Precolonial African Historiography as a multidisciplinary project

Abstract

In this historiographical article we analyse the three sources from which historians obtain their material for the research of the Bahurutshe (a subgroup of the Sotho-Tswana of South Africa) in the precolonial era: oral tradition, archaeological studies of Iron Age sites, and the oldest written accounts by European visitors to the Marico. We show that because the Batswana were non-literate societies before the nineteenth century, the study of their early history is a multidisciplinary project requiring the inputs of anthropologists, archaeologists and linguists. To produce a cohesive narrative of African precolonial history is an arduous task, but the history of precolonial African societies has major significance in the bigger picture of the (South) African past and informs ongoing discourses about the history of the region. We argue that Hurutshe history fits into the broader pattern of South African history and has relevance for the understanding of current debates around controversial issues such as ethnicity and land claims.