Historian of South Africa (1945–2017)
Philip Lewis Bonner (31 March 1945 – 24 September 2017) was a historian of South Africa. He was an Emeritus Professor at the University of the Witwatersrand with a focus on labour and urban history.
Academic career
Bonner was hired in 1971 in the history department of the University of the Witwatersrand to establish African history as a scholarly field.[1] His early work was concerned with the Swazi Kingdom in the nineteenth century,[1] and resulted in his first monograph, based on his doctoral thesis, published in 1983.[2][3] In 1977, following the Soweto uprising,[4] Bonner was involved in the founding of the History Workshop at the University of the Witwatersrand,[5] and was its chair from 1987–2012.[1] Inspired by the History Workshop Journal at the University of Oxford,[4] the scholars at Witwatersrand championed local social history[6] and emphasised the use of oral testimonies.[7] He was chair of the group from 1987 until 2012.[1] From 1979, Bonner sat on the editorial board of the South African Labour Bulletin.[8] Between 1998 and 2003, he was head of the History Department at Witwatersrand.[5] In 2007, Bonner was awarded a National Research Foundation Chair in Local Histories and Present Realities, which he held until his retirement in 2012.[5]
Beyond academic writing, he was involved in the development of the Apartheid Museum in Johannesburg,[7] and was the historical consultant on a documentary series about Soweto.[9]
Trade union activism
In addition to his academic activities, Bonner was involved in worker education and trade unions,[2] affiliated particularly with the ideology of 'workerism'.[10] In the 1980s, he served as the education officer for the Federation of South African Trade Unions.[5]
