Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-dh8gc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-13T00:55:05.887Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Teaching South African History in the Digital Age: Collaboration, Pedagogy, and Popularizing History

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 March 2020

Abstract

The digitization of African materials has made it easier than ever for students to engage with primary source documentation and undertake original research. Digitizing sources and using digital sources to teach African history has great pedagogical value, but must be done ethically. This article suggests a model for collaborative and publicly-engaged scholarship, demonstrating the potential of transnational projects and shared knowledge production while maintaining sensitivity towards questions of the hegemony of the North. The study draws on experience of a virtual internship project between North American-based university students and the South African non-profit South African History Online (SAHO).

Résumé:

Résumé:

La numérisation de documents africains a permis plus facilement que jamais aux étudiants et chercheurs d’utiliser des sources directement produites en Afrique et d’entreprendre une recherche originale. La numérisation de ces sources et leur utilisation a une grande valeur pédagogique pour enseigner l’histoire de l’Afrique, mais cette utilisation doit être effectuée de manière éthique. Cet article propose un modèle de travail scientifique collaboratif et public, démontrant le potentiel des projets transnationaux et de la production de connaissances partagées tout en conservant une sensibilité aux questions de l’hégémonie du Nord. L’étude s’appuie sur l’expérience d’un projet de stage virtuel entre des étudiants basés en Amérique du Nord et le site à but non lucratif: South African History Online (SAHO).

Type
Digital History
Copyright
© African Studies Association, 2020

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Achebe, Nwando, Adu-Gyamfi, Samuel, Alie, Joe, Ceesay, Hassoum, Green, Toby, Hiribarren, Vincent and Kye-Ampadu, Ben, History Textbook: West African Senior School Certificate Examination (2018), https://wasscehistorytextbook.com/, accessed 3 February 2019.Google Scholar
Alegi, Peter, “Podcasting the Past: Africa Past and Present and (South) African History in the Digital Age,” South African Historical Journal 64–2 (2012), 206220.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ampofo, Akosua, Adomako, “Re-Viewing Studies on Africa, #Black Lives Matter, and Envisioning the Future of African Studies,” African Studies Review 59–2 (2016), 729.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bambo, Natasha, Chisholm, Linda, Friedman, Michelle and Sindoh, Anyele Queenta, “Decolonising the Teacher Education Curriculum: Mapping the Status and Nature of Teaching and Learning of History in Faculties and Schools of Education in South Africa” (Report funded by the South African National Institute for Humanities and Social Sciences, May 2017).Google Scholar
Barringer, Terry, Damen, Jos, Limb, Peter and Wallace, Marion, “Introduction,” in: Barringer, Terry and Wallace, Marion (eds.), African Studies in the Digital Age: DisConnects? (Leiden/Boston: Brill, 2014), 111.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bleck, Jamie, Dendere, Chipo and Sangaré, Boukary, “Making North-South Research Collaborations Work,” PS: Political Science & Politics 51–3 (2018), 554558.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Breckenridge, Keith, “The Politics of the Parallel Archive: Digital Imperialism and the Future of Record-Keeping in the Age of Digital Reproduction,” Journal of Southern African Studies 40–3 (2014), 499519.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Britz, Johannes, and Lor, Peter, “A Moral Reflection on the Digitization of Africa’s Documentary Heritage,” IFLA Journal 30–3 (2004), 216223.10.1177/034003520403000304CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chisholm, Linda, “South Africa Wants to Make History Compulsory at School. But Can it?” The Conversation (1 June 2018), https://theconversation.com/south-africa-wants-to-make-history-compulsory-at-school-but-can-it–97633, accessed 23 June 2018.Google Scholar
Cohen, Daniel, and Rosenzweig, Roy, Digital History: A Guide to Gathering, Preserving, and Presenting the Past on the Web (Philadelphia PA: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2006).Google Scholar
Cook, Peter A.W., A History of South Africa for Native Schools (London: Longmans/Green and Co., 1932).Google Scholar
Cummings, Alex Sayf, and Jarrett, Jonathan, “Only Typing? Informal Writing, Blogging, and the Academy,” in: Dougherty, Jack and Nawrotzki, Kristen (eds.), Writing History in the Digital Age (Ann Arbor MI: University of Michigan Press, 2013), 246258.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dingake, Michael, Better to Die on One’s Feet (Cape Town: South African History Online, 2015).Google Scholar
Dougherty, Jack, and Nawrotzki, Kristen (eds.), Writing History in the Digital Age (Ann Arbor MI: University of Michigan Press, 2013).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Getz, Trevor, A Primer for Teaching African History: Ten Design Principles (Durham NC: Duke University Press, 2018).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gwala, Mafika Pascal, Collected Poems (edited by Sitas, Ari) (Cape Town: South African History Online, 2016).Google Scholar
Hamilton, Carolyn, Harris, Verne, Pickover, Michele, Reid, Graeme, Saleh, Razia and Taylor, Jane (eds.), Refiguring the Archive (Dordrecht: Springer Netherlands, 2002).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hamilton, Carolyn, Harris, Verne and Reid, Graeme, “Introduction,” in: Hamilton, Carolyn, Harris, Verne, Pickover, Michele, Reid, Graeme, Saleh, Razia and Taylor, Jane (eds.), Refiguring the Archive (Dordrecht: Springer Netherlands, 2002), 718.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hamilton, Carolyn, and Leibhammer, Nessa, Tribing and Untribing the Archive: Identity and the Material Record in Southern KwaZulu-Natal in the Late Independent and Colonial Periods (Pietermaritzburg: University of KwaZulu-Natal Press, 2016).Google Scholar
Hangen, Tona, “Historical Digital Literacy, One Classroom at a Time,” Journal of American History 101–4 (2015), 11921203.10.1093/jahist/jav062CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harle, Jonathan, “Dazzled by Digital? Research Environments in African Universities and Their Implications for the Use of Digital Resources,” in: Barringer, Terry and Wallace, Marion (eds.), African Studies in the Digital Age: DisConnects? (Leiden/Boston: Brill, 2014), 3960.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Isaacman, Allen, Lalu, Premesh and Nygren, Thomas, “Digitization, History, and the Making of a Postcolonial Archive of Southern African Liberation Struggles: The Aluka Project,” Africa Today 52–2 (2005), 5577.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jacobs, Sean, “Journal Work: Africa Is a Country,” Small Axe 20–2 (2016), 5257.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jeater, Diana, “Data, Data Everywhere, but Not a Byte to Think,” in: Barringer, Terry and Wallace, Marion (eds.), African Studies in the Digital Age: DisConnects? (Leiden/Boston: Brill, 2014), 6177.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kelly, T. Mills, “Tomorrow’s Yesterdays: Teaching History in the Digital Age,” in: Pegrum, Mark and Lockard, Joe (eds.), Brave New Classrooms: Educational Democracy and the Internet (New York: Peter Lang, 2006), 213224.Google Scholar
Kelly, T. Mills, Teaching History in the Digital Age (Ann Arbor MI: University of Michigan Press, 2013).Google Scholar
Kubheka, Thando, “Task Team Recommends History Be Made Compulsory at Schools from 2023,” Eyewitness News (31 May 2018), http://ewn.co.za/2018/05/31/task-team-recommends-history-be-made-compulsory-at-schools-from–2023, accessed 23 June 2018.Google Scholar
Lalu, Premesh, “The Virtual Stampede for Africa: Digitisation, Postcoloniality and Archives of the Liberation Struggles in Southern Africa,” Innovation 34–1 (2007), 2844.Google Scholar
Limb, Peter, “The Digitization of Africa,” Africa Today 52–2 (2005), 319.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Limb, Peter, “Concluding Remarks,” in: Barringer, Terry and Wallace, Marion (eds.), African Studies in the Digital Age: DisConnects? (Leiden/Boston: Brill, 2014), 244254.10.1163/9789004279148_015CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Limb, Peter, “The Politics of Digital ‘Reform and Revolution:’ Towards Mainstreaming and African Control of African Digitisation,” Innovation 34 (2007), 1827.Google Scholar
Limb, Peter, “Introduction: Digital and Numerical Sources,” in: Spear, Thomas, Mitchell, Peter, de Luna, Kathryn, Vaughan, Olufemi, Limb, Peter and Waller, Richard (eds.), African Histories: Methods, Sources, and Historiographies 1 (New York: Oxford University Press, 2019), 819826.Google Scholar
Limb, Peter, Knight, Richard and Root, Christine, “The Global Antiapartheid Movement: A Critical Analysis of Archives and Collections,” Radical History Review 119 (2014), 161177.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lowe, Chris, Brimah, Tunde, Marsh, Pearl-Alice, Minter, William and Muyangwa, Monde, “Talking about ‘Tribe,’” Background Paper 010, Africa Policy Information Center (1997), http://africanactivist.msu.edu/document_metadata.php?objectid=32–130–153D, accessed 5 April 2018.Google Scholar
Maaba, Lucius Bavusile, “The History and Politics of Liberation Archives at Fort Hare,” PhD dissertation, University of Cape Town (Cape Town, 2013).Google Scholar
Mbali, Fanele, In Transit - Autobiography of A South African Freedom Fighter (Cape Town: South African History Online, 2012).Google Scholar
Mfenyana, Sindiso, Walking with Giants (Cape Town: South African History Online, 2012).Google Scholar
Noble, Safiya Umoja, Algorithms of Oppression: How Search Engines Reinforce Racism (New York: NYU Press, 2018).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
O’Connell, Siona, “No Hunting: Finding a New F. Stop for the Bushmen,” MP thesis, University of Cape Town (Cape Town, 2008).Google Scholar
O’Connell, Siona, “No Hunting;” Lorraine Dong, “The Economics and Politics of International Preservation Collaborations: A Malian Case Study,” Archival Science 12–3 (2012), 267285.Google Scholar
Peterson, Bhekizizwe, “The Archives and the Political Imaginary,” in: Hamilton, Carolyn, Harris, Verne, Pickover, Michele, Reid, Graeme, Saleh, Razia and Taylor, Jane (eds.), Refiguring the Archive (Dordrecht: Springer Netherlands, 2002), 2937.10.1007/978-94-010-0570-8_3CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pickover, Michele, “Negotiations, Contestations and Fabrications: The Politics of Archives in South Africa Ten Years after Democracy,” Innovation 30 (2006), 111.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pickover, Michele, “The DISA Project. Packaging South African Heritage as a Continuing Resource: Content, Access, Ownership and Ideology,” IFLA Journal 34–2 (2008), 192197.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pickover, Michele, “Patrimony, Power and Politics: Selecting, Constructing and Preserving Digital Heritage Content in South Africa and Africa,” paper presented at IFLA WLIC (Lyon, 2014), http://library.ifla.org/1023/1/138-pickover-en.pdf.Google Scholar
Pickover, Michele, and Peters, Dale, “DISA: An African Perspective on Digital Technology,” Innovation 24–1 (2002), 1420.Google Scholar
Qabula, Alfred Temba, Collected Poems (edited by Langa, Mandla and Sitas, Ari) (Cape Town: South African History Online, 2016).Google Scholar
Rosinbum, John, “Teaching with #DigHist: Introducing a New Series on Using Digital Projects in the Classroom,” AHA Today (blog) (23 August 2016), http://blog.historians.org/2016/08/teaching-with-digital-history/, accessed 17 July 2018.Google Scholar
Ryan, Deirdre, “Aluka: Digitization from Maputo to Timbuktu,” OCLC Systems & Services: International Digital Library Perspectives 297326 (2010), 2938.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Samoff, Joel, and Carrol, Bidemi, “The Promise of Partnership and Continuities of Dependence: External Support to Higher Education in Africa,” African Studies Review 47–1 (2004), 67–199.10.1017/S0002020600027001CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Saunders, Chris, and Deacon, Andrew, “Aluka Exercises: Learning through Describing Historical Documents,” Aluka Award report (2007), http://psimg.jstor.org/fsi/img/raw/pdf/2007_Chris_Saunders_report.pdf, accessed 18 July 2018.Google Scholar
Schmidt, Heike, “The Future of Africa’s Past: Observations on the Discipline,” History in Africa 34 (2007), 453460.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sitas, Ari, Flight of the Gwala Gwala Bird (Cape Town: South African History Online, 2016).Google Scholar
Stolten, Hans Erik (ed.), History Making and Present Day Politics: The Meaning of Collective Memory in South Africa (Uppsala: Nordiska Afrikainstitutet, 2007).Google Scholar
Theimer, Kate, “A Distinction Worth Exploring: ‘Archives’ and ‘Digital Historical Representations,’” Journal of Digital Humanities 3–2 (2014), http://journalofdigitalhumanities.org/3–2/a-distinction-worth-exploring-archives-and-digital-historical-representations/, accessed 17 July 2018.Google Scholar
Wainaina, Binyavanga, “How to Write about Africa,” Granta 92 (2005), https://granta.com/how-to-write-about-africa/.Google Scholar
Williams, Daryl, “Digital Approaches to the History of the Atlantic Slave Trade,” in: Spear, Thomas, Mitchell, Peter, de Luna, Kathryn, Vaughan, Olufemi, Limb, Peter and Waller, Richard (eds.), African Histories: Methods, Sources, and Historiographies 1 (New York: Oxford University Press, 2019), 866879.Google Scholar
Witz, Leslie, Minkley, Gary and Rassool, Ciraj, Unsettled History: Making South African Public Pasts, African Perspectives (Ann Arbor MI: University of Michigan Press, 2017).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zeleza, Paul Tiyambe, “The Politics of Historical and Social Science Research in Africa,” Journal of Southern African Studies 28–1 (2002), 923.CrossRefGoogle Scholar