements have…
Liberation
"We the marginalised people of South Africa, who are landless and land hungry, declare our need for all the world to know. We are the people who have borne the…
Disbanding, 1990-1991
With the ANC now legal, mass demands were made for a constitutional assembly to create a new non-racial, democratic, and unitary South Africa. The UDF had…
Insurrections: The Storming
September 2015, District Six Homecoming Centre, Cape Town. Performance Curated by: Sumangala Damodaran, Tina Schouw and Ari Sitas Performance Visual: Piya…