The subject group History at the North-West University (NWU) recently hosted Prof Thula Simpson, associate professor of history at the University of Pretoria, as part of the group’s seminar series.
Prof Simpson is also a British scholar who holds a PhD from Birkbeck, University of London, and is the author of the acclaimed book, Umkhonto we Sizwe: The ANC's Armed Struggle.
During the seminar Prof Simpson presented a paper titled “Umkhonto we Sizwe and its Historians: Action, Reaction and Counteraction, c. 1963 to the Present”.
He explored the historiography of the African National Congress's (ANC’s) military wing, Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK). He suggested how future research could utilise untapped archives to fill gaps in the literature.
Prof Simpson's presentation also explored the relationship between scholarly writing on MK and the armed struggle as it played out on the ground. He cited Muriel Horrell, MK's first historian, talking about its conflicts and the first round of the physical war won by the apartheid government. Prof Simpson also highlighted the importance and politicised nature of access to historical records, necessary for telling MK’s history. According to Prof Simpson, tit-for-tat scholarly engagement has characterised much of the writing on MK. While pro-apartheid historians dominated for a time, anti-apartheid intellectuals soon fought back to correct the record and rebut certain canards. Because of the global prominence of third world liberation struggles, MK soon emerged as a prominent topic in the context of the Cold War.
“The collapse of the pro-apartheid school following South Africa's transition to majority rule was significant, and in more recent times scholars have written about MK and gender, the afterlife of the armed struggle and its role in the ANC’s hegemony,” he said.
The next seminar in the series will take place on Wednesday, 31 May, at the NWU’s Potchefstroom Campus with Sune Kleynhans as presenter.
For more information about the seminar series, please send an email to laura.phillips@nwu.ac.za.
Prof Thula Simpson.
