Turning Points in History - Bk. 1 : Ancient Civilisations and Global Trade

This first volume in the series, "Turning Points in History", highlights two important events that occurred prior to the arrival of Europeans in South Africa - farming and globalisation.

These were not sudden turning points; they took place over a long period of time and had tremendous impact.

Although presented separately, these two turning points are in fact linked.

Farming allowed for specialisation, accumulation of wealth and trade.

Without all that, globalisation would not have occurred.

By highlighting these 'points' in history, three things became apparent.

The first is the complexity of the South African pre-colonial past.

The second is the length of time that South Africa has participated in the global market - we tend to assume that globalisation is a recent phenomenon and ignore the earliest contact with traders who sailed down the east coast of Africa over a thousand years ago.

The third is the way in which the pre-colonial past has been misrepresented, distorted or ignored in order to serve political agendas in the present.