gradual. It will take time for Africans to acquire professional training and
research experience and to receive appointments that provide opportuni-
ties for historical research.
We may also expect that historical themes that received scant attention
in the past will now come to the fore. Ethnicity is a typical example. Eth-
nic divisions among Africans were so central to the apartheid ideology
that they were taboo for most scholars not tainted by the apartheid
regime. Now, the history of the politicization of ethnicity in South Africa,
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