Journal preface

Recently the Academy of Science of South Africa (ASSAf) produced a consensus report on the standing, and the editorial policies and practices of historical journals published in South Africa, including our predecessor, the Journal for Contemporary History. The findings and recommendations of this report, to be published soon on the ASSAf website, vindicate the decision that we took last year to introduce our editorial changes at one go, rather than making piecemeal changes.Our “new broom” approach meant that we did struggle to assemble an issue in December 2019 with a sufficient number of good quality historical pieces.However, the success of our first issue, founded -we believe – on a clear editorial vision and some very good articles which showcased a diversity of historicalscholarship drawn from across the continent, meant that we have received far more submissions for this issue.Then in March, as the covid-19 pandemic arrived, South Africa entered a hard lockdown and universities closed. I must thank our authors and reviewers,and also the editorial collective and production staff for their role in putting together this issue under the most trying circumstances