Busy day: Prof. Patricia Hayes of @uwconline.bsky.social spoke to grad students on using photos as historical sources. Dr Ruhan Fourie @ruhanfourie.bsky.social spoke on “'Oorlog om die Volksiel!': Organised anticommunism & the mainstreaming of the rooi gevaar” with Dr Anell Daries as discussant.

The International Studies Group at the University of the Free State in South Africa is recruiting postdocs in history. This is my old department and I spent three happy years working there.

Latest blog article with @wildpasts.bsky.social On women, rituals and gold mining in Zimbabwe. theconversation.com/rituals-rite...

There seems to be a revival of Day of the Vow gatherings. Historically these celebrations were a cornerstone of Afrikaner nationalistic propaganda which inculcated the idea that the Battle of Blood River (1838) was a triumph of Christian civilisation over African barbarism 🧵1/4

1/ Hi, Bluesky! 👋 I’m a historian from South Africa specialising in Afrikaner nationalism, anticommunism, and the life of Beyers Naudé. My research delves into the intersections of religion, politics, and ideology in 20th-century South Africa. 🧵

Great to be back in an archive! The Dutch Reformed Church Archive in Stellenbosch (with its great staff!) is really a treasure trove for historians of colonial and apartheid South Africa. Here I’m tracing archival bread crumbs on anti-apartheid activist Beyers Naudé.

Breyten Breytenbach has died—this is an interesting piece by Max du Preez from June, about the three Breytenbach brothers: one a general in apartheid South Africa’s army, another a poet and committed opponent of apartheid, and the third a photographer of the violence wrought by that state:

Again sending around this starter pack courtesy of @viewfromargus.bsky.social go.bsky.app/3h6n3YC