On 1 and 2 July, the University of the Free State Department of History hosted an international workshop on the theme of Histories of Childhood and Youth in Southern Africa: From the Precolonial to the Present. The workshop brought together scholars working on aspects of childhood and youth who are based in the region as well as beyond, including South Africa, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Zambia, the United Kingdom, Canada, Germany, and the United States.

Notably, the workshop marked the first gathering of scholars working on the developing theme of histories of childhood and youth in Southern Africa. The participating scholars represented a broad range of research interests, from childhood and institutions to religious constructions of childhood, children and nationalism, children and liberation struggles, and child work. The chronological scope of papers included the precolonial to contemporary times.

The participants were drawn from all stages of research careers, including postgraduate students, emerging scholars, and leading experts in the field. The latter group included the workshop’s two keynote speakers: Prof Nolwazi Mkhwanazi, Professor of Anthropology in the Centre for Advancement of Scholarship at the University of Pretoria, and Prof Ishita Pande, Professor of Post/Colonial South Asian History at Queen’s University in Ontario, Canada.

Over the two days, the workshop’s participants grappled with questions around the historical constructions of childhood and youth over time, and how experiences of childhood and youth have shaped Southern Africa’s changing social and political formations. The delegates also engaged with the question of how a focus on histories of childhood and youth might cause us to rethink the history of the region. Furthermore, the event sought to create a network of scholars working on histories of childhood and youth, and to collaborate on a peer-reviewed, edited book publication.

Co-organised by Dr Rebecca Swartz (UFS), Dr Jared McDonald (UFS), Dr Sarah Duff (Colby College, Maine, United States), and Dr Charmaine Modisane (NWU), the workshop provided a valuable space for the attendees to share their work in progress and to explore new directions for historical research on childhood and youth in Southern Africa. The co-organisers are immensely grateful for the support they received from the Society for the History of Children and Youth (SHCY) and the University of the Free State, in particular the Deputy Vice-Chancellor: Research and Internationalisation, Prof Vasu Reddy.

Opening the workshop on 1 July, Prof Reddy noted “the immediacy of the topic and its currency in Southern Africa’s history, given the critical role played by children and the youth in the movement for social justice. That archive should be revisited in making sense of the future”. He commended the organisers for assembling a diverse range of established and emerging scholars “in a joint effort to break down silos between disciplines and to showcase ideas and methods in a common purpose to rethink the histories of childhood and youth in new, innovative, and refreshing ways”. Prof Reddy also highlighted the value and uses of histories in making sense of local and global challenges, not simply by focusing on the past or the present, but also by sharing our ideas and aspirations for the future.