Black men in a white man's war: the impact of the First World War on South African blacks

African Studies Seminar series. Paper presented August, 198

Tracking down historical myths

No abstract available

Rebuffing Royals? Afrikaners and the royal visit to South Africa in 1947’

This article traces the responses of Afrikaners to the symbolism and political purposes of the 1947 royal visit to Southern Africa, the first post-war royal tour and the first visit of a reigning sovereign to the Union of South Africa. Taking place in the aftermath of a war that had caused bitter political divisions within Afrikaner ranks and stimulated radical populist nationalism, a royal tour intended to express the crown's gratitude for South Africa's participation in that war was bound to be contentious. Drawing on press accounts, biographies, autobiographies and archival sources, this article argues that the layered reactions of Afrikaners demonstrate that, even on the eve of the National Party's electoral victory on a republican and apartheid platform, attitudes towards monarchy and the British connection were more fluid and ambiguous than either contemporary propaganda or recent accounts have allowed. The diverse meanings attributed to this iconic royal tour reveal a process of intense contestation and reflection about South Africa's place in an empire that was in the throes of post-war redefinition and transformation, and confirm recent characterisations of the 1940s as one of manifold possibilities such that outcomes, like the electoral victory of the National Party in the following year, was far from pre-determined

Iron in the Soul: The Leaders in the Official Parliamentary Opposition in South Africa, 1910-1933

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The riddle of Rosalind Ballingall : poster girl for hippie counterculture in Cape Town in the late 1960s

CITATION: Grundlingh, A. 2017. The riddle of Rosalind Ballingall : Poster girl for hippie counterculture in Cape Town in the late 1960s. New Contree : A journal of Historical and Human Sciences for Southern Africa, 78:1-23.The original publication is available at https://dspace.nwu.ac.zaThis article examines the short-lived hippie phenomenon in Cape Town during the late 1960s through the lens of the disappearance of a young woman from the University of Cape Town in the Knysna forests in 1969. It seeks to explain the dynamics of a particular kind of emerging culture and the way it was infused by public mystifications and conceptions of hippies. In doing so it has two aims in mind, namely to account for an apparent historical puzzle and to cast light on a largely forgotten dimension of white social history.https://dspace.nwu.ac.za/handle/10394/25933Publisher's versio

Pitfalls of a profession : Afrikaner historians and the notion of an "objective-scientific" approach in perspective

CITATION: Grundlingh, A. 2020. Pitfalls of a profession : Afrikaner historians and the notion of an "objective-scientific" approach in perspective, in Jansen, J. & Walters, C. (eds). 2020. Fault lines : a primer on race, science and society. Stellenbosch: SUN PReSS, doi:10.18820/9781928480495/05.The original publication is available at https://africansunmedia.store.it.si/zaFrom about the 1930s until late into the twentieth century, professional historical writing in Afrikaner circles was closely linked to the universities, and the universities in turn played a significant role in promoting the wider nationalist enterprise. History was regarded as a crucial discipline: the past was needed to legitimate the present. In an influential text written in 1941 on Afrikaans universities, the importance of the past was emphasised in near-religious terms: the “calling” and “destination” of the Afrikaner people were predetermined by their past and the “volk” therefore had a duty to honour and obey the sanctity of that past.Publisher's versio