The Southern Journal for Contemporary History (SJCH) is a double-blind peer-reviewed journal, published in English, twice a year. Founded in 1975, it is currently published by the University of the Free State, South Africa. With a view to promoting the free circulation of knowledge, the SJCH is published on an open-access platform since 2019.
The journal adopts the traditional definition of African contemporary history as post-1945 history and it will consider submissions relating to pre-1945 African history only if the authors show that the events and dynamics taken into consideration have had a clear impact on the more contemporary period, that is, post-1945. However, the journal will be open to articles that challenge this definition of contemporary African history and that offer a different interpretation. It is our hope the SJCH will become a platform for scholars to discuss these themes and a laboratory to test theories and interpretations surrounding the notion of contemporary African history.
The SJCH also welcomes submissions from outside the discipline of history but with the important proviso that such submissions should be grounded in the unique disciplinary feature of history, namely, the study of change over time. The SJCH also encourages submissions of papers that address theoretical debates relating to the Global South as a whole and others that examine the relationship between Africa and different geographical areas outside the continent. Finally, the SJCH promotes the submission of papers relating to networks, connections, and “circulations” of people and ideas within Africa, across narrow confines of national or regional boundaries, and those connecting the continent with the rest of the world. The journal welcomes discussions related to World History, Global History, International History and Africa’s positioning within these frameworks.