Philip Bonner


Philip Lewis Bonner 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. His early work was concerned with the Swazi Kingdom in the nineteenth century, and resulted in his first monograph, based off his doctoral thesis, published in 1983. In 1977, following the Soweto uprising, Bonner was involved in the founding of the History Workshop at the University of the Witwatersrand, and was its chair from 1987–2012. Inspired by the History Workshop Journal at the University of Oxford, the scholars at Witwatersrand championed local social history and emphasised the use of oral testimonies. He was chair of the group from 1987 until 2012. From 1979, Bonner sat on the editorial board of the South African Labour Bulletin. Between 1998 and 2003, he was head of the History Department at Witwatersrand. In 2007, Bonner was awarded a National Research Foundation Chair in Local Histories and Present Realities, which he held until his retirement in 2012.
Beyond academic writing, he was involved in the development of the Apartheid Museum in Johannesburg, and was the historical consultant on a documentary series about Soweto.

Trade union activism

In addition to his academic activities, Bonner was involved in worker education and trade unions, affiliated particularly with the ideology of 'workerism'. In the 1980s, he served as the education officer for the Federation of South African Trade Unions.

Major publications