The contribution of the HSRC to research on the history of the South African liberation struggle, 1969-2019

Abstract

Research on South African history at the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) reached a high point during the 1970s after the establishment and expansion of the Institute of Historical Research (Van Eeden 2014). However, the bulk of the research conducted by the Institute was on regional histories (Van Eeden in Chapter16 in this volume) and others that 'concerned the genealogy of Afrikaans-speaking families; what studies were done of black, Indian and coloured societies were with in a determinedly ethnic paradigm, and the like' (Miller, 1988, cited in Chisholm &Morrow; 2007: 53).1 Dominated largely by Afrikaner academics, the preoccupation with the history of Afrikaners at the Institute mirrored that of most Afrikaner academics at the time. The significant body of research into, and scholarship on the history of the South African liberation struggle2 came largely from academics based at the historically white English-speaking and black universities, from those active in the liberation struggle, and from academics based in institutions abroad.