In the age of the African Renaissance, southern Africa has needed to reinterpret the past in fresh and more appropriate ways. The last 500 years represent a strikingly unexplored and misrepresented period which remains disfigured by colonial/ apartheid assumptions, most notably in the way that African societies are depicted as fixed, passive, isolated, un-enterprising and unenlightened. Five Hundred Years Rediscovered: Southern African Precedents and Prospects represents the first step, taken by a group of archaeologists and historians, to collectively reframe, revitalie and re-examine the last 500 years. By integrating research and developing trans-frontier research networks, the group hopes to challenge thinking about the regions expanding internal and colonial frontiers, and to broaden current perceptions about southern Africas colonial past.