The South African Historical Society was founded in Bloemfontein on 5 February 1965 on the initiative of the history department at the University of the Orange Free State and led by Professor J.J. Oberholster and Dr M.C.E. van Schoor. 'Obie' Oberholster (1911-1980), a Stellenbosch graduate and former school teacher who had joined the staff of the University of the Orange Free State in 1948 and was to remain there until 1976, is probably best known for his work as Director of the National Monuments Council (1976-1980) and his research into the history of the Free State. 'Tienie' van Schoor was also a historian of the Free State, but in his later research endeavours he became an accomplished historian of the South African War (particularly the career of Christiaan de Wet) and, like Oberholster, he was also involved in the declaration and preservation of historical monuments.

The specific intention of the new society was to promote the interests of professional historians through 'encouraging and effecting professional communication and unity' among them. This was to be accomplished by arranging regular conferences at which papers would be read and by publishing a high quality journal in which to disseminate 'papers and other material in connection with South African historiography and scientific studies of history'. Active historians at universities were the target membership but others working outside the academy, in archives for instance, were welcomed.

The principal objectives of the founders have been adhered to over the years. Renamed the Southern African Historical Society in 2005 and thus representing the entire subcontinent, the Society remains focused on highly qualified professional historians in universities, and the criteria for membership are based on academic qualification and/or professional involvement in historical studies at tertiary level. Frequent newsletters keep members in touch with one another.

Since 1967 the Society has held biennial conferences that have served as regular benchmarks for the quality and scope of academic historical scholarship in the region. The South African Historical Journal has appeared regularly since 1969 and it has become a permanent record of developments in professional southern African historiography. Some subjects have been enduring, such as the social role of historians, the decline of history in universities and schools, the identification of 'trends', censorship and 'relevance'. Other themes – such as pre-colonial African societies, radical historiography, culture and ideology, visual and environmental history – have reflected more closely the broader changes and challenges of South African society over the years.

As Professor Christopher Saunders and Professor Basil le Cordeur have explained in their history of the Society (published in 1986), the Southern African Historical Society had antecedents in other similarly minded societies. The first of these, named the South African Historical Society, was founded in 1913 by George Cory, Eric Walker, J.L.M. Franken and Christopher Bird, with George McCall Theal as first President. Despite its wide agenda, including the preservation of buildings and documents, the collection of oral history as well as manuscripts, the encouragement of research and publication and the monitoring of history at school level, the society disintegrated for a number of reasons during the First World War. In 1937 another society came into existence, the Historical Society of South Africa, championed by Miss Marie Kathleen Jeffreys – Cape Town archivist, Africana collector, poet, essayist and pioneering genealogist whose aim was to deflate the myth of white racial purity – but it was not sufficiently resilient to survive the Second World War. The first historical journal, Historiese Studies, emanating from the Transvaal in the wake of the Voortrekker centenary celebrations, was started by Professor I.D. Bosman of the University of Pretoria and lasted from 1939 to 1949. In 1956 the Historiese Genootskap van Suid-Afrika was launched with the broad mandate to encourage the study of history among high school learners, university students and the public at large. It is pleasing to record that the Genootskap and its journal, Historia (1956), are still in existence and flourishing and that there are joint initiatives between the Society and the Genootskap.

While the Genootskap met the need for encouraging history at school level and among Afrikaans-speaking South African historians and school teachers, together with anyone interested in history, the Southern African Historical Society filled a niche by catering solely for academic historians and through the publication, from the outset, of a journal of international quality. The Society prides itself in continuing this tradition for almost half a century.

For details about the history of the Society until the mid-1980s, see C. Saunders and B. le Cordeur, 'The South African Historical Society and its antecedents', South African Historical Journal, 18, 1986:1-23, and also A. Wessels, 'Professor M.C.E. ('Tienie') van Schoor', Historia, 52(2), 2007:274-276.