Theme: Convergences, Complications and Contestations: Hindsight, Insight and Foresight in Southern African Histories

Sol Plaatje University (SPU) will host the biennial conference of the Historical Association of South Africa (HASA) from 30 June to 2 July 2020.

Named after Sol Plaatje, a South African luminary, intellectual, politician, journalist, linguist, translator and writer, it is the first university established in the post-apartheid era.

In many ways a cradle for colonialism, Kimberley is an integral node in the development of the Southern African imperial network. Yet it also represents efforts at mapping a post-colonial intellectual project, not least through the establishment of SPU.

The 2020 HASA conference gives us a platform to reflect on the history of Southern Africa from the combination of a new academic institution emerging from a complex history of oppression, struggle and liberation and its location in a city from which the colonial political-economy of the region was founded.

If history is indeed “an unending dialogue between the present and the past”, this conference will provide us with a unique opportunity to examine the history of Southern Africa within the leitmotifs of hindsight, insight and foresight.

The conference aims to broaden our understanding and perspective of the past by interrogating new modes of knowledge and frameworks of historical analysis.

The nature of the discipline of history is that it is dynamic, characterised by convergences, complications and contestations. It constantly demands revisiting and reimagining the past.

In this and other ways, it encourages us to continue establishing new collaborative fields of scholarly discussion and interaction between international, regional and local specialists on the history of Southern Africa. 

For more information contact the conference organiser at hasa2020@spu.ac.za or visit www.hgsa.co.za.