https://ir.unisa.ac.za/handle/10500/4165 2026-05-14T09:48:31Z 2026-05-14T09:48:31Z Cuthbertson, Greg https://ir.unisa.ac.za/handle/10500/14555 2015-10-13T11:11:17Z 1992-01-01T00:00:00Z

Cape slave historiography and the question of intellectual dependence Cuthbertson, Greg Since the appearance of Peter Novick‘s influential study on American historical writing,’ historians have been driven back to consider the nature of their craft, but more significantly, also to take stock of recent historiography. Most of all, Novick has made us look at what historiography is and how history is produced, which has sparked a vigorous methodological debate. His book appears to have added impetus to Colin Bundy’s recent evocative essay, which compares historical writing in the United States (US) and South Africa2 Bundy’s purpose was to compare equivalent historiographical schools in order to elucidate their ideological contexts and highlight the particular contribution of social history in these respective historiographies. His contribution is singular in its attempt to offer a synthesis, in contrast to the more limited scope and aims of the other articles. In this, Bundy went beyond a mere comparison for comparison’s sake, to a profound exploration of how history is produced in particular situations. It is remarkable, however, that American slave historiography was omitted from Bundy’s analysis, especially in view of the sheer size and intellectual weight of scholarship on the history of slavery in the US since the 1950s. One explanation for this omission may be that Bundy does not consider the swelling historiography on Cape slavery to be of equal significance.

1992-01-01T00:00:00Z Mouton, F.A. https://ir.unisa.ac.za/handle/10500/3942 2015-10-13T11:12:07Z 2009-01-01T00:00:00Z

R v Malan (1901) : politics, justice and the South African war, 1899-1902 Mouton, F.A. On 18 April 1901, in the midst of the South African War, Francois Stephanus Malan (1871-1941), a member of the Cape parliament and editor of Ons Land newspaper, was convicted in the Cape Supreme Court of the criminal libel of General John French and imprisoned for twelve months. The prosecutor, James Rose Innes (1855-1942), was a fellow member of parliament and the Attorney-General in the cabinet of Premier Sir Gordon Sprigg. He was one of the Cape Colony's most respected politicians and would become one of South Africa's greatest judges. That the trial left a lasting wound on Malan is clear from his published memoirs, and the authorised biography written by Bettie Cloete, his daughter. Both these publications argue that his treatment in court was unfair and the prison sentence unreasonable. Together father and daughter created a perception that Rose Innes was a pawn in a politically motivated abuse of the Colony's legal system and that he was used to silence a troublesome critic of British imperial policy in South Africa and the methods used by the British army. By analysing the reasons for Malan's prosecution, as well as by examining the court proceedings, this article will argue that Malan's enduring anger and hurt, combined with the passage of time, distorted his memory of events, and that Rose Innes was unfairly accused of being part of a political trial to neutralise a critic of the British Empire. Journal article

2009-01-01T00:00:00Z