Field Marshal Jan Christian Smuts, was a South African statesman, military leader and philosopher. In addition to holding various military and cabinet posts, he served as prime minister of the Union of South Africa from 1919 to 1924 and 1939 to 1948.
Hendrik Frensch Verwoerd, also known as H. F. Verwoerd was a South African politician, a scholar of applied psychology and sociology, and chief editor of Die Transvaler newspaper. He is commonly regarded as the architect of Apartheid. Verwoerd played a significant role in socially engineering apartheid, the country's system of institutionalized racial segregation and white supremacy, and implementing its policies as Minister of Native Affairs (1950–1958) and then as prime minister (1958–1966). Furthermore, Verwoerd played a vital role in helping the far-right National Party come to power in 1948, serving as their political strategist and propagandist, becoming party leader upon his premiership. He was the Union of South Africa's last prime minister, from 1958 to 1961, when he proclaimed the founding of the Republic of South Africa, remaining its prime minister until his assassination in 1966.
Apartheid was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa from 1948 to the early 1990s. Apartheid was characterised by an authoritarian political culture based on baasskap, which ensured that South Africa was dominated politically, socially, and economically through minoritarianism by the nation's dominant minority white population. According to this system of social stratification, white citizens had the highest status, followed by Indians and Coloureds, then Black Africans. The economic legacy and social effects of apartheid continue to the present day, particularly inequality.
General elections were held in South Africa on 26 May 1948. They represented a turning point in the country's history, as despite receiving just under half of the votes cast, the United Party and its leader, incumbent Prime Minister Jan Smuts, were ousted by the Herenigde Nasionale Party (HNP) led by D. F. Malan, a Dutch Reformed cleric.
Afrikaner nationalism is a nationalistic political ideology created by Afrikaners residing in Southern Africa during the Victorian era. The ideology was developed in response to the significant events in Afrikaner history such as the Great Trek, the First and Second Boer Wars and opposition to South Africa's entry into World War I.
Colin James Bundy is a South African historian, former principal of Green Templeton College, Oxford and former director of SOAS University of London. Bundy was an influential member of a generation of historians who substantially revised understanding of South African history. In particular, he wrote on South Africa's rural past from a predominantly Marxist perspective, but also deploying Africanist and underdevelopment theories. Since the mid-1990s, however, Bundy has held a series of posts in university administration. Bundy is also a trustee of the Canon Collins Educational & Legal Assistance Trust.
Shula Eta Marks, OBE, FBA is emeritus professor of history at the School of Oriental and African Studies of the University of London. She has written at least seven books and a WHO monograph on Health and Apartheid, concerning experiences and public health issues in South Africa. Some of her current public health work involves the fight against the spread of HIV/AIDS in contemporary South Africa.
Donald Anthony Low, known as Anthony Low or D. A. Low, was a historian of modern South Asia, Africa, the British Commonwealth, and, especially, decolonization. He was the Emeritus Smuts Professor of History of the British Commonwealth at the University of Cambridge, former Vice-Chancellor of the Australian National University, Canberra, and President of Clare Hall, Cambridge.
"The Poor White Problem in South Africa: Report of the Carnegie Commission" (1932) was a study of poverty among white South Africans that made recommendations about segregation that some have argued would later serve as a blueprint for Apartheid. The report was funded and published by the Carnegie Corporation.
The Smuts Professorship of Commonwealth History was established on 25 October 1952 as the Smuts Professorship of the History of the British Commonwealth; it was retitled in 1994. The professorship is assigned to the Faculty of History at the University of Cambridge.
Nigel Worden is a British/South African historian who has researched the history of Cape slavery and the social and cultural history of early colonial Cape Town. He is Emeritus Professor of History and retired from the Historical Studies department at the University of Cape Town, South Africa in 2016. He graduated from Jesus College Cambridge and was subsequently Research Fellow at Clare Hall, University of Cambridge and Lecturer in Commonwealth History at the University of Edinburgh. He holds MA and PhD degrees in History from the University of Cambridge and BA degrees in Art History and Linguistics from the University of South Africa.
James Russell Raven LittD FBA FSA is a British scholar specializing in the history of the book. His published works include The English Novel 1770-1829 (2000), The Business of Books (2007), and What is the History of the Book? (2018). As of 2019, he was Professor Emeritus of history at the University of Essex.
William Beinart is a South African historian and Africanist. He was educated at the University of Cape Town and School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London. He taught at the University of Bristol from 1983 to 1997, and is now a professor of race relations and director of graduate studies at the African Studies Centre, St Antony's College, University of Oxford. His focuses are South Africa and the developments of racism.
Christianity is the dominant religion in South Africa, with almost 80% of the population in 2001 professing to be Christian. No single denomination predominates, with mainstream Protestant churches, Pentecostal churches, African initiated churches, and the Catholic Church all having significant numbers of adherents. Importantly, there is significant and sustained syncretism with African Traditional Religion among most of the self-professed Christians in South Africa.
Eric Anderson Walker was an English historian who served as King George V Professor of History at the University of Cape Town and Vere Harmsworth Professor of Imperial and Naval History at the University of Cambridge. He was a pioneer in writing the history of South Africa and later an important historian of the British Empire, though by the end of his life his work was seen as dated and Eurocentric.
The Tomlinson Report was a 1954 report released by the Commission for the Socioeconomic Development of the Bantu Areas, known as the Tomlinson Commission, that was commissioned by the South African government to study the economic viability of the native reserves. These reserves were intended to serve as the homelands for the black population. The report is named for Frederick R. Tomlinson, professor of agricultural economics at the University of Pretoria. Tomlinson chaired the ten-person commission, which was established in 1950. The Tomlinson Report found that the reserves were incapable of containing South Africa's black population without significant state investment. However, Hendrik Verwoerd, Minister of Native Affairs, rejected several recommendations in the report. While both Verwoerd and the Tomlinson Commission believed in "separate development" for the reserves, Verwoerd did not want to end economic interdependence between the reserves and industries in white-controlled areas. The government would go on to pass legislation to restrict the movement of blacks who lived in the reserves to white-controlled areas.
Peter Marshall is a Scottish historian and academic, known for his work on the Reformation and its impact on the British Isles and Europe. He is Professor of History at the University of Warwick.
Paul Oliver Sauer was a South African Cabinet Minister and lifelong member of the National Party.
Simon Biesheuvel was a Dutch-born South African psychologist. He is considered to be one of the most influential psychologists in the history of South Africa, and a 1991 obituary described him as "the doyen of psychologists in South Africa."
