Museums flourished in post-apartheid South Africa. In older museums, there were renovations on the go, and at least fifty new museums opened. Most sought to depict violence and suffering under apartheid and the growth of resistance. These unlikely journeys are tracked as museums became a primary setting for contesting histories. From the renowned Robben Island Museum to the almost unknown Lwandle Migrant Labour Museum, the author demonstrates how an institution concerned with the conservation of the past is simultaneously a site for changing history.

Leslie Witz is a professor in the Department of History at the University of the Western Cape in South Africa. He teaches African history and public history, and his research focuses on how different histories are created and represented in the public domain. Publications includeApartheids Festival; Hostels, Homes Museum (with Noëleen Murray); andUnsettled History (with Ciraj Rassool and Gary Minkley).

List of illustrations
Preface and Acknowledgements

Introduction: Changing museums, reshaping histories

Chapter 1. Remaking the chameleon: A history of history in South African museums
Chapter 2. History on the beach: Making a museum home in Lwandle
Chapter 3. History at sea: Re-making a museum of eventless history
Chapter 4. A new hippo for a new nation: The journey of a museum across the frontier in post-apartheid South Africa
Chapter 5. The museum, the rabbit and national history: The voice of Robben Island
Chapter 6. We are sick of Van Riebeeck, Van Riebeeck. We want to know our history: Y350? and the re-making of settler histories in post-apartheid times

Conclusion: Museums closing and opening

Bibliography