History Making and Present Day Politics - Stolten's African Studies ...

h i s t o r y m a k i n g a n d p r e s e n t d a y p o l i t i c s
NGOs and individuals from the aid sector. The workshop also served as a
conclusion of my research project at NAI. 10
The passionate discussion about the use of history for freedom and democracy
during the years of struggle was partly inspired by international
solidarity and exiled academics. In this spirit, the leading thought behind
the workshop was to make a transnational attempt to renew the debate over
the most important concepts in South African historiography and to add to
a revival of the once lively exchange of ideas between progressive academics
and the surrounding society.
The tradition of progressive history writing
The changing patterns of research dealing with contemporary history in
South Africa reflect deep conflicts external to academia. As a result of the
unequal access to education, the historiographical tradition is characterised
by the absence of black historians, and the education in and communication
of history at the university level have been distinguished by the English
liberal tradition’s long-standing predominance, although this was challenged
by Afrikanerdom during the creation of apartheid and by Marxist tendencies
during late apartheid.
For at least 25 years, from the end of the 1960s to the early 1990s, there
were in South African historiography two fairly clear, mutually diverging
viewpoints on the relationship between capitalism and apartheid, and their
presence can still be sensed in new influential works of history. 11 The radicalrevisionist
viewpoint claimed that apartheid was created by and served capitalist
interests that, because of the system, enjoyed access to great quantities of
forced, cheap labour and state subsidies. In the view of the radical historians,
the rapid growth in the South African economy during most of last century
showed that segregation and apartheid were intentional and rational forms
. Unpublished papers from the conference can be viewed on this website: http://www.
jakobsgaardstolten.dk. Choose the path: History Conference | Links to unpublished
papers.
10. For a short description of my research, see my former website at NAI: http://www.
nai.uu.se/research/areas/archive/historical_research.
11. For example, Neville Alexander, An Ordinary Country: Issues in the Transition from
Apartheid to Democracy in South Africa, Approaches to Cultural History Series, New
York, Berghahn Books, 2002; Louw, P. Eric, The Rise, Fall, and Legacy of Apartheid,
Westport Connecticut, Praeger, 2004.