I

Over the past two decades, many South African historians, like their peers elsewhere in the world, have been absorbed in analysing problems associated with nationalism, race, and identity formation. Questions about the process of national imagining have transformed our understanding of nationalism and ethnic identity, especially in relation to Africans and Afrikaners. Yet the larger categories of ‘South Africa’ (as a nation-state) and ‘South Africans’ (its constitutive peoples) have largely been taken for granted or else addressed only in passing. Given the stress on nation building in contemporary South Africa, as well as growing sensitivity around issues of citizenship, race, belonging, and entitlement, there is a palpable need to explore such questions historically.