Citizen Historian

Citizen Historian will be going on hiatus for the next 8-10 months whilst I focus on finishing my PhD, but once that is done and dusted we'll be back with a vengeance! We'll still be active on social media, so keep an eye on our Facebook Page and Website for updates and interesting articles! Have a great 2019 and see you all soon!

African Monsters is an anthology that "explores old African myths and monsters in short stories and art." In this special Halloween episode, we interview contributing authors Nerine Dorman and Toby Benet on their chosen African monsters and discuss the mythology surrounding these creatures, identity and death, the nature of writing in general, and how authors explore these various topics.

The Recce is a newly released film that explores various emotional and historical themes against the backdrop of the South African Border War as well as the elite reconnaissance unit known that served during this conflict known as The Recces. In this episode, we interview director Ferdinand van Zyl about his film and also explore his responses to criticism from the Border War veteran community. An enlightening and controversial interview about a very important aspect of South African history.

Today we interview Dr Benjamin Rosman of the CSIR at The University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa. We will discuss AI, robotics, machine learning and all that other neat stuff, and also how this applies to Africa as part of the developing world - and of course we can't forget the big robotic elephant in the room: the dangers of Artificial Intelligence. Will it be our doom or our salvation?

Move over Marvel, Africa has her own superheroes! We interview comic book artists Loyiso Mkize and Clyde Beech, creators of South Africa's popular new superhero Kwezi, on comics, heroes, villains, popular culture, and what this means for Africans worldwide.