This year’s summer school took place at the History Workshop, University of Witwatersrand, one of the oldest and most reputed research centres on social history in the African continent. In the following text, we share a glimpse of the days we spent in Johannesburg—our visits, discussions, and encounters that made this experience so rich.
Day 1
The Women at Work team (Domenico Cristofaro, Juliet Tiwaah Gyabeng, Daniel Worku Kebede, Adèle Hasnaoui, Anne Hugon, Karin Pallaver, Barbara Wabuyele, and Elena Vezzadini) was joined by a delegation from Standford University, including Rachel Jean-Baptiste (who has generously co-sponsored the summer school) along with Lucy Stark and Ayana Omilade Flewellen; the group included as well Mariam Sharif, from the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales. The programme was created by Noor Nieftagodien, chair in Local Histories and Present Realities at Witts, with the helpful assistance of Nonkululeko Smara Botile.
On the first day, we started the programme at the History Workshop, Faculty of Humanities, where Noor Nieftagodien, Arianna Lissoni, and Ali Hlongwane introduced us to the origins of this pioneering research centre. In the morning, we heard about the history of the History Workshops and some of its most important initiatives in people’s/public history. Noor gave us a comprehensive presentation about this historical centre (available here). You can hear his presentation here. Arianna Lissoni introduced to us her own research, but also the history and development of the SAHA—South African Historical Archive—a crucial archive of the Apartheid struggle, of which she is the coordinator. Finally, Ali Hlongwane, historian, founder and curator of the Hector Pieterson Memorial in Soweto, introduced to us to its history and to his participation in its collective creation.
That afternoon we stepped in the Origins Centre, exploring South Africa’s prehistory and the story of the first humans who once lived here. We debated about the section the San “original inhabitants” of South Africa, and the red line that the museum creates between the origins of the humankind and the history of the San people, which was at stride with the decolonial epistemologies we were grappling with the whole day. We nevertheless thank the truly enthusiastic guide who showed us around.
Day 2
The following day took us to Soweto, and it was a day that left no one untouched, thanks to Ali Hlongwane who was our guide. We first visited the Funda Centre, a community arts centre founded in 1984 to provide theatre, music and visual arts training to black South African youth—challenging the dominant educational and cultural forms of the apartheid era. Although funding constraints today limit its range, the centre retains a symbolic role in the arts and community education. Then we moved to the Hector Pieterson Memorial, where we were confronted with the weight of the 1976 student uprising and massacre. This incredibly detailed memorial includes an extraordinary collection of documents, pictures, interviews, sounds, objects, texts carrying the memories of witnesses of the Soweto uprising, all accompanied by thorough descriptions reflecting the complexity of the events and the multiplicity of actors. A powerful example of public history, the visit showed how a museum can be the expression of a struggle and the people who carried it. The museum does not give voice only to one dominant vision but allows for contradictions and a multiplicity of points of view, while being very rigorous in terms of historical research. When we left the museum, we met Antoinette Sithole, Hector’s sister, who appears in the famous photograph of that day by Sam Nzima. This encounter was both humbling and unforgettable.
From there, we moved to the Women’s Jail at Constitution Hill , one of the oldest prisons in South Africa. It opened in 1910, held countless women (ordinary citizens and leading political activists alike) under brutal, inhumane and humiliating conditions. Overcrowded cells, solitary confinement, and inhumane treatment were the rule. The site includes a number of objects, from sanitary pads to toilet buckets, giving evidence of the everyday violence of the place. It also carries a number of interviews with political leaders imprisoned there, but it also recounts the stories of women being imprisoned simply for not having passes or for brewing beer. Today, its preserved walls are a powerful reminder of the brutality of apartheid.
Day 3
Back on campus, on the following day the PhD candidates of the summer school had the chance to sit down with PhD students from Wits and exchanged insights from their own research. The students discussed methodologies, approaches and research questions and presented a part of their empirical material. These conversations were as enriching as the formal seminars that followed in the afternoon, given by Anne Hugon and Rachel Jean-Baptiste. The first presentation was on the social history of the nursing profession in colonial Ghana, while the second was on inter-racial couples in colonial French Africa. For more information see here and here.
We ended the day at the Wits Art Museum, where two exhibitions stood out: 2020 Through the Eye of a Needle: Remembering the Covid-19 Pandemic in 2025 and Serge Alain Nitegeka: Black Subjects. Both challenged us to think about art, memory, and the politics of representation in new ways. Later that evening, some of us attended the screening of a documentary exposing the degrading and inhumane working conditions in South African vineyards—a stark reminder of how the legacies of inequality continue to shape everyday life. You can watch the trailer here.
Day 4
On September 4, it was time to have a closer look at historical sources. At the South African History Archives and the Historical Papers Research Archive at Wits, Arianna Lissoni and Gabriele Mohale walked us through the history of these collections and their vital role in preserving South Africa’s past. The South African Historical Archive is a public archive, originally situated in an independent location outside Witts, but then relocated there few years ago. It was created by anti-apartheid activists, and its collections are crucial in the struggle for redressing the crimes of the apartheids (see in particular the Freedom of Information programme). It also holds an important dimension of public history: several of its publications targets schools and communities, to raise awareness about the how past struggles are a heritage to be defended as well as being tools and visions for those of the present day.
Of particular mention is the collection of T-shirts of the struggle, records and posters, which cast light on the importance of popular culture in the political struggle. In the example below, we see the t-shirt of Matthew Goniwe, who was kidnapped and then brutally murdered by the police in 1985 with other three activists.
Similarly, the Historical Papers Research Archive is an old and large archive of South Africa’s struggles, actually keeping hundreds of thousands of documents from more than 3400 collections. Gabriele Mohale, the archivist, also took the time to show us and describe several moving documents from the apartheid time, such as the picture of Kas Maine, recounted in the exceptional work of Charles von Onselen, or the journal Learn and Teach, which aimed at adult education, while having a very progressive and anti-apartheid agenda; but also the work of Ernest Cole and the making of the documentary about him (Ernest Cole, Lost and Found, by Raoul Peck, 2024), anti-apartheid choirs, and so on.
After this intense morning, the day continued at the Apartheid Museum, where we spent several hours which nevertheless were not enough. This internationally renowned institution traces the rise and fall of apartheid through a rich and detailed documentation, including photographs, films, testimonies, and immersive displays. Its architecture and exhibition design take visitors on an emotional journey, making it one of the most important sites of memory in the country. It was a strong experience for all the participants to walk through the exhibition, organised chronologically decade after decade, following the trial of violence but also that, very important, of resistance in all its forms.
Day 5
The next day, we were back at Wits for new presentations. Liesl Orr, trade union activist, presented a wonderful project of inter-generational archive preservation of female trade union activists; this was followed by the talk of Karabo-Maya Rodwell & Unjinee Poonan respectively the first a researcher on female activism in the Pan Africanist Congress and the second an activist, witness and former political prisoner member of the Black Consciousness movement. In a presentation that left no one unmoved, they discussed inequality, Black Consciousness in South Africa, brutality, repression, resistance and the role of women in political action under apartheid, as well as the gender-specific risks of political participation.
In the afternoon, we took the time to reflect on the summer school with the WomatWork team, our hosts Noor and Ali, and Annael Le Poullennec, the director of IFAS, who had offered us practical advice and shared suggestions for scientific and cultural events in Joburg throughout our stay. That evening, as if to balance the intensity of the day, we gathered at the Afrikan Freedom Station for a jazz concert. Listening to the Umuthiomkhulu Ensemble’s experimental sounds was the perfect way to end the night.
Day 6
Our final day, September 6, was spent exploring Johannesburg itself. Noor guided us through the city, while our driver, Abraham, navigated us through its many neighbourhoods. We first followed Louis Botha Avenue, the historic road linking Alexandra township to the city centre, passing through neighbourhoods shaped by Jewish, Italian, and West African immigration. From the heights of Upper Houghton, we glimpsed the exclusive suburbs where wealthy white residents historically settled—close to the city centre, yet deliberately separated from the Black populations below. We then stopped in Mayfair, a southern Joburg neighbourhood home to large Indian and Muslim communities, to explore a market. Heading north, we passed areas marked by extreme poverty, before reaching the gentrified and trendy neighbourhood of Greenside, then ending our tour in Sandton, the city’s financial hub, famously dubbed “Africa’s Richest Square Mile”—a striking symbol of the city’s extreme social and economic inequalities. Seeing Johannesburg through Noor’s eyes—its layered history, extreme inequalities, struggles and resilience—gave an additional spatial dimension to the discussions we had during the whole week.
Thanks to Anne Hugon, some of us also had the opportunity to visit the exhibition Junkyard Dogs, featuring works by Pitika Ntuli and Willie Bester. The show brought together sculpture and assemblage art created from scrap metal, bones, and found objects, addressing themes of apartheid violence, social inequality, and resilience. Both artists are known for transforming discarded materials into powerful political statements, and the exhibition was a striking reminder of how art can both preserve memory and challenge injustice.
The visit concluded six days filled with emotions, discoveries, conversations, and unforgettable encounters, reminding us how struggles bound together the past and the present. Many of us left Johannesburg inspired by the way South African historians use history to question inequalities and give voice to ordinary people’s experiences. The week also offered a powerful lesson on how issues of class, race, and gender intersect—pushing us to think more critically about the narratives we build and the histories we tell.
A special, heartfelt thank to the driver, who brough us around everywhere in Joburg. Thank you Abraham!
