H.J. van Aswegen is a South African historian who taught at the Rand Afrikaans University in Johannesburg from 1974 until 2001 and retired as emeritus professor of history. He wrote in Afrikaans for university students at a time when few surveys of African history existed in the language. His Geskiedenis van Afrika: van die vroegste oorspronge tot onafhanklikheid, published by Academica in 1980, is the volume offered here. It was followed by Die geskiedenis van Mosambiek (1982, with G. Verhoef) and Geskiedenis van Suid-Afrika tot 1854 (1989). With Pieter Kapp he later reflected on changing approaches to history-writing in Verandering en vernuwing in geskiedenisbeskouing. He should not be confused with the intelligence historian of the same name who writes on South African espionage.