Ettore Morelli

Come, come to Pavia next summer!! #ASAI #Africa #Conference #ASAI2026 #CFP

Nestled in the Shashe-Limpopo area, Mmamagwa was a significant satellite site of the ancient Mapungubwe Kingdom. Today, Mmamagwa is part of UNESCO Tentative List site of Mapungubwe Cultural Landscape spanning Botswana, South Africa and Zimbabwe.
#UNESCO #BotswanaSouthAfricaZimbabwe #Mapungubwe

Karimjee Hall, National Archives UK reference CO 1069-157-91

Ceremony of the donation of Karimjee hall to the legislative assembly ©Karimjee Group

Abdulkareem Y.A. Karimjee presiding over Tanganyika’s independence ceremony ©Karimjee Group

Karimjee Hall today ©Dar es Salaam City Council

Karimjee Hall, built in 1916, began as the mainland mansion of the Gujarati-Zanzibari Karimjee family, traders between East Africa and India. Donated to Dar es Salaam, it became Tanganyika’s first parliament and Nyerere’s swearing-in site. #NationalmuseumofTanzania #Zanzibar #Historicalbuildings

there's an actual genre of analysis that acknowledges that for generations people used to buy and sell other humans, aided by a comprehensive system of apartheid that continued for generations later, but nevertheless blames the resurgence of open bigotry on a decade or so of cringe Tumblr posts

This looks like a great book that I should read!

New Publication from ASCL!

Windvogel en Cupido delves into the origins of Dutch-sounding Khoisan surnames in South Africa. What do names like these reveal about identity, history, and shared cultural heritage between South Africa and the Netherlands?

This looks amazing!!

In our latest #OA Featured Review, Khwezi Mkhize explores “Written Out: The Silencing of Regina Gelana Twala” (@ohiounivpress.bsky.social) by Joel Cabrita:

bit.ly/4eNh9Iq

#SouthAfrica #biography #arts #apartheid

Aerial view of a small downpour of rain released from white clouds over a body of water next to two open mine pits and urban settlements.

A brief highveld summer shower over Wesselton Mine in Kimberley. No challenge for the might of the thirstland.

I wrote and edited most of African Thresholds while physically crossing the border, on the train to and fro my academic home @geschichtebasel.bsky.social – a very privileged crossing. The book would not exist without the comfort, support, and intellectual stimulation I found in Basel. Thanks!

Framed clipping from a newspaper on a tiled wall. The newspaper is the Colesberg Advertiser dated 9.4.1867 Text of the article: "The Wonderful South African Diamond. There is a story this morning afloot in the village. It has just been told us by a lady, and we give it just as we have heard it. A Mr. John O'Reilly, a hunter. explorer, &c., something of the Dr. Livingstone stamp, though not yet quite so well known, in his travels in the North Country-somewhere about the Orange River, picked up a stone two or three months since, which he thought had something remarkable about it, and brought it down with him. It was shown to several persons here, and was at length sent down to Dr. Atherstone of Grahamstown to be examined, and as the lady told us, a letter has come by this morning's post from the Doctor, saying that it is a Diamond and worth £800 .- Now we quite expect that the "Great Eastern" will have a grand laugh at us about the South African Diamond, as he did some time ago about the Orange River Serpent-but we have stated the report just as we have heard it .-- Stranger things, how- ever, have come to pass in the world than the discovery of Diamonds in South Africa."

The first press report on the discovery of diamonds in South Africa in 1867, which concluded:

"Stranger things, however, have come to pass in the world than the discovery of Diamonds in South Africa"

Thanks!! The very first idea of this book started to take form when I was a PhD student there with you @soasuni.bsky.social @soashistory.bsky.social, so you have a big part in this (but no responsibility as the saying goes 😅)

The book is the product of the collective effort of a bunch of great scholars: Fernando Mouta, Pierluigi Valsecchi, María José Pont Cháfer, Giulia Casentini, and Aimé Raoul Sumo Tayo contribute with a wonderful chapter each 🤓

African Thresholds: Borders and Places of Passage in Africa, <i>c.</i>1450 to Present "African Thresholds: Borders and Places of Passage in Africa, <i>c.</i>1450 to Present" published on 23 Jun 2025 by Brill.

I truly cannot find a better way to start this profile than by announcing the publication of my first (edited) book, which came out with @dgb-history.bsky.social a few days ago. Thanks to the support of the @snsf.ch, the book is freely available here:

brill.com/display/titl...