Jacob Dlamini

Jacob Dlamini (born 1973) is a South African journalist, historian and author. An assistant professor of history at Princeton University, he specialises in African history. He has written four books about South African political and social history, each of which seeks to complicate popular narratives about Apartheid and black experience in South Africa.

Biography Dlamini grew up in Katlehong, a township outside of Johannesburg, during Apartheid. He studied English literature and political science at the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits), graduating in 2003 with a bachelor's degree and Honours degree, and has master's degrees from the University of Sussex and Yale University. In 2012 he received a doctorate in history from Yale. Before becoming a historian, he had been a journalist in South Africa – he was political editor and columnist at the Business Day newspaper, and also wrote for the now defunct The Weekender.

Works Dlamini has said that he aspires towards "understanding the centrality of race while also understanding that race doesn't explain everything" – that is, he aspires to resist race reductionism in explaining social and historical phenomena and in interpreting agents' motives and experiences. Closely related is his concern with the parts of the individual's private life and psychology that cannot be subjected to the total control of a state, racial system, or ideology. The "fantasy" of effective totalitarian state power, he says, has survived in South Africa as a holdover from the Apartheid era, though the impossibility of such a fantasy is probably precisely what accounts for the collapse of Apartheid. André du Toit has called Dlamini South Africa's "first major post-apartheid historian," It presents a nostalgic account of his own childhood under Apartheid, challenging the one-dimensional depiction of Apartheid-era townships as devoid of moral, cultural, and aesthetic activity. It argues that the nostalgia felt by many black South Africans for their lives under Apartheid (and for the Afrikaans language) can coexist with a moral and political denunciation of Apartheid, and challenges the notion that the Apartheid system was totalising and totally oppressive for those who lived under it. and received mixed reviews. Eusebius McKaiser said it "delivers reflective insights with rhythmic beauty," and Hermann Giliomee lauds it for acknowledging the agency of black people living under Apartheid. Ross Truscott said it is "fascinating" but "small and perhaps hastily written." Some, however, said it is "reactionary" or "sickening." In response, other critics suggested that Dlamini's detractors had misinterpreted the book, taking him as an apologist for Apartheid.

Askari (2014) Askari: A Story of Collaboration and Betrayal in the Anti-Apartheid Struggle (2014) investigates the life of Glory Sedibe, also known as Comrade September, a member of the African National Congress (ANC) and senior Umkhonto we Sizwe operative who in August 1986 was abducted by an Apartheid death squad, led by Eugene de Kock. Under torture, Sedibe informed on his ANC comrades, becoming an askari or spy, and ultimately an assassin, for the Apartheid state. The Daily Maverick called it "deeply unsettling reading," and complimented it for "subverting the neat binaries of South African history."

Safari Nation (2020) Safari Nation: A Social History of Kruger National Park (2020) discusses black people's tourism and leisure activities in the Kruger National Park, as well as broader African environmental history and the history of African environmental thought and migration. Dlamini intended the book to tell "the 'black history'" of the park, not in order to usurp the "dominant 'white history'" but to illuminate the complexity and significance of the park's history. It was also shortlisted for the Sunday Times CNA Literary Award for Non-fiction. It received favourable reviews.