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A growing urban African population
As Johannesburg expanded, so did its need for African labour. After the First World War, a large number of factories were being established and were growing in…
ArticleAn Introduction to Sophiatown
In 1899, an investor named Herman Tobiansky envisaged a pleasant white suburb that could be developed on a site to the West of Johannesburg. It was some way…
ArticleSouth African General Elections 2019 - List of Political Parties
The IEC announced that a record 48 political parties have successfully registered to contest the 2019 general elections. Most have been formed recently,…
ArticleThe South African General Elections: 2019
General elections will be held in South Africa on the 8th of May 2019 to elect a new National Assembly and new provincial legislatures in each province. This…
Sunny Venkatruthnam, University Of Durban-Westville, Documentation Centre, Oral History Project, “Voices of Resistance”, 16 July 2002
Outbreak of bubonic plague
The outbreak of Bubonic Plague in Cape Town appears to have given a measure of warning to other coastal cities in the Cape, and a number of preventative and…
South African History Online and Principia College Partnership Project - 2018 submissions
The biographical essays are selected from students in a South African history survey course that sought to put Africans back at the center of their history and…
South African History Online and Principia College Partnership Project - 2017 submissions
Alphonce Baraza I'm an international student from Kenya. I'm a computer science major and I like to play soccer and watch movies during my free time. …
ArticleMafika Gwala Third Annual Lecture, 5 October 2017
The Mafika Pascal Gwala Annual lecture was initiated by South African History Online in 2015 and is run in partnership with both the University of Kwa Zulu…
ArticleAfrikaans: the Language of Black and Coloured Dissent
IntroductionAfrikaans, one of the official languages, together with English, during South Africa’s Apartheid era, often occupies a politicised space as the …
Bloemfontein - segregation in education
Amersfoort Legacy: History of Education in South Africa White schools Initial education requirements set in the 19th century in the Free State were not high,…
What was the nature of resistance to apartheid during these decades, and how was this resistance part of wider resistance in the world to human rights abuses? (under construction)
How did apartheid entrench ideas of race? (under construction)
This section is under construction, if you have anything to contribute please click here. For a great link on the Social Darwinism's International impact…
To what extent was apartheid in South Africa part of neo-colonialism in the post World War 2 world (1948-1960)? (under construction)
ArticleBattle of Cuito Cuanavale 1988
Introduction The battle of Cuito Cuanavale and the Cuban intervention in Angola is one of the turning points in Southern African History. It led to the…
ArticleHIV/Aids in South Africa timeline 1940s-2009
1940s The oldest Human Immunodeficiency Virus-2 (HIV-2) jumps from animals to humans, according to a Washington-based study in May 2003. Some sources say…
ArticleLand, Labour and Apartheid
Land and labour are two very important elements of the economic development of a society, and the way they are used will influence how the society develops. In…
Labour and Mining Revolution 1886-1940s
The discovery of a diamond on a farm in the British controlled Cape Colony in 1867 and of gold in the Afrikaner “Boer” controlled Transvaal Republic…
ArticleParties involved in the history of elections in South Africa
The South African Labour Party (SALP) The South African Party (SAP) The South African National Party (SANP) Hersigte Nasionale Party (HNP) The Unionist…
ArticleSouth Africa’s electoral history timeline 1910-2009
1910 First general election that followed the establishment of the Union of South Africa. Only White males had the right to vote. 1915 Second general…
ArticleElections in post Apartheid South Africa
1994: South Africa's first non racial, democratic electionsSouth Africa’s democratic system was endorsed by voters drawn from across the country’s racial…
ArticleUnion, Segregation, apartheid and Democracy: From Union to non racial democracy
The 1910 election: The Union of SA The first election that created the modern South African state, held in accordance with the provisions of the Union of…
ArticleHistory of elections in South Africa
Introduction The South Africa Act passed by the British Parliament in 1909 combined the self-governing British colonies of the Natal, Cape, Transvaal and…
ArticleA Brief History of Pageview
In 1893 the first 'locations' were established under the Kruger government - essentially non-white' areas. Three existed at the time, namely the 'Coolie…
ArticleMapungubwe
The ancient city of Mapungubwe (meaning 'hill of the jackal') is an Iron Age archaeological site in the Limpopo Province on the border between South Africa,…
ArticlePrevention/Treatment
How is the South African Government dealing with the aids epidemic? In 1987, the apartheid government recognized that HIV and AIDS had the potential to…
Why did so few Black South Africans make films before the 1990s?
There are less than a handful of black directors who made films before the 1990s. The reasons for this are the same reasons that kept black people out of other…
Conference papers
Why General Smuts won on 4 September 1939
F. D. Tothill Even now, almost half a century after it collapsed, any conclusions about the working of Fusion and its chances of long-term success if…
What are the challenges that face the South African film industry?
“People are looking for things that are easy and foreign. We use foreign models that militate against our very efforts to shape our ailing film industry. We…