'The year 2024 marks the bi-centenary of two publications of literary significance: The South African Commercial Advertiser and The South African Journal, the latter title originally envisaged as ‘The South African Literary Journal.’ Both were published in the British Cape Colony and provoked confrontation between the governor, Lord Charles Somerset, and the editors Thomas Pringle and John Fairbairn together with the printer George Greig. The confrontation – authority versus the right of independent opinion – bankrupted the settler, Pringle. The struggle for a free press would be continued to success, nonetheless, by Fairbairn. (South Africa continues to enjoy a free, even a combative press.) While contributions ranged somewhat haphazardly from affairs in the colony to news from metropolitan centres, Tony Voss perceives in these publications the tentative beginnings of a ‘South African imaginary.’' (Publication summary)
