Editorial

Abstract

The complicated wealth of human history associated with the eastern coastal region of southern Africa, currently the province of KwaZulu-Natal (KZN), seems impossible to exhaust. Diverse and integrated historiographies have demonstrated the region to be an enduring theatre of local and global processes of change, its distinctive aspects evoked by key words like Mfecane, Empire, indirect rule, amakholwa and indenture, among others. Here in KZN, local traditions of oral stories, history-telling, academic history writing, and both public and scholarly debates about the past stand out for their complexity, their passion and their relevance to the politics of the present. That relevance has been notable during this year, 2021, with a series of acute and unfolding events in KZN: contentions – with violence and assassinations – over tenders and resource extraction, and elite and international corporate interests driving them; the death of the Zulu King in March and the succession crisis; the reinvigoration of traditions; a spurious but energetic ‘diamond’ rush, fueled by COVID-19-related economic downturn; and – perhaps most spectacularly – the civic mobilisation, insurrection and violent strife that followed (former) President Jacob Zuma’s incarceration for contempt of court during corruption hearings. Such dramas demonstrate how patterns of social, economic and political reality in KZN remain crucial in driving broader trends in South Africa, with legacies that are the product of (and also pre-date) colonialism and apartheid. Historical narratives also constitute a resource in newly brokered identity politics within the new relations and economies of change. Given these realities, it is ironic, as well as sorrowful, to announce the effective end of an academic journal that has been dedicated to exploring the region’s histories. This double issue of the Journal of Natal and Zulu History (JNZH) represents the final volume in a run of annual issues that began in 1978. In another sense, it may be that this is simply a new phase in the life of the journal. Happily, the full archive of JNZH will remain available on the Taylor & Francis (T&F) website, found here: https://www.tandfonline.com/loi/rnzh20. The South African Historical Journal (SAHJ) archive will include a link to this page, and all members who have SAHJ access will have access to JNZH also. Thanks to the generous sponsorship of the Southern African Historical Society, the SAHJ plans to preserve the legacy of the JNZH project also by continuing to consider submissions in the subject area, and perhaps publishing themed special issues in future (as the most recent SAHJ has. And the next SAHJ includes a roundtable on the recent crises in KZN as well as Gauteng).