Founded at the University of the Western Cape in 1979 as 'A Journal of Cape History/Joernaal vir Kaapse Geskiedenis', Kronos has transformed over the last decade. In 2001 the UWC History Department took over editorship of the journal and employed a professional designer who still works on the journal. In 2006 the newly created Centre for Humanities Research at UWC joined in the production of the journal. In 2008 the journal was renamed to indicate its expanded regional focus to southern Africa as a whole, changing its title to Kronos: Southern African Histories. In 2009 the journal’s Editorial Board was expanded to eighteen members including scholars with expertise in the histories of Namibia, Zimbabwe, Malawi and Botswana across the disciplines of history, anthropology and sociology. In June 2010 the Journal went Open Access on the Scielo platform and in 2011 became accessible on JSTOR. In 2012 a five-member Editorial Collective was appointed, comprising four editors and a review editor. The Journal will soon be accessible via EBSCO Host. The Journal is published annually in December.

The journal’s areas of interest are Southern African history, visual history, social history, cultural history, history and anthropology.

Its abbreviated title is Kronos., which should be used in bibliographies, footnotes and bibliographical references and strips.