When I turned up at university to study history in the early 1980s I was in need of inspiration. Reviewing the optional courses, I despaired of yet again examining the causes of the First World War or nineteenth century parliamentary reform. Important as these were, I felt I had studied nothing else at school – probably because it seemed a good number of my teachers were old enough at least to have served in the trenches if not to have agitated for political reform in the 1830s. So imagine my enthusiasm when I spotted a new course entitled: “South Africa: apartheid and the roots of segregation”. I signed up with alacrity. [Read more…]