Museum Times

Leslie Witz is a professor in the Department of History at the University of the Western Cape in South Africa. He teaches African history and public history, and his research focuses on how different histories are created and represented in the public domain. Publications include Apartheid’s Festival; Hostels, Homes Museum (with Noëleen Murray); and Unsettled History (with Ciraj Rassool and Gary Minkley).

List of illustrations

Preface and Acknowledgements



Introduction: Changing museums, reshaping histories



Chapter 1. Remaking the chameleon: A history of history in South African museums

Chapter 2. History on the beach: Making a museum home in Lwandle

Chapter 3. History at sea: Re-making a museum of eventless history

Chapter 4. A new hippo for a new nation: The journey of a museum ‘across the frontier’ in post-apartheid South Africa

Chapter 5. The museum, the rabbit and national history: The voice of Robben Island

Chapter 6. ‘We are sick of Van Riebeeck, Van Riebeeck. We want to know our history’: Y350? and the re-making of settler histories in post-apartheid times



Conclusion: Museums closing and opening



Bibliography