Whose History Counts?

Originally planned as a fact-based book on the pre-colonial history of the Eastern Cape in the true tradition of history, this ground-breaking book focuses on epistemological and foundational questions about the writing of history and whose history counts. Whose History Counts challenges the very concept of “pre-colonial” and explores methodologies on researching and writing history. The reason for this dramatic change of focus is attributed in the introduction of the book to the student-led rebellion that erupted following the #RhodesMustFall campaign which started at the University of Cape Town on 9 March 2015. Key to the rebellion was the students’ opposition to what they dubbed “colonial” education and a clamour for, among others, a “decolonised curriculum”. This book is a direct response to this clarion call.

Lungisile Ntsebeza (email lungisile.ntsebeza@uct.ac.za and lntsebeza@gmail.com) is Professor of Sociology and African Studies at the University of Cape Town. He also holds two Research Chairs: the NRF Research Chair in Land Reform and Democracy in South Africa: State and Civil Society Dynamics, as well as the AC Jordan Chair in African Studies, both located in the Centre for African Studies at UCT. He has conducted extensive published research on the land question in South Africa around themes such as land rights, democratisation in rural areas under the jurisdiction of traditional authorities and social movements in the land sector. He is currently working on the intellectual and political legacy of the world-renowned engaged scholar, Archie Mafeje.

June Bam, PhD. M.Ed (email: june.hutchison@gmail.com and june.bam-hutchison@uct.ac.za) has worked widely in her research field in all provinces of South Africa, and also within African Diaspora scholarship networks (West African, East African and Caribbean communities) abroad. As the former head of South Africa's History Project (curriculum, policy, teacher training, knowledge production, and research), she engaged in a number of local community history and heritage partnership projects. More recently, she worked on the digital Five Hundred Year Archive at the University of Cape Town and is a key member of the Pre-Colonial Catalytic History Project at the Centre for African Studies. She has held Visiting Research Fellowships at the Institute for the Public Understanding of the Past (York University, UK) and in Human Rights at Kingston University (London). Bam is a Visiting Professor with Stanford University.

Allan Zinn (email: allan.zinn@mandela.ac.za) is the Director of the Centre for the Advancement of Non-Racialism and Democracy [CANRAD] at Nelson Mandela University. A Fulbright Scholarship enabled post-graduate studies at Columbia University, USA. He has taught at Columbia, Clark and Rhodes universities. He has had extensive experience in the NGO and donor-funded sectors, working for the Educational Support Services Trust (ESST) and the IMBEWU II Programme in the Eastern Cape. Zinn has published and edited materials in the Education, Gender Equity and Sports arenas.