The wider KwaZulu-Natal region circa 1700 to the onset of colonialism: a critical essay on sources and historiography

This dissertation is an extended essay dealing with historical productions on the late independent era (the late “pre-colonial” epoch) of the wider KwaZulu-Natal region. The project pays particular attention to the development of the historiography and examines how it has shaped and in turn been shaped by the source material over time. Attention is also drawn to issues with terminology and disciplinary convention, including the distinction which is traditionally made between ‘primary' and ‘secondary' sources. The dissertation's scope extends beyond the discipline of history to interrogate how influences from the fields of anthropology, art history, archaeology, and literary criticism have shaped the production of history. It also examines the productions of African intellectuals whose works were excluded from the discipline of history during the late colonial and apartheid eras. Among other things, this essay draws attention to historiographical breaks in the literature and considerers where paradigm shifts and epistemic ruptures can be discerned.

Grantor

Department of Historical Studies

Year dc:date.issued

2020

Author dc:creator

• Fagan, Henry Allan

Advisors dc:contributor.advisor

• Mulaudzi, Maanda
• Hamilton Carolyn

• independent era
• KwaZulu-Natal region

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/11427/32619

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/32619