Date: Thursday, 03 October 2024 

Time: 19h30 

Venue: The Auditorium, Roedean School, 35 Princess of Wales Terrace, Parktown. 

Charge: Non-members: R50, members: free

 

Prof Peter Delius will be giving the talk with Dr Linell Chewins – who is a member of the society and who is co-researcher and co-author on his most recent work. 

 

According to Prof Delius, the primary focus of South African history has been on the colonial period, and this has created a foreshortened history of South Africa that has been further blinkered by the reification of national boundaries. This perspective has limited the understanding of deeper and wider historical processes that moulded the past and the present of the society. This perspective gives pride of place to cultural, economic and political influences that spread northward from the southernmost tip of Africa. But ignores the reality that until the first decades of the nineteenth century, the northern interior of what became South Africa, was primarily influenced by a distinct political economy. While this system has been deeply researched by archaeologists, their insights have not been represented in most historical overviews and the potential for a dialogue between the work of historians and archaeologists has been largely neglected. Our work is aimed at stimulating further engagement between these and other relevant disciplines. The system was the product of ongoing interaction between regional dynamics and ancient and evolving Indian Ocean trading networks. It was for many centuries an important zone of economic and political innovation 

 

The talk will argue that a narrative which starts in the 7th century in the Limpopo Valley and traces the interactions between trade and political transformation through the emergence of states at Mapungubwe, Great Zimbabwe, Thulamela and subsequently the rise of the Venda, Pedi and Zulu Kingdoms provides helpful and engaging perspectives on the making of South Africa. 


Prof Delius has been a leading figure in the transformation of the understanding of South African History over the last 40 years – in particular exploring the previously neglected history of African societies and underclasses in the period 1500 – 2000. He has published numerous books and was one of the pioneers of the use of oral history. He has played a key role in various initiatives to make this new history available and accessible to a wide audience. He also initiated and contributed to numerous projects aimed at promoting and preserving South Africa’s rich heritage. Professor Delius has published numerous books and a film and his latest research with Dr Chewins involves the trade between the Mozambique Coast and the interior. Their focus has been on pre-colonial long-distance trade and economic and political transformations in the interior of southern Africa. In recent years he has become especially interested by the history of Thulamela and has been working on a research project on the site with Dr Tim Forsmann, Dr Chewins and an international group of archaeologists.

Dr Linell Chewins’ research interests lie in the relationship between the southeast African coast and the interior beyond the Lubombo Mountains and of particular interest is the role of a Portuguese trader, João Albasini, as a link between hinterland and littoral.