Over 600 luminescence ages have to date been published from southern Africa's continental dunefields and isolated dunes, providing a rich record of aeolian system dynamics during the Late Quaternary. The majority of records come from sites within the five linear dune-dominated dunefields of the Kalahari, with lesser representation of other major dune areas, including the Namib and West Coast dunefields, and of other dune types, including lunettes and transverse forms. Dune database records are analysed not only in terms of the evidence they provide for Late Quaternary environmental changes over the last 190 ka, the purpose for which most ages have been produced, but in terms of the analytical techniques used, data quality and data presentation, as these all impact on how dune luminescence ages have been, or should be, interpreted as a tool for palaeoenvironmental and dune development studies.