F.S. MALAN: 'n oud-joernalis kyk terug/ a former journalist looks back

197pp., illus., hardback, d.w., HiPSA Third Series, No. 5, Cape Town, 2023

The first part of Francois Stephanus Malan's memoir, originally published in Die Huisegenoot in the 1930s. It covers his early life, his education and his career as a journalist and politician from the I880s to the creation of the Union of South Africa in 1910.

Text in both the original Afrikaans and in English translation.

Francois Stephanus Malan (1871-1941) was the editor of Ons Land, a Dutch-language newspaper, leader of the Afrikaner Bond, minister of agriculture in John X. Merriman's government, minister of education and minister of mines in Louis Botha's government, and minister of agriculture under Jan Smuts. He was acting prime minister for eight months while Botha and Smuts attended the Paris Peace Conference in 1919. In 1927 he was elected to the Senate and became speaker in January 1940, a post he held until his death.

F.A. Mouton teaches history at the University of South Africa. His publications include Voorloper; Die lewe van Schalk Pienaar;  Prophet without honour. F.S. Malan: Afrikaner, South African and Cape liberal; Iron in the soul: The leaders of the official parliamentary opposition in South Africa, 1910-1993; The opportunist: The political life of Oswald Pirow, 1915-1959 and The long obedience: The political career of Zach de Beer, 1953-1994.

Elizabeth van Heyningen is an Honorary Research Associate in the History Department at the University of Stellenbosch. Her books include Cape Town The Making of a City and Cape Town in the Twentieth Century (both with N. Worden and V. Bickford-Smith) and The Concentration Camps of the South African War. A social Hhstory. She is joint editor of Selections from the Letters of President M. T. Steyn, 1904-1910.