A Short History of South Africa, by Gail Nattrass

A Short History of South Africa, by Gail Nattrass. Publisher: Jonathan Ball Publishers. Johannesburg, South Africa 2023. ISBN 9781868429592 / ISBN 978-1-86-842959-2

A Short History of South Africa by Gail Nattrass is an attempt to give a brief, general account of South African history from the very beginning to the present day.

It is not aimed at professional historians but rather at all who have an interest in history -people from both South Africa and other countries. There are some brilliant histories out there of specific time periods, people and places, but not for some time has there been a short, single-narrative history book that tries to cover it all. I hope to some extent I have achieved that with A Short History of South Africa. For me, writing it is the culmination of almost a lifetime of researching and teaching the broad spectrum of South African history, collecting stories, taking students on tours around the country and working with distinguished historians, whose specialist studies are acknowledged in the text. The story of South Africa is one of struggle and the struggle has assumed many forms - from competition over land and resources in the early years to more sophisticated armed conflict in more recent times. Mainly, A Short History of South Africa tries to tell the stories of our people. [...] In 1955, historian Leo Marquard wrote a book entitled The Story of South Africa, which was reprinted several times until 1973. Since then, much has changed in the country, not least that after many years of white-minority rule there is now a majority government that is essentially black. There is a saying: New politics, new history. South African history has been rewritten many times since the 1980s. Evidence has increasingly been collected about previously neglected 'black' stories; new interpretations are being offered on old topics, and more points of view are being considered. In this book, questions are asked about how some groups have been able to dominate others, and why some societies have been able to resist domination whereas others have not. The book traces the long road to democracy, along with the roles of the various players. Any attempt to write a study of this kind is of course bound by the needs and perceptions of the time. There is more than one story that can be told about South Africa, and this story will certainly change again. The story in A Short History of South Africa may be of interest to anyone concerned with class and racial tensions in a diverse society. It is not unlike the stories of many other countries, although solutions have been sought in ways peculiar to South Africa. By necessity, this story also has to be part conjecture, especially for South Africa's early history, because it was not until the 19th century that we have substantive written records. Until fairly recent times, black history was recorded by men whose special job it was to remember and recount their tribe's traditions and thereby settle disputes about lineages, succession and other issues. Sadly, this oral tradition was not generally considered in early writings by whites. In the last forty years or more, the use of archaeological, palaeo-anthropological, anthropological, pictorial, linguistic, oral, aerial and other sources - both written and not - has enabled us to achieve a much more balanced version of the past. There is still, however, a paucity of sources of black history and that from other racial groups. It should also be noted that much of our early recorded history was dominated by white men. Since the 1980s, historians have tried to integrate gender and race for a more complete picture, but the divisions are still apparent in the way much of this book is structured.

This is an excerpt from A Short History of South Africa, by Gail Nattrass.

Title: First People
Subtitle: The Lost History of the Khoisan
Authors: Gail Nattrass
Publisher: Jonathan Ball Publishers
Johannesburg, South Africa 2023
ISBN 9781868429592 / ISBN 978-1-86-842959-2
Softcover, 14 x 21 cm, 302 pages, several b/w photographs, maps and images