The South African Historical Journal is fully accredited, peer reviewed and internationally regarded as a premier history journal published in South Africa, promoting significant historical scholarship on the country as well as the southern African region. As the journal of the Southern African Historical Society, it has provided a high-quality medium for original thinking about South African history and has thus shaped – and continues to contribute towards defining – the historiography of the region.
Published quarterly, the South African Historical Journal publishes a wide variety of material, encompassing issues ranging in time from those around pre-colonial communities to those pertinent to a society in transition in the early 21st century, the practice and teaching of history and debates about heritage and the commemoration of the past. It includes ground-breaking innovative research, general historical and historiographical overviews, historical debates and rejoinders, interviews with historians and reflections on their work, review articles and critical reviews of important books. It regularly publishes articles in special issues on themes such as: ‘Oral Histories in South Africa’ (2008); ‘Let’s Talk About Bantustans’ (2012); and ’Tswana History’ (2014). All research articles published in the journal have undergone rigorous peer review, based on initial editor screening and anonymized refereeing by at least two referees. The Journal follows a ‘double-blind’ process of evaluation of material: the names of authors are not disclosed to referees, and the identities of referees are not revealed to authors. We request that our referees compile helpful reports which fully motivate their recommendation regarding publication.