On the 24th of May 2021, to the day, it will be a hundred years since South Africa’s largest massacre in which more than 200 members of the Israelites church were killed by the Union police. The tragic event has come to be known as the Bulhoek Massacre (Mandew 1997). The killings occurred in Ntabelanga in the Eastern Cape, which is today the seat of a monument commemorating the brutal event. More than a hundred members of the church were wounded and more than 141, including their leader, Enoch Mgijima, were arrested.

In light of the upcoming centenary of the Bulhoek Massacre in 2021, the UP Center for the Advancement of Scholarship together with the Johannesburg Institute for Advanced Study (JIAS), University of Johannesburg, have decided to hold a two-day commemorative conference.

We are hereby making a call for papers aimed in re-examining the significance of the Bulhoek Massacre in (South) African history in general and in (South) African church history in particular. Focussed on the Bulhoek Massacre and related, the papers can be written from the point of view of specific disciplines or across two or more disciplines. In other words, the papers may be theological, sociological, anthropological, historical, psychological or from the point of view of religion studies, law or police science.

When 

The Conference is planned for the 24th and 25th of May 2021.

Where and How 

The conference will take place in two different physical venues as well as online. On the 24th of May, the venue of the conference will be the University of Pretoria, Hatfield Campus. The conference will conclude at the University of Johannesburg on the 25th of May 2021. The conference will be streamed online and some may be broadcast on television and radio media.

Abstract Deadline

Titles and abstracts should be sent to Ms Kirsty Nepomuceno [email protected] and [email protected] by the 15th of January 2021.

Information Contacts

Ms Kirsty Nepomuceno: [email protected]
Ms Vanessa Kennedy: [email protected]

Conference Outcomes

It is intended that, once peer reviewed and revised, the papers delivered at the colloquium will result in a book commemorating the centenary of the 1921 Bulhoek Massacre.

The full call for papers can be found here.