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Dan Feather

@danieljfeather.bsky.social
232 followers 165 following 127 posts

Historian interested in cultural diplomacy, the 'British world', and southern Africa. Attempting to write a book about British-Rhodesian cultural relations during UDI while also examining British policy towards the South African Bantustans

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Dan Feather @danieljfeather.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
EBay purchases to save a trip to the British Library. If any fellow historians of cultural diplomacy want me to look up a specific country in these issue let me know
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Dan Feather @danieljfeather.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Showtime for my first lecture of the new academic year to our new first years
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Dan Feather @danieljfeather.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
We briefly discuss the Trump administration's policy towards SA in the context of the Western Cape secessionist movement
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Dan Feather @danieljfeather.bsky.social · 28/07/2026
Editing the final chapter of my next book, which analyses UK policy towards educational contact with Rhodesia in the 70s. HMG officials engaged with exiled student groups in the UK, the ANC, ZAPU & ZANU so I'm hoping re-reading this will help me get to grips with the tension between these groups
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Dan Feather @danieljfeather.bsky.social · 09/07/2026
Followed by @paulanderson88.bsky.social
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Dan Feather @danieljfeather.bsky.social · 09/07/2026
@andrekeil.bsky.social kicking off the @ljmuhistory.bsky.social and @ljmuirp.bsky.social summer university
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Dan Feather @danieljfeather.bsky.social · 25/06/2026
Great lunch too
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Dan Feather @danieljfeather.bsky.social · 25/06/2026
Great start to the #SAHS2026 conference at the University of Zimbabwe. I’ll be presenting on Britain’s relations with the university in its earlier incarnations from 1963-1980
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Dan Feather @danieljfeather.bsky.social · 21/05/2026
Paraphrasing Enoch Powell was clearly a great move by Starmer…
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Dan Feather @danieljfeather.bsky.social · 27/02/2026
You reap what you sow. Abandon progressive politics and progressive voters will abandon you
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Dan Feather @danieljfeather.bsky.social · 04/12/2025
Trawling through Rhodesian newspapers & television guides for examples of British-made programmes & films that slipped through the sanctions net. Will be a key theme in the final chapter I'm currently writing for my book on British policy towards cultural relations with Rhodesia during UDI
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Dan Feather @danieljfeather.bsky.social · 30/09/2025
Whatever your views on Owen Jones, this is pretty disgraceful. I remember he went the Tory Party conference a couple of years ago, and while I think party grandees just ignored him and left to speak to teenage members, he was allowed to be there for the duration
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Dan Feather @danieljfeather.bsky.social · 09/09/2025
Crisp early morning walk before the first big meeting of the new academic year
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Dan Feather @danieljfeather.bsky.social · 04/09/2025
Last but certainly not least for this plenary @lindsayaqui.bsky.social discussing Geoffrey Howe
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Dan Feather @danieljfeather.bsky.social · 04/09/2025
Followed by Rachel Utley discussing Francis Pym
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Dan Feather @danieljfeather.bsky.social · 04/09/2025
Great talk by FCDO historian Richard Smith on Lord Carington’s time as Foreign Secretary at #BIHG25
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Dan Feather @danieljfeather.bsky.social · 03/09/2025
Reading for the long train journey down to Norwich for the British International History Group conference at the University of East Anglia
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Dan Feather @danieljfeather.bsky.social · 01/09/2025
I'm passed the point of saying I'll never vote for this lot again, to the point I will actively canvas against them. You can't really argue they are better than the alternative when they pander to everything the alternative wants anyway
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Dan Feather @danieljfeather.bsky.social · 27/08/2025
Took a brief interlude from annual leave to deliver an invited talk to lawyers and civil servants in the UK Cabinet Office's Union & Devolution Directorate as part of their 'Constitution School' series
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Dan Feather @danieljfeather.bsky.social · 22/08/2025
We will be running our next event on 23/24 October. This will take place online hosted by Universidad Complutense de Madrid (see CFP below). If you are interested in cultural diplomacy (broadly defined) please consider submitting a proposal.
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Dan Feather @danieljfeather.bsky.social · 18/08/2025
Fascinating that some BBC listeners in UDI Rhodesia basically tuned in because they despised it. The 1960s equivariant of 'hate-following'
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Dan Feather @danieljfeather.bsky.social · 09/07/2025
Only just found this relatively new article by Nick Cull and I'm absolutely buzzing that such an eminent scholar of cultural diplomacy has cited my work! www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
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Dan Feather @danieljfeather.bsky.social · 28/06/2025
Brilliant few days at #BATW25 excellent papers and even better conversations. Not sure I’ll make it as a walking tour guide mind 😂😂
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Dan Feather @danieljfeather.bsky.social · 27/06/2025
Early morning walk to blow off the cobwebs (*post conference meal wine hangover*) before the final day of #BATW25
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Dan Feather @danieljfeather.bsky.social · 03/06/2025
Random archive discovery from KwaZulu research trip: Buthelezi presented prizes at the Daily Star Gold Awards in 1993
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Dan Feather @danieljfeather.bsky.social · 30/05/2025
Back to work after a great research trip to SA. Now all I need to do is incorporate all this new research into a draft article that is already too big
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Dan Feather @danieljfeather.bsky.social · 20/05/2025
Also an added bonus that I’m staying on the hotel where many visiting diplomats and business people were wined and dined. The legacy is clear to see
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Dan Feather @danieljfeather.bsky.social · 20/05/2025
Also an added bonus that my hotel, the former Holiday Inn, was where most visiting diplomats stayed and were wide and dined
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Dan Feather @danieljfeather.bsky.social · 20/05/2025
Also, feels very important visit the heart of ‘Zululand’ and witness how much Buthelezi is still venerated.
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Dan Feather @danieljfeather.bsky.social · 20/05/2025
Having a productive week so far in Ulundi undertaking research for my project on UK relations with the KwaZulu Bantustan
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Dan Feather @danieljfeather.bsky.social · 26/02/2025
More great posters by my L3 Cuban Missile Crisis students
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Dan Feather @danieljfeather.bsky.social · 20/02/2025
I'll be discussing my recently published @batw.bsky.social monograph on Zoom as part of Rhodes University's 'History in the Making' seminar series a 1pm UK time. Feel free to log in at zoom.us/j/95474187273
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Dan Feather @danieljfeather.bsky.social · 12/02/2025
Loving my L3 Cuban Missile Crisis students’ art work on posters this week
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Dan Feather @danieljfeather.bsky.social · 06/02/2025
An excellent student facing round table last night @ljmuhistory.bsky.social followed by today’s @britishacademy.bsky.social and @leverhulme.bsky.social sponsored workshop on cultural diplomacy
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Dan Feather @danieljfeather.bsky.social · 27/01/2025
Sad how excited I am by the purchase of a portable second screen for my laptop
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Dan Feather @danieljfeather.bsky.social · 20/12/2024
Looking at archival catalogue for my next trip to South Africa and stumbled across this. It doesn't really relate to what I'm working on but I have to know why Thatcher was writing to Pieter Dirk Uys' fictionalised alter ego www.theguardian.com/world/2016/m...
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Dan Feather @danieljfeather.bsky.social · 16/12/2024
Some impressively insightful advice for PM Margaret Thatcher from Foreign Sec Geoffrey Howe in 1988 about the potential short-sightedness of forging close ties with Buthelezi and Inkatha
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Dan Feather @danieljfeather.bsky.social · 13/12/2024
Obviously Buthelezi is a problematic figure, but I'm thankful to him providing me with justification for why GB policy both to South Africa and also the Bantustans specifically deserves greater recognition by historians
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Dan Feather @danieljfeather.bsky.social · 12/12/2024
Probably shouldn't admit this but I was today years old when I discovered Wilkinson Sword has not always focussed on making razors but actually used to make... Swords. And it was reading about a request to the UK govt from the Zulu King about buying a new sword that taught me this
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Dan Feather @danieljfeather.bsky.social · 11/12/2024
Interesting that white SA liberals warned British officials that Buthelezi was essentially a spent force by 1990 due to Inkatha violence, and that continuing to court him ran the risk of angering the ANC - the more likely heirs to power
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Dan Feather @danieljfeather.bsky.social · 11/12/2024
While the British political establishment have often heaped praise of FW de Klerk for his role in ending apartheid, they knew fine well he attempted to marginalise the ANC in favour of Buthelezi and Inkatha
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Dan Feather @danieljfeather.bsky.social · 09/12/2024
Just took a seminar analysing Franco-British post-imperial cultural rivalry in Africa then spotted this in FCO files on the KwaZulu Bantustan
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Dan Feather @danieljfeather.bsky.social · 06/12/2024
New title for my next article: 'Britain, Gatsha Buthelezi, and the ''Anglo-Zulu love-hate relationship'''
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Dan Feather @danieljfeather.bsky.social · 05/12/2024
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Dan Feather @danieljfeather.bsky.social · 05/12/2024
Interesting that Inkatha representatives played down their 'moderate' image to British representatives in 1977, while also attacking the West for its lack of support for Black South Africans compared to the Communists
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