In Between Black and White: Remembering the Early Histories of South African Indians, the author Kyllian Pather traces the long history of Indians from the Indian sub-continent in Southern Africa and South Africa. Pather argues that histories documenting the South Africa Indian story remain preoccupied with interactions with colonial Britain. As a result, most histories of South African Indians explore on the period of indenture and do so working from a British Imperial framework. Additionally, Pather suggests that South African Indian histories often pay too much attention to the involvements of Mohandas Gandhi, at the behest of other actors and voices. Moreover, Pather argues that a misconception exists around the first interactions between Indians and Southern Africa being the 1860 migration under the auspices of British Indenture. Instead, Pather claims that an early history of trade between the two regions stretches back as far as the first millennium and that before British Indenture, the Dutch slave system brought Indians to South Africa in the 15th Century. Ultimately, in this work, Pather aims to give a voice to those who he claims have been misrepresented or silenced in histories written about South African Indians. Through challenging the way we write and why we write history, he attempts to write a history that is conscious of subjectivities, emotion, and the broader array of historical sources available to a historian.
"},{"label":"Degree","value":["Bachelor of Arts with Departmental Honors"]},{"label":"Author-supplied Keywords","value":["South African Indian","Historical writing","Indentured labor"]},{"label":"Administrative Note","value":"Drupal Node ID: 24274