Hello. I'm Professor Sandra Swart from the History Department at the University of Stellenbosch.
And my job today is to convince you to study history with us over the next three years.
First I just want to welcome you. I want to welcome you to the university. It's your university once
you're here, you must really make yourself feel part of it.
But it's very important you make some good decisions about what to study and
these are difficult decisions because you don't know what history is going to be like at university.
Let me tell you, it is not like history at school. There are some similarities.
So I think if you loved history at school, you can still study it at university
and pick up on some of the same passions that ignited you at school.
But for those of you that hated history at school, those of you who hated rote learning, or who are tired
of going over the same themes, I think history at university is going to be quite different, and quite exciting.
So where do we start we start with a course called A Brief History of
the Last 5 Million Years, and that's to give you a sense of the basic chronology of human history.
We start really with our earliest ancestor Australopithecus, and we go right up until the present,
because it's very important for me, that you learn.
You learn really how this thing called global history works, and it gives you a skeleton
on which to hang the other parts of history you'll learn over the next three years.
It's a really, really important foundation that can give you.
But we don't stop there. We also want to teach you about, you know, the idea that history is not just one story.
It's actually his stories, there are many stories, there are many debates and controversies
and different schools of thought in history. It's not just simple facts.
And then the third thing I need to do is to teach you historical methods and skills.
I need to teach you the ability to practice this discipline about.
Ad who's going to do it. It's going to be me, I'm Professor Sandra Swart, as I told you.
I've got a PhD in Modern History from Oxford University and while I was doing my PhD in
History I also did an MSc in Environmental Change and Management. So I'm an environmental historian.
I've written a number of books on the history of horses in Southern Africa, on dogs, on the
1914 Boer rebellion, and I've worked extensively really on environmental issues, but particularly
I'm interested in the interface between animals and humans over time.
And even as we speak, I'm working on a book on the long entangled pasts,
the shared relationship we have between humans and baboons. So that's me.
The other lecturer on the course is Dr. Thembani Dube. She's got her PhD
from the University Witwatersrand and her special interests and skills lie in the pre-colonial past.
She's also very interested in issues of identity and belonging - what makes you you.
She has done a lot of work on the history of Zimbabwe, the Kalanga in particular, but also Southern Africa more broadly.
So you'll be getting the two of us for the first six months.
The department has many other good, solid historians and respected academics, but you'll meet them over time.
For the first six months you get me and Dr. Dube.
So what are we going to do, we're going to ask questions.
Can we learn from history? What is civilization? We talk about civilisation; what is it,
why is it so difficult to define? The other thing is, why do civilisations rise and fall?
Are their different theories to explain this, and there I really like to use the example,
particularly of the Roman Empire. It's just a nice example. I also am interested in the
role of the environment has to play in shaping historical social processes, and vice versa.
We also do saleable skills. I want to educate you in the workplace.
So we're going to learn not just about other people and places but we learn from them.
History as a discipline helps us navigate our daily lives and I think it teaches us
to ask questions when we encounter places or people we don't at first understand.
You're going to learn the skills of what questions to ask.
How are these things contextualised? So you will need these skills for the workplace.
But I don't really want to end here. I'm saying Thank You.
I'm saying Dankie. I'm saying Enkosi.
But before I leave you, I want to read you a little manifesto,
that I, as a historian really believe in, and I hope it will inspire you,
as it inspires me, because really what I'm asking you, and you're asking me, why study history?
So let me tell you why I think it's important. I think we must study history because we have to.
It's the way we gain access to the vast laboratory of human experience.
When we study the past we acquire the critical habits of mind.
And the facts about the forces that shape our world, our country, but also ourselves.
And when we leave with this History degree,
we emerge with the skills that enhance our ability to be informed, useful citizens and
develop our critical thinking skills and our sense of how to conduct a rational, persuasive argument.
Sure, it's a useful thing to study. We're going to teach you these saleable skills.
You're going to need them in the workplace someday when you go out there, into this thing called the real world.
But really, some history is necessary in your own personal growth to maturity.
You need it to get beyond being a child. It's part of becoming an adult. Of course, to some of you,
I hope for lots of you, history will also be a beautiful thing. You'll enjoy the journey of
discovery with me, the intellectual challenge. You know, in some ways, it's, it's a detective story.
I like to say that we really, we historians we are really the policemen of time.
It's just that all our cases are cold. I think also that history is going to unlock for you,
new meaning and art in culture, in literature, and even in food, because everything has a history,
and that history matters.
Finally, history focuses on an ethical framework.
It teaches you the meaning of context in understanding other societies, other people,
other places, and in that way it teaches you the skill of empathy, really putting yourself
in another person's body and mind.
I always think that people who have not studied the past, they see the world in two dimensions like a flat photograph.
But historians, see the world in three dimensions.
We see the world as a movie, changing over time.
So sure we see an old woman, but we also see her as a young woman as a baby. Then we see her parents in their society.
Then we see her grandparents and their society. So when we see something, we see it in three dimensions.
So history is not just a discipline, it's a way of seeing the world. So really, you know, to sum up,
when we study history we grow as people, we become better citizens, and we understand
this fragile thing called democracy, the thing that at the moment seems quite under threat.
Of course, we're going to give you the skills for your career development,
but I also want to teach you to have, to use history to enjoy your life more,
to have a richer experience by unlocking arts and culture, literature.
At the same time history is a discipline. It's going to inculcate in us a sense of context,
an ethical framework to promote empathy, and a real understanding of diversity, both past and present.
So you know what we really should be asking is not why should you study history, but how could you not study history.
All right, I'll leave it there. So, thank you, dankie and enkosi.