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ArticleSAHO Commemorates 40 Years since Soweto Uprising: Intergenerational Dialogue
South African History Online (SAHO) is hosting an intergenerational dialogue to commemorate 40 years since the Soweto Student Uprising. The dialogue consists…
ArticleTimeline of the Marikana Massacre 2012 - 2013
The events at Lonmin Mine in Marikana in the North West Province were a tragic stain on the history of post Apartheid South Africa. This timeline chronicles…
ArticlePopular resistance and police brutality in democratic South Africa
The apartheid era was characterised by different resistances such as the Sharpeville massacre, Vaal and the East Rand in 1985 and Soweto uprising of 1976. The…
ArticleA brief history of domestic service in South Africa
Colonial History of Domestic Work Since slaves were used as domestic servants in the settler colony from the middle to late 18th century, domestic…
ArticleTreks & Land conflicts 1600s-1800s
Land is a very important commodity. It is used for farming, which provides food, providing living space and can also be seen as a sign of wealth and success…
ArticleGeneral South African History Timeline: 1700s
1700 The first "placaat" (ordinance or statute) restricting the importation of Asian slaves is promulgated. Dlamini chiefdoms move south from Delagoa Bay…
ArticleDutch Reformed Church (DRC)
When the Dutch settled in South Africa in the 16th and 17th centuries they transplanted their Dutch Reformed theology to the African continent. Jan van…
ArticleAfrikaner Broederbond
On 5 June 1918 disaffected Afrikaners were brought together in a new organisation called Jong Suid-Afrika (Young South Africa). The following year its name was…
ArticleAfrikaner Weerstandsbeweging (AWB)
The Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging (AWB) was an ultra-right wing organisation led by Eugene Terreblanche, that first came into prominence in the 1970s. It aimed…
ArticleDutch East India Company (DEIC)/VOC
March 20, 1602 marked the beginning of the inexorable end for many a state in the then known world. On that day, four hundred years ago, a group of Dutch…
South Africa in the 1900s (1900-1917)
Introduction More than two and a half centuries prior to the birth of Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela, Jan Van Riebeeck and his expedition of Dutch Calvinist…
ArticleHistory of slavery and early colonisation in South Africa
With colonialism, which began in South Africa in 1652, came the Slavery and Forced Labour Model. This was the original model of colonialism brought by the…
ArticleThe Empty Land Myth
The Empty or Vacant Land Theory is a theory that was propagated by European settlers in nineteenth-century South Africa to support their claims to land. Today…
ArticleA history of Apartheid in South Africa
Background and policy of apartheidBefore we can look at the history of the apartheid period it is necessary to understand what apartheid was and how it…
The Genootskap vir Regte Afrikaners/Fellowship of True Afrikaners
The Genootskap vir Regte Afrikaners (the GRA, the Fellowship of True Afrikaners) was launched in Paarl, Western Cape on 14 August 1875. The society was…
A history of Volkskas and the Absa Banking group
Volkskas was one of the four largest banking conglomerates in South Africa, and one of the three biggest Afrikaner monopolies. It was established to harness…
The Boerenvereenigingen: precursor to the Afrikaner Bond
In the 1870s a series of farming associations emerged in the Cape, both in the west and in the east. While both English and Afrikaner associations emerged, the…
The Afrikaanse Handelsinsituut
The Afrikaanse Handelsinsituut (AHI – in English the Afrikaans Commercial Institute) was formed during WWII to create Afrikaner businesses and represent their…
The Afrikaner Bond
The Origins of the Afrikaner Bond The Afrikaner Bond, an Afrikaner political organisation that was effectively the first political party in South Africa, was…
ArticleAfrapix
Afrapix – Comrades with Cameras A history of a South African anti apartheid Documentary Photography Collective Afrapix, a progressive photographers'…
ArticleDrum Magazine
The establishment of Drum Magazine in the 1950s, notwithstanding the newly-elected Nationalist Party’s policy of Apartheid, reflected the dynamic changes that…
Independent Electoral Commission
INDEPENDENT ELECTORAL COMMISSION IEC) Residents of Soweto queue up to cast their votes in South Africa's third democratic elections April 2004 VISION…
ArticleSouth African Institute of Race Relations
The South African Institute of Race Relations (SAIRR) was established in 1929 as an organization geared towards conducting research on race relations. From…
ArticleStaffrider magazine (1978-1993)
Introduction Staffrider was a South African literary and arts magazine published by Ravan Press in Johannesburg from 1978 to 1993. It took its name and…
ArticleCulture and Resistance Conference, Botswana, 1982
Several hundred artists and activists from South Africa living in exile and within the country, as well as foreign nationals, were hosted by the Botswana…
ArticleResponses in South Africa to the outbreak of WWI: The African Peoples Organisation and the Teachers League of South Africa
Like their African counterparts, the organisations of the coloured elite came out strongly in support of the British war effort. They shared the same illusions…
ArticleResponses in South Africa to the outbreak of WWI: The Formation of the International Socialist League (ISL)
The out break of the First World War had profound consequences for the development of socialist labour politics in South Africa. Before the war, the Labour…
ArticleResponses in South Africa to the outbreak of WWI: The Afrikaner Response and the 1914 Rebellion
When the First World War broke out in August 1914, the British Government called upon the dominions in the British Empire to come to its assistance. The South…
ArticleWorld War I and the South African Native Labour Contingent
The South African Native Labour Contingent (SANLC) was formed in 1916 in response to a request from the British Imperial Government for an African labour force…
ArticleThe Western Front
At the outbreak of the First World War, Germany put into operation the Schlieffen Plan. This plan was based on the assumption that in case of a war breaking…