An exploration of the archive on southern Africa’s past in the pre-colonial era, bringing new ideas about source material and archiving from scholars in southern Africa and elsewhere. It focusses on the question: ‘How do we know, or think we know, what happened in the times before European colonialism?’

List of Illustrations
Acknowledgements
Editorial Note
Map

Part I First Thoughts about the Archive
Chapter 1 Exploring the Archive of the Times before Colonialism — Cynthia Kros, John Wright, Mbongiseni Buthelezi and Helen Ludlow
Chapter 2 A Young Woman’s Journey of Discovery — Cynthia Kros and John Wright
Chapter 3 Where Are the Deep Conversations about the Past? — Cynthia Kros and John Wright
Chapter 4 ‘Ask the Old People’; ‘Ask the Professors’ — Cynthia Kros and John Wright

Part II Commentaries and Conversations
Chapter 5 Notes on a Kholwa Writer’s Life: Magema Fuze — Hlonipha Mokoena
Chapter 6 An Archive in an Old Tin Trunk — Rachel King
Chapter 7 Making ‘Tribal Histories’: The Work of Paul-Lenert Breutz — Fred Morton and Jan Boeyens
Chapter 8 Conversations with Sekibakiba Lekgoathi — Sekibakiba Lekgoathi, Cynthia Kros and John Wright
Chapter 9 Unpacking Olden Times — John Wright

Part III Becoming Explorers
Chapter 10 From ‘Nature Study’ to ‘Nature’s Archives’: My Journey into Environmental History — Muchaparara Musemwa
Chapter 11 Nervously Entering the World of Carl Hoffmann and His Interlocutors — Lize Kriel
Chapter 12 Dreams and Destinies: Stepping into the World of Archaeology — Ndukuyakhe Ndlovu
Chapter 13 Life with the James Stuart Archive — John Wright

Part IV Engaging with Archaeology and Rock Art
Chapter 14 Digging Historic Cave: An Archaeological and Historical Quest — Amanda Esterhuysen
Chapter 15 Storm Shelter: Rediscovering an Archive of Rock Art — Geoffrey Blundell
Chapter 16 A Lion’s Life: Tracking the Biography of an Archaeological
Artefact — Justine Wintjes

Part V Conflicting Opinions
Chapter 17 A Neglected Archive – and an Academic Pact — Sifiso Mxolisi Ndlovu
Chapter 18 Mapungubwe Imagined — Himal Ramji
Chapter 19 Mkhize Historians Dispute the Past — Grant McNulty

Part VI Further Thoughts
Chapter 20 Making Journeys into the Archive — Cynthia Kros
Chapter 21 The Archive in Pictures: Visual Essay — Justine Wintjes

Glossary
Contributors
Index