Decolonising KhoeSan historiography through community knowledge production partnerships: the case of the A/Xarra Restorative Justice Programme at the University of Cape Town

This talk will share the knowledge production work carried out over the past two years through a partnership between the Aboriginal/Xarra forum and the University of Cape Town’s Centre for African Studies. How did this partnership impact on knowledge production and curriculum transformation in the post #RMF (Rhodes Must Fall) era from 2015 onwards? How does it give meaning to how we understand 'decoloniality' and epistemological justice within an African context? What are the imperatives for 'decolonising' African historiography in South Africa, which this partnership has highlighted?

Dr June Bam-Hutchison is a past Research Associate with IPUP at the University of York. Now at the University of Cape Town, she co-founded and coordinates the A/Xarra Restorative Justice Forum at the Centre for African Studies as part of the national catalytic precolonial research project under the National Institute of Human and Social Sciences and National Research Foundation Chair. Recent publication includes Bam, J., Ntsebeza, L. and Zinn, A. eds., 2018. Whose History Counts: Decolonising African Pre-colonial Historiography (Vol. 3) [African Sun Media, 2018]. Her earlier work includes being the CEO of South Africa's first national History Project (2001-2004), Diversity Manager of the 'London, Sugar and Slavery' permanent gallery  at the Museum of London docklands, and a lead co-ordinator and co-originator of theTurning Points in History series which won the Unesco Peace Education Award for South Africa in 2008. She teaches in African Studies and has been appointed Visiting Professor with Stanford University's Overseas Programme on 'Sites of Memory' since 2014.