A History of the University College of Fort Hare, South Africa, the 1950s: The Waiting Years

Williams (emeritus, history, U. of Calgary) was the first lecturer of this South African school’s department of history during a decade which reflected changes under the country’s apartheid system. Dominating his memoir of the school’s politics, personalities, and principles is its forced conversion in 1959 from a school of higher education established in 1916 under missionary auspices mainly for Native students but open to all, into a tribal college for Black students only answerable to the White National Party government. It was not until 1991 that Fort Hare regained its status as a “people’s university.” The narrative concludes with the author’s 1960 departure to Oxford U. Includes illustrations of campus buildings and protests; maps, and a table showing student ethnic grouping trends. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)