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Imagining the Cape Colony: History, Literature, and the South African Nation
Imagining the Cape Colony History Literature and the South African Nation Author:David Johnson Examining literary works, histories, travel and mission writings, legal records, journals and diaries, political manifestoes and economic treatises, this study juxtaposes democratic inequalities against economic inequalities to analyse South Africa's colonial past. Johnson takes into account the books of well-known European figures such as Camõe... more »s, Rousseau, Grotius and Adam Smith to the court-room testimonies of Cape slaves and farm-workers in the Cape Archives. By returning to a pivotal moment in South African history -- the Cape Colony in the period 1770--1830 -- when modern definitions of 'nation' and 'colony' were both constituted and contested, this book addresses current debates about nationalism, colonialism and neo-colonialism, and postcolonial and post-apartheid culture.« less