Vivian Bickford-Smith is an extraordinary professor in the History Department at Stellenbosch University. He has published extensively on nineteenth- and twentieth-century South African history, especially in the area of urban history and social identities. His publications include three books on the history of Cape Town; Black and White in Colour: African History on Screen; and, most recently, The Emergence of the South African Metropolis: Cities and Identities in the Twentieth Century (2016).