History

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The 1949 Durban riots : a community in conflict.
(1983) Kirk, S. L.; Warhurst, Philip R.
No abstract available.
Adams College : the rise and fall of a great institution.
(1987) Singh, C.; Burchell, D. E.
Abstract available in PDF.
The administration of Sir Arthur E. Havelock as Governor of Natal, 1886 - 1889.
(1979) Moodley, Manikam.; Heydenrych, Dirk Hendrik.
No abstract available.
Against the odds : a social history of African women medical doctors in South Africa, 1940s-2000s.
(2017) Rehman, Amanda-Bea.; Noble, Vanessa.
This thesis focuses on the lives of six women medical doctors of African ethnicity, from the 1940s to the 2000s. These women are of different generations and were all born in South Africa. They trained in South Africa and have worked in a variety of institutions across the country. It investigates how the profession of medicine has evolved over time and what role a changing political climate has had on the development of the medical profession; particularly in terms of race and gender. It considers the broad historical context within which South Africa’s general medical training and professional development took place during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It then looks at the early lives of the six interviewees, which include their childhood and later motivations to study medicine. It also investigates the medical training experiences of these African women doctors. The lives and experiences of black women doctors after they graduated from medical school with a Bachelor of Medicine (MBChB) degree, during the apartheid period, is also discussed. Their training experiences, internship experiences and the experiences of their working lives in post-apartheid South Africa is a focus of this study too. Finally, it considers the impact of recent political transformation on the racial, gendered and class dimensions of the medical profession.
An analytical survey of the political career of Leander Starr Jameson, 1900-1912.
(1979) Siepman, Milton Ralph.
No abstract available.
"- and my blood became hot!" : crimes of passion, crimes of reason : an analysis of the crimes against masters and mistresses by their Indian domestic servants, Natal, 1880-1920.
(2005) Badassy, Prinisha.; Burns, Catherine E.
This thesis posits that the experiences and emotional strain associated with being a domestic servant gave rise to a culture of anger and violence within the ranks of Indian Domestic Servants in Colonial Natal during the period 1880 to 1920. These acts of violence, in particular physical and indecent assault and poisoning are explored here not in admiration of their brutality, but for their historical relevance to the study of Indenture, more specifically in the area of servant-master/mistress relations. The study uses these crimes as a window into the social dynamics of the settler home and domestic space in Colonial Natal, since they were created within their own set of orchestrating emotions and situations. The thesis draws on international and local literature around master/mistress-servant relations as well as relations between domestic slaves and the owners of their labour at the same time in other regions of the world. The findings of this thesis contribute to the historiography of South Africa; to the historiography of Indian South African life; to the historiography of servantmaster/mistress relationships; to the analysis of the complex intermingling of private and public labour and lives bound up with this labour form, both in past moulds and in its present form; and to the growing literature on the linkages between utilizing analysis of legal institutions and legal records in researching and writing the history of South African lives. Most importantly however, this thesis is the story of ordinary men and women whose lives, cultures, individualities and histories intersected with the domestic and colonial nexus.
"Archiving Apartheid": the archives of the Department of Bantu Administration, (Pietermaritzburg) and the Drakensberg Administration Board.
(2000) Gokool, Neesha.; Guy, Jefferson John.
No abstract available.
The arms and armour of the armies of Antiochus III from the Median Revolt to the Battle of Magnesia (221-190 BC)
(2020) Du Plessis, Jean Charl.( Embargoed).; De Souza, Philip.; Hilton, John Laurence.
By the time Antiochus III inherited the throne, the Seleucid empire, plagued by political infighting and revolts, was crumbling around him. Setting out to restore his kingdom to its former extent from Thrace in the west, to the river Indus in the east, Antiochus was opposed by numerous enemies whose armies and cultures were as diverse as the lands he ruled. At the heart of the king’s ambition stood the Seleucid armies, the tools with which he planned to restore his kingdom to its former glory. The Seleucid armies enabled Antiochus to re-establish his dominion and overcome all his enemies, until he came up against the power of Rome in 190 BC. This thesis is an evaluation of the effectiveness of the arms and armour of the various troop types of Seleucid armies during the restoration campaigns of Antiochus III between 221 and 190 BC. The primary focus of the thesis falls on the material culture and experimental archaeology of the period. This study incorporates a thorough analysis of the archaeological, iconographical, epigraphical and literary evidence, supported by a critical evaluation of modern scholarship on the armies of Antiochus III. After a brief introduction and literature review (Chapter 1), Part One begins with an examination of the Seleucid phalanx (Chapter 2), while Chapter 3 builds upon it by taking the practical approach of exploring the synaspismos defensive formation of the phalanx by means of archaeological experimentation. Chapter 4 assesses the guard cavalry and regular citizen cavalry. In part Two, the troop types and strategic roles of the auxiliary forces are discussed in Chapter 5 and 6 which are supported by two chapters (Chapters 7 and 8) of experimental archaeology, which examine the effectiveness of javelins and slings on ancient battlefields. In Part Three Chapter 9 discusses the ‘terror’ weapons deployed by the Seleucids -- elephants and scythed chariots. Finally, in Part Four, Chapter 10 examines the battles fought by the Seleucid armies of Antiochus III while Chapter 11 is an overall assessment of the army. The Seleucid armies of Antiochus III were some of the most effective military forces of the ancient world thanks to five crucial elements: (1) the large pool of manpower from which to draw soldiers, (2) the enormous wealth that Antiochus had at his disposal to equip, train and maintain armies, (3) the logistical skills and organisation of the armed forces on campaign, (4) the diversity of troop types and combined arms strategies, and (5) the persona and imperialistic ideology of Antiochus III.
Attitudes to history and senses of the past among grade 12 learners in a selection of schools in the Durban area, 2004 : a pilot study.
(University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg., 2004) Mackie, Emma-Louise.; Wright, John Britten.
This study explores attitudes to school history and 'senses of the past' among a sample of Grade 12 learners in a selection of six schools in the Durban area. It traces the history of history education in South Africa from its formal introduction to the Cape Colony in 1839 to the debates surrounding the revision of the history syllabus and the introduction of Curriculum 2005 in the present day. It makes the point that the context within which school history in South Africa arose and developed has led history education authorities to view school history as a subject with 'problems' for which they need to find 'solutions' from the top down. Thus, learners who come to school with an insufficient knowledge or awareness of the past must be encouraged to become more 'historically aware'. Recent developments within western academic history have led a number of historians to acknowledge the significance of histories produced outside the realms ofthe academy. Some of their literature points to complex and diverse ways in which ordinary people make and use the past in their everyday lives. These developments are of particular relevance when one considers learners at school because school history education authorities have given very little attention to the ways in which learners make and use histories in their everyday lives. This study set out to explore whether further investigations into learners' attitudes to history, their senses of the past and the relationship between the two would be a valuable line of enquiry for future research. It concludes that adolescents are just as much 'producers' of pasts as they are 'learners' of history and that far from showing how little learners know about the past, these senses tell us much about how learners feel in the present.
Bhambatha and the Zulu Rebellion 1906.
(University of KwaZulu-Natal., 2008) Thompson, Paul Singer.
In 1906 there occurred a rebellion among a part of the indigenous people against the settler government of the British colony of Natal, ostensibly against the collection of a poll (capitation) tax on adult males. It is very often called the Zulu Rebellion, but it has many names, and it is commonly called “Bhambatha’s rebellion” or “the Bhambatha rebellion”, after the most famous of its leaders. The centenary of the rebellion was marked by public celebrations of a political character which however shed very little light on the actual historic events. These celebrations were sponsored by the provincial government, usually in collaboration with ad hoc local bodies. They commenced when the provincial premier announced that Bhambatha would be posthumously reinstalled as a chief. There followed the laying of wreaths at memorials at Mpanza, near Greytown on 8 April 2006, followed by a cleansing ceremony and the dedication of a memorial wall to the “Richmond Twelve” on 22 April. They culminated in the laying of more wreaths and the reinstatement of Bhambatha to his chieftaincy at Mpanza on 11 June. The latter affair also engaged the national government, and the crowded programme included speeches by the president and deputy president, as well as provincial premier, the chairperson of the House of Traditional Leaders and the king of the Zulu nation. A special postage stamp was issued to mark the occasion. Almost a week later, on 16 June or Youth Day, a Bhambatha Memorial Concert took place at Lake Merthley, also near Greytown. On 27 September Bhambatha was awarded the national Order of Mendi in Gold for Bravery. Outside the government sphere there was very little to mark the centenary. Two plays, which did not enjoy government support, hardly got off the ground. A third, which did, was the musical 1906 Bhambada–The Freedom Fighter, which ran for a fortnight in Pietermaritzburg, and was touted to go on to Pretoria, but did not, probably for political as well as aesthetic reasons. A government-funded Indigenous Knowledge Systems project by local university academics produced a book entitled Freedom Sown in Blood: Memories of the Impi Yamakhanda, which contained practically nothing about the rebellion itself. Another book, Remembering the Rebellion: The Zulu Uprising of 1906, comprised a series of twelve commemorative supplements previously published in the The Witness and related newspapers in partnership with the provincial department of education. Beautifully illustrated and pitched at schools, it necessarily simplified scholarship on the rebellion for its readers.
Bound by faith: a biographic and ecclesiastic examination (1898-1967) of Chief Albert Luthuli's stance on violence as a strategy to liberate South Africa.
(2008) Couper, Scott Everett.; Breckenridge, Keith.; Khumalo, Vukile.; Khumalo, Vukile.; Breckenridge, Keith.
Much public historical mythology asserts that Chief Albert Luthuli, the onetime leader of Africa's oldest liberation movement, launched an armed struggle on the very eve he returned to South Africa after receiving the Nobel Peace Prize. This profound irony engenders what is arguably one of the most relevant and controversial historical debates in South African as some recent scholarship suggests Luthuli did not countenance the armed movement. Today, Luthuli remains a figure of great contestation due to his domestic and international prominence and impeccable moral character. Icons of the liberation struggle, political parties and active politicians understand their justification for past actions and their contemporary relevance to be dependent upon a given historical memory of Luthuli. Often that memory is not compatible with the archival record. Contrary to a nationalist inspired historical perspective, this investigation concludes that Luthuli did not support the initiation of violence in December 1961. Evidence suggests that Luthuli only reluctantly yielded to the formation (not the initiation) of an armed movement months before the announcement in October 1961 that he would be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in December 1961. After the announcement, Luthuli vociferously argued against the use of violence until April 1962. From April 1962 to his death in 1967, Luthuli only advocated non-violent methods and did not publicly support or condemn the use of violence. Congregationalism imbedded within Luthuli the primacy of democracy, education, multiracialism and egalitarianism, propelling him to the heights of political leadership prior to 1961. Following 1961 these same seminal emphases rendered Luthuli obsolete as a political leader within an increasingly radicalised, desperate and violent environment. The author argues that not only did the government drastically curtail Luthuli's ability to lead, but so did his colleagues in the underground structures ofthe Congresses' liberation movement, rendering him only the titular leader ofthe African National Congress until his death. While Luthuli's Christian faith provided the vigour for his political success, it engendered the inertia for his political irrelevance following the launch of violence. By not supporting the African National Congress' initiation of the violent movement, Luthuli's political career proved to be 'bound by faith'.
Broadening the Black Sash’s reach: a biographical study of women activists in the KwaZulu-Natal Midlands.
(2023) Kheswa, Sandile Derick.; Hiralal, Kalpana.; Denis, Philippe Marie Berthe Raoul.
This dissertation examines the contribution made by Black Sash women to the anti-apartheid struggle in the Natal Midlands region. It gives special attention to the biographical narratives of three women who were members of the Black Sash organisation in the Natal Midlands region. These women are Joan Kerchhoff, Mary Kleinenberg, and Anne Harley. This study explores how, for thirty years, these activists who belonged to two different generations of the Black Sash employed different modes of resistance. Furthermore, this study will examine their participation in the anti-apartheid movement, which is unique as they were willing to take risks and go to jail. These Black Sash activists rose to the call of duty and took a stand against injustice, taking a stance that other white people refused to accept. They were passionate in their beliefs, serving jail sentences, and suffered hardship as they lost friends and were often socially ostracised. These activists discarded the white privileges afforded to them by the apartheid government. They dedicated their lives to combating injustice while fighting for their vision for the future, a free and democratic South Africa. It was due to their involvement in the anti-apartheid movement that the fight against the apartheid regime was not merely a black versus white issue but rather against an oppressive system. Their participation in the anti-apartheid movement transformed the liberation movement into becoming multi-racial, albeit their numbers were small. Thus, this study on the three Black Sash women will integrate the role of white women and contribute to the liberation narratives of South Africa. It will demonstrate that the antiapartheid struggle was a collective effort and included a small group of whites, who were to become in some ways the white consciousness of South Africa. This dissertation via the narratives of Joan Kerchhoff, Mary Kleinenberg, and Anne Harley, highlights the contestations between gender oppression and political oppression that so characterised the anti-apartheid struggle. It also provides a more in-depth insight into women’s political collective organisation in the Natal Midlands. Also, it helps us to understand the complex relationship that existed between the Black Sash and other women’s organisations.
Caste, class and community : the role of the South African Hindu Maha Sabha in (re)making Hinduism in South Africa, 1912-1960.
(2010) Gopalan, Karthigasen.; Vahed, Goolam Hoosen Mohamed.
No abstract available.
The Catholic Church and apartheid, 1948-1957.
(1984) Abraham, Garth.
No abstract available.
Class, race and gender : the political economy of women in colonial Natal.
(1982) Beall, Josephine Dianne.; Lumby, Anthony Bernard.
Colonial Natal has become an increasingly popular field of investigation for historians of Southern Africa over the last decade or so. This trend is not premature or " irrelevant for, although not demonstrating" the economic impact of the diamond-mining industry of the Cape, or the gold-mining industry of the Transvaal, the political " economy of nineteenth century Natal played a significant role in forming patterns of South African social and economic development, as well as attitudes towards this, not least of all in terms of labour exploitation. The history of Natal during this period has been lacking by and large in what I consider to be two important aspects. Firstly, the colony, on the whole, has been neglected by Marxist and radical historians; and secondly, the history of women in South Africa, as yet a nascent area of research in itself, has not included an attempt to date, understand the lives of those women who lived along the south-east coastal belt of Southern Africa, between the Drakensberg and the Indian Ocean. This study strives to be a preliminary step in the direction of redressing this imbalance, by offering an introductory exposition on the political economy of women in colonial Natal.
The Colonial-Born and Settlers' Indian Association and Natal Indian politics, 1933-1939.
(1992) Cheddie, Anand.; Warhurst, Philip R.
This thesis seeks to examine Indian political development in South Africa during the period 1933-1939, with specific reference to the emergence of the Colonial-Born and Settlers' Indian Association and its influence on the course of Natal Indian politics. The primary aim of the thesis is to examine the role played by this Association in obstructing the Union government's assisted emigration plans and colonisation scheme. To achieve this aim it was necessary to examine the establishment of the Association and to determine whether the Association fulfilled its main objective. After a brief exposition of early Indian immigration, the activities of the successive Agent-Generals are examined in the context of their relationship with the Natal Indian Congress (NIC) and the Association and how these diplomats articulated the aspirations of their government. The Agency attempted to secure improvements in the socio-economic position of the South African Indian community. In terms of various directives from the Indian government it was clear that they emphasised the value of negotiations and compromise and aggressively suppressed the strategies of those who opposed this approach. This attitude surfaced particularly in its relationship with the Association relative to the Association's stance on the colonisation issue. Notwitstanding the disabilities experienced by the Association in its fight for the equal status of its supporters and for the right to remain in South Africa, the Association is seen to have succeeded in the realisation of its fundamental objective. The thesis also seeks to establish that there was a need for the creation of the Association and later after it had served its function the need for its dissolution. In this process the author also deals with the general activities of the Association and the crucial negotiations conducted with the Congress to the point of amalgamation in 1939 when the Association and the NIC amalgamated to form the Natal Indian Association. The significant influence of the Agency in the process of negotiations is emphasised. There are three main themes in this study. The first reflects the manner In which the moderate leadership articulated the aspirations of their supporters. Secondly, it demonstrates the internal differences, sectionalism and the class struggles within the Indian organisations. , The third theme seeks to reveal the often devious roles played by the respective governments, their intransigence, connivance and particularly the apathy of the government of India.
“Colours Do Not Mix”: segregated classes at the University of Natal, 1936-1959.
(University of KwaZulu-Natal., 2011) Bhana, Surendra.; Vahed, Goolam Hoosen Mohamed.
This paper examines segregation in university education with special reference to the circumstances around which separate classes were introduced for Blacks in 1936 at the NUC and continued until 1959, some nine years after the institution achieved university status. It examines the roles of various individuals, most particularly Mabel Palmer (1876-1958) who, as organizer, was instrumental in persuading politicians, administrators, and academics to run segregated classes; and of E. G. Malherbe, who as Rector of the University of Natal from 1943-1965 defended them as the only practical alternative to a segregated university.
Community, identity, and memory: Group Areas and the forced relocation of "Coloureds" to Woodlands, Pietermaritzburg, 1960 - 1990.
(2021) Msweli, Qhelani Banzi.; Vahed, Goolam Hoosen Mohamed.
This dissertation investigated the impact of the Group Areas Act (GAA) of 1950 on the Coloured community in Pietermaritzburg. The implementation of Group Areas resulted in the residents of Pietermaritzburg being rehoused in racially segregated townships and suburbs. The township of Woodlands was established for Coloureds. This dissertation uses oral history and a life history approach, supplemented with archival research, to examine the experience of the Coloured residents of Pietermaritzburg before the implementation of Group Areas, the experience of forced removals, how residents coped with the pain of being moved from their old communities. In contrast, others were pleased with the better quality housing and amenities they were given and how they reestablished aspects of community life in Woodlands, including building places of worship, sport, and education. This study, more broadly, explores the idea of community, showing how it comes into being, race as a social construct as what is considered Coloured has always been subject to change, and the (re)making of Coloured identities that resulted from the residents of Woodlands being placed in a defined physical space and having to work together to build institutions and infrastructure in their township. This study shows that while many take for granted the apartheid-era racial categorisations such as Coloured, African, Indian, and white, identities are multiple and fluid. Group Areas were instrumental in concretising the essence of being Coloured, but in the post-Apartheid period, that category, too, is subject to change. Finally, this dissertation considers the attitudes forged amongst Coloureds concerning the African and Indian residents of Pietermaritzburg in particular, showing that ideas of a racial hierarchy were embraced by some Coloureds and were not confined to whites.
Conflict and collective violence: scarce resources, social relations and the state in the Umzinto and Umbumbulu districts of southern Natal during the 1930s.
(1992) Sithole, Dennis Jabulani.; Nuttall, Timothy Andrew.
No abstract available.
Constraints on multiparty democracy in Zimbabwe: opposition politics and Zanu-PF (1980-2015).
(2018) Rwodzi, Aaron; Vahed, Goolam Hoosen Mohamed.
This study is informed by Gramsci’s hegemony theory complemented by instrumentalism to analyse the constraints on multiparty democracy under the Zimbabwe African National Union Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) government. Zimbabwe since independence in 1980 was led by President Robert Gabriel Mugabe for 37 years up to 2017 when the military edifice deposed him. Electoral contests between the Mugabe-led ZANU-PF and pro-democratic opposition parties, inclusive of those that were formed out of ZANU-PF, gave the opposition no chance of gaining power. The closest the opposition came to winning was the March 2008 harmonised elections when the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) broke ZANU-PF parliamentary hegemony, and when Morgan Tsvangirai beat Mugabe for president, only to be prevented from forming a government on grounds of electoral technicalities. This dissertation is premised on the constraints on the institutionalisation of multiparty democracy in Zimbabwe. It analyses the efficacy of the growing opposition to ZANU-PF rule and how the liberation narrative espoused by ZANU-PF critically hampered the development of democratic traditions. This dissertation contributes to our understanding of attendant challenges to effective multiparty democracy in Zimbabwe in view of the military takeover in 2017. It is a study that transcends the narrow confines of analysing ZANU-PF alone and blaming it for mayhem in the country. Rather, the research posits that the governance crisis in Zimbabwe is a shared responsibility. The shortcomings in the objectives, strategies and modus operandi of opposition political parties in Zimbabwe and the strength of ZANU-PF are analysed. The extent to which opposition parties were sponsored by western countries to effect regime change, and the extent to which their political programmes were largely driven and shaped by internal considerations and reflected the ‘will of the people’, were evaluated. The thesis considers ethnic divisions and post-independence inheritances in making conflict inevitable. It argues that ZANU-PF built up strong liberation narratives designed to entrench its hegemony, with media portrayal of opposition parties and ZANU-PF to serve different ends. Finally, the role of the military in Zimbabwean politics, oftentimes characterised by unremitting violence, is considered as militating against peaceful democratic politics and a smooth political transition after the 2018 elections.

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