OPINION: As a man with a great sense of occasion, it is an apt coincidence that Selfe retired during the week that we celebrate the 25th anniversary of our democracy’s founding document.
Thula Simpson’s new book, History of South Africa from 1902 to the Present, is an event-packed narrative history. It is reminiscent of the style of Eric Walker’s History of Southern Africa eight decades ago – a very influential book, prescribed for many university history classes – except this time black South Africans are central to the story, not confined to its margins. The author, an associate professor at the University of Pretoria, most recently published the book, Umkhonto we Sizwe: The ANC’s Armed Struggle, in 2016. This was also written in an event-by-event narrative style.