Keukentafel economics and the history of British Imperialism*

Abstract

I visited South Africa for the first time in September of 2006, thanks to Grietjie Verhoef and a great number of hosts around the country, for nearly two and a half weeks. In that time I watched some South African TV in English, and when English subtitles were provided I could follow the Afrikaans soap operas, too, noting the interesting contrasts with Dutch. I spoke at some length about the country with a couple of dozen South Africans. I read hurriedly most of Robert Ross's Concise history of South Africa and some of Leonard Thompson's A history of South Africa, as well as certain relevant parts of the Lonely Planet's travel guide to South Africa. On Professor Verhoef's recommendation I bought and read Robert Guest's The shackled continent. And I have at last bought Nelson Mandela's autobiography and some poetry in Afrikaans.