Official records pertaining to blacks in the Transvaal, 1902 - 1907

[摘要] Historians use different types of sources when reconstructingthe past. of the two major categories of sources, the primarysources are of major importance for attaining information, asthey are contemporary to the period which is beingresearched. They are often more reliable than the othercategory, namely secondary sources, which are literallysecond-hand information. However, all possible sources, bothprimary and secondary, must be approached critically so as toobtain a balanced version of the past.In the South African situation, for an extensive period oftime, most of the historical writing on the early periods wasbased on the records which were made by the EuropeanoriginatedWhites who had the advantage of being able to puttheir accounts in writin~. This led to the European-Whiteperspective dominating and monopolising the historiographicalstage for quite a long time. The perspective of theindigenous inhabitants of South Africa had been overshadowedowing to their inability to read and write.The written sources on the Blacks in South Africa date backto the time when the first Europeans set foot here. The earlyEuropean travellers (traders, hunters, natural scientists,etc.) came into contact with the Black communities and theymade records on them. Obviously these travellers based suchrecords on their own interests and also wrote from aEurocentric position, with cultural differences as well asracial prejudices and superior attitudes towards the Blacks.The missionaries, who were mostly of European origin, alsomade records about the Blacks among whom they worked. Themissionaries also had their own agenda, although differentfrom that of the travellers. The records which they keptmostly reflected their fight against what they thought werebarbaric and backward ways of the Blacks' lifestyle.In addition to the records made by the early travellers andmissionaries about the Blacks, there were records which weremade by the Boer and British government officials. In thisstudy the official records pertaining to the Blacks in theTransvaal between 1902 and 1907 are discussed. Firstly, ahistoriographical overview is presented and secondly, theofficial records themselves are analysed and evaluated. Theimportance of those records as sources of information on theBlacks in the Transvaal, especially the Northern Sotho, isevaluated by using different criteria, including thePrinciple of internal criticism. There are numerous flaws andlimitations found in these records about Blacks such ascultural differences, subjectivity, prejudice, bias, etc.However, even though these records contain such flaws, theyare still important sources of information. Their mostimportant value is that they form the basis and point ofdeparture from where historical reconstruction is made.Research, even in future, would still heavily depend on theserecords as sources of information. But, as already pointedout, the information obtained in them has to be tested bydifferent criteria in order to detect the limitations, sothat a more balanced reconstructions can be achieved.

[发布机构] University of Pretoria