Winter update from the Ruth First Papers Project

The project team working on the Ruth First papers digitisation project recently sent out an update as the project enters the winter term and resumes digitisation after a summer hiatus. We're pleased to share this report:

Mozambique trip for RFP researchers

Following on from Matt’s trip to the CEA and the IESE in September, Leo, Vanessa and Virgilio will be attending a Ruth First memorial conference in Maputo in late November. The conference is titled ‘Os intelectuais Africanos face aos desafios do século XXI’ and runs from the 28th to 29th of November. The team will also present to the CEA in a plenary session on the 27th.

Virgilio will remain in Maputo until February, conducting a survey of the materials held in the CEA archives.

Read more about the conference on the CEA’s website.

Read about Matt’s trip to Moambique and South Africa in September on the project blog.



Video from the 90 Days film screening

A recording of the talks at the film screening on the 17th of August is now available via the School of Advanced Study YouTube channel. The event featured director Jack Gold in conversation with Professor Philip Murphy and Gavin Williams in conversation with Leo.

Watch the video here.




ICwS seminars for your diary

There are two upcoming seminars in the Institute related to the project:

Songs and Secrets: South Africa from Liberation to Governance

26 November 2012, 17:30, ICwS G22/26. Barry Gilder (former intelligence chief in post-apartheid South Africa) will discuss his new book Songs and Secrets: South Africa from Liberation to Governance. The session will be chaired by Dr Sue Onslow (Senior Research Fellow and Co-Investigator, Commonwealth Oral History Project).

The Commonwealth in the World: resistance, governance and change, 'Ringtone and the Drum: West Africa on the Edge'

17 January 2013, 5.30pm, ICwS. Author Marc Weston will talk about the modernisation process in West Africa and his new book Ringtone and the Drum.

Bloomsbury Festival: 20th-21st October 2012

The Bloomsbury Festival 2012 will take place on the weekend of the 20th October celebrating the cultural organisations, community groups, creative individuals and iconic institutions of this little-known corner of central London.

From dance to drama, poetry to performance, art to architecture and workshops to walks it’s already promising to be another exciting year with programming taking place across the whole area

Below are listed some exhibitions and talks celebrating some of the Institute's library and archive collections. For a full listing of events please explore: http://www.bloomsburyfestival.org.uk/

Exhibition: Ruth First's Extraordinary Life
Sat 20 Oct 11:00-17:00 at Senate House

Sun 21 Oct 11:00-16:00 at Senate House

Anti-apartheid activist Ruth First dedicated her life to “the liberation of Africa for I count myself an African, and there is no cause I hold dearer”. She was passionate about achieving justice in South Africa, but her perspective was international. First saw activism, solidarity work, research and writing as essential activities for a revolutionary. She was assassinated in 1982 by a letter bomb sent by the South African secret service. The Institute of Commonwealth Studies is digitising this extraordinary woman’s papers. This exhibition of Ruth First’s papers, photographs and archival material at Senate House offers an introduction to both First herself and her important works, which retain their relevance, especially in the light of recent democracy movements across northern Africa and beyond.


Talk: A Revolutionary Life

Sun 21 Oct 11:00-11:30 at Senate House

This talk introduces Ruth First and offers an insight into her multifaceted, revolutionary life as an international scholar, activist and writer, and wife and mother

Talk: Introduction to the Ruth First Archive


Sun 21 Oct 14:00-14:30 at Senate House

This talk will introduce the archive of Ruth First's collection of papers, included her collected writings, published journalism, correspondence and notes.

Talk: Ruth First and Bloomsbury

Sun 21 Oct 15:00-15:30 at Senate House

Following her arrest under the South African 90-day law, Ruth First was barred from her profession as a journalist; she went into exile and moved to London. This talk discusses First's intellectual associations with Bloomsbury.

Exhibition: Campaigning for Independence, Equality and Freedom


  Sat 20 Oct 11:00-17:00 at Senate House
Sun 21 Oct 11:00-16:00 at Senate House

The political archives held in the Institute of Commonwealth Studies library encompass more than 270 boxes of political pamphlets, newsletters and posters from over 60 countries, mainly dating from the 1960s and 1970s, the period when many of these countries were making the transition to independence. The Southern African region is particularly well represented, with materials from an extraordinarily wide variety of different political parties, trade unions and pressure groups having been preserved. This exhibition reveals how these materials are used to convey different messages in different ways and provide an historical insight not found in official archives and records. Curated by Benjamin Coleman and David Clover.

Ruth First articles and book reviews

Today forwarding a post from the Ruth First Papers team

"The Ruth First Papers team would like to introduce a collection, prepared by Routledge, of articles and book reviews that complement Ruth First. Explore the collection today by clicking on the link below.


http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/access/ruth-first.pdf

The Review of African Political Economy has published many articles on Ruth First and they may publish more! Sign up to receive table of contents alerts for this SSCI listed journal today"

Exhibition: Ruth First: A Revolutionary Life. Early Anti-Apartheid Journalism and Activism

To coincide with the Ruth First Papers project symposium, taking place on the 7th of June the Library  has put up a small (two cases) display of material from the Ruth First and related collections.

This exhibition concentrates on the period 1946-1964 when Ruth First was active in South Africa as both journalist and activist and includes material relating to the Bethal farm labour scandal, the Freedom Charter, the Treason Trial, the banning of the Guardian and the subsequent Freedom of the Press Conference of November 1951, Ruth First's journalism, her banning and arrest and detention under the 90-day law.

The exhibition is on the fourth floor of Senate House, in the Membership Hall of the Senate House Library and admission is free (just say at the membership desk you wish to see the exhibition).

SAS-Space: Collection of the Month: Ruth First Papers

Today am very happy to re-blog the SAS-Space Collection of the Month

SAS-Space: Collection of the Month: Ruth First Papers: Our featured collection for June is the Ruth First Papers collection: the collected notes and writings of Ruth First, anti-apartheid activist, investigative journalist, and scholar. First worked her entire life to end apartheid in South Africa. She was exiled from South Africa in 1964, with her husband, the prominent South African communist Joe Slovo, and their children. In 1982, while working in Mozambique, Ruth First was killed by a letter bomb sent by the South African secret service. 2012 is the thirtieth anniversary of Ruth First’s murder.


Part of the Institute of Commonwealth Studies, the project will also host a major symposium on First's work in London on June 7th: see the project site for further details.

The digitisation of the data is ongoing, but the first fruits of the project are now available. They include published writings on Gaddafi's Libya, unpublished writings and correspondence, plus some particularly fascinating scrapbooks of newspaper cuttings from the late 1940s.

African Activist Archive Project

The African Activist Archive Project now has 5,000 digital items in its free, online collection (http://africanactivist.msu.edu/) from the U.S. anti-apartheid and other solidarity movements during the early 1950s to the mid-1990s. It includes documents, posters, photographs, T-shirts, buttons, and audio and video recordings that were produced by more than 260 groups in 35 U.S. states plus the District of Columbia. The archive also includes materials in support of the anti-colonial struggles elsewhere in Southern Africa, especially Namibia, Rhodesia, Angola, Mozambique, and Guinea-Bissau.

Staff at Michigan State University Libraries are continuing to add materials - 1,500 items in 2011 and a planned 1,000 more in 2012, and also continue to contact former activists in the Africa solidarity movement.
In January, the project started a Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/African.Activist.Archive)
highlighting historically interesting and newly added items to the digital collection and pointing to similar archival projects.

Any UK readers with collections of similar material are very welcome to contact David Clover at the Institute of Commonwealth Studies Library

Newly open archives collection - Papers of Ben Turok

Newly opened and made available for researchers are ICS143 The papers of Benjamin Turok.

Benjamin Turok, was born in Latvia, 1927; and came with his family to South Africa, 1934. He was educated at the University of Cape Town; taught in London, 1950-1953; and returned to South Africa in 1953, becoming a full-time political activist: joining the South African Congress of Democrats and in 1955 became its secretary for the Cape western region, and acting as a full-time organiser for the Congress of the People. Turok was one of authors of the Freedom Charter; served with a banning order in 1955; arrested in the Treason Trial in 1956 and stood trial until charges against him were withdrawn in 1958; elected unopposed to represent Africans of the Western Cape on the Cape Provincial Council, 1957. During the 1960 emergency Turok evaded arrest, and went underground to help reestablish the ANC organisation; in 1962 he was convicted under the Explosives Act, and sentenced to three years in prison; after his release he escaped via Botswana; and resident in the UK from 1972 and employed by the Open University. He returned to South Africa in 1990; and was the first Head of the Commission on the Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP) in the Gauteng Provincial Cabinet, 1994; and a member of the South African Parliament, representing the African National Congress, from 1995-present (2012).

The papers of Benjamin Turok, were held by the Institute of Commonwealth Studies and the originals returned to Turok after his return to South Africa, with a microfilm copy made and kept to provide access to researchers.  The papers relate to his political involvement in South Africa (1961-1981) and include biographical tapes and transcripts (1983-1984); African National Congress (ANC) speeches, publications, press releases, and other material, 1971-1981; papers of the Institute for Industrial Education, Durban, 1974-1978; papers of the Communist Party of South Africa, 1978 and undated; papers of the South African Congress of Trade Unions, 1971-1973; correspondence, 1971-1980, with Oliver Tambo and others, mainly on ANC activities; transcripts and audio tapes of biographical material.

Nelson Mandela Digital Archive Project.

The Nelson Mandela Digital Archive Project is now available online from the Nelson Mandela Centre of Memory and the Google Cultural Institute. The exhibition brings together 2000 documents, photographs and videos from all the key moments of his life, including his childhood, imprisonment and Presidency. Material included includes manuscripts of his autobiographical writings, calendars kept while in prison, diaires from the Presidential years, correspondence, video and photographs. The project is still in progress and more material is expected to be added over time.


The Nelson Mandela Centre of Memory delivers the core-work of the Nelson Mandela Foundation. The Foundation is a not-for-profit organisation established in 1999 to support its Founder’s ongoing engagement in worthy causes on his retirement as President of South Africa. The Foundation is registered as a trust, with its board of trustees comprising prominent South Africans selected by the Founder.


The Centre of Memory was inaugurated by Nelson Mandela on 21 September 2004, and endorsed as the core work of the Foundation in 2006. The Centre focuses on three areas of work: the Life and Time of Nelson Mandela, Dialogue for Social Justice and Nelson Mandela International Day. The Centre works closely with its sister organisations, the Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund and The Mandela Rhodes Foundation. It co-ordinates its activities with those of other institutions that have a stake in its Founder’s legacy, including the 46664 Campaign, the Nelson Mandela Institute for Education and Rural Development, the Nelson Mandela Museum and the Robben Island Museum.

New Senate House Library archives collection listed

Recently added to the Senate House Library collection is additional material from the book collector Ron Heisler

The Ron Heisler collection (MS1186) incluides a number of files relating to Commonwealth studies, including material on Sri Lankan Trotskyism, comprising of memoranda, news bulletins, and correspondence, dating from c1975 to 2007; correspondence from c1947-1960 with the South African trade unionist and socialist, Solly Sachs, who was author of The Choice Before South Africa (1952),  The Rebel's Daughters (also called Garment workers in action) (1957),  with L Forman The South African Treason Trial (1959) and The Anatomy of Apartheid (1965); and a number of photographs signed by the New Zealand writer, social reformer and member of the Chinese Communist Party, Rewi Alley.

CFP: The Global Antiapartheid Era: 1946-1994

The Global Antiapartheid Era: 1946-1994 (Radical History Review, Number 119) Call for Proposals



The Radical History Review seeks submissions for an issue on the global politics of the anti-apartheid movement, 1946-1994. The time frame underlines our sense of the global significance of what we call the Anti-apartheid Era, inaugurated by the postwar United Nations debates on discrimination suffered by Indians in South Africa and culminating in the post-Cold War transition to democracy in South Africa during the 1990s. As we see it, this anti-apartheid era encompasses the evolution of the United Nations, decolonization, the Cold War, the founding of the non-aligned movement at Bandung, the rise (and fall) of Third World solidarity structures, the U.S. Civil Rights Movements, Left-Leaning Revolutions, human rights politics, upheavals of the global Sixties, and the onset of neoliberal globalization and offers new ways of connecting and contextualizing these various developments.

In 1990, the same year that Nelson Mandela walked free from prison to celebrations held around the world, the RHR published a double issue on "History from South Africa." The issue was the result of years of collaboration between the History Workshop at the University of Witwatersrand and the American Social History Project. A little over twenty years later, as a companion and follow-up to that volume, RHR is calling for an issue that centers the history of antiapartheid solidarity. One of the most striking developments in historical research and writing over the last twenty years has been the growing interest in international, transnational, and global history. Widening our focus from the struggle against apartheid inside South Africa to a global frame reveals an exciting range of new perspectives.

For example, what happened in South Africa was bound up with struggles and anti-racist/anti-imperialist work across southern Africa and throughout the world. This activism of citizens from dozens of countries and South/ern African exiles took not only local and national forms, but often transnational forms in such initiatives as sports and cultural boycotts, corporate accountability campaigns, and calls for the release of Nelson Mandela that involved coordination across borders and appeals to a global audience. These transnational networks and campaigns were astonishing in their variety, interconnections, and persistence. There is much more to learn about the nature, scale, and scope of the antiapartheid cause, from civic and popular organizing in India, Japan, the Caribbean, independent Africa, and the "actually existing" socialist countries to the realm of international nongovernmental organizations, such as labor confederations, ecumenical religious councils, and humanitarian, pacifist, and human rights groups, to the formation of a new post-Civil Rights cohort of social activists inside the U.S.

If we borrow from the work of sociologists on global social movements and the global structures of political opportunity they engage with, we can appreciate that the antiapartheid cause unfolded from above as well as below. In addition to transnational advocacy networks and international NGOs, we need to take into account the often substantial efforts of the United Nations and allied intergovernmental agencies (e.g., the International Labour Organisation), the Organization of African Unity, international groupings such as the socialist countries and the European Community, international trade union federations, and individual states. Accordingly, we seek contributions that will trace and assess the extent and limits of the worldwide solidarity achieved in the struggle against apartheid and colonialism in Southern Africa and the impact of this solidarity on global norms of racial equality and human rights to self-determination, democracy, and development.

We are soliciting submissions that engage with one or more of the following areas of concern.

* the emergence of large-scale organizations, networks, publications, campaigns, that gave shape and weight to this global movement.
* the roles and experiences of individual activists, advocates, artists, writers, and scholars, especially the diaspora of exiles from South/ern Africa. Interviews with anti-apartheid activists are especially welcome.
* the role of "new nation-states and socialist nations" such as India, Egypt and Cuba, and/or the Non-aligned Movement in the antiapartheid struggle.
* the impact of transnational activism on apartheid South Africa and the other white minority and colonial regimes of Southern Africa, the foreign banks, corporations, the governments of the U.S., Britain, and other states involved in the region.
* the role of intergovernmental and non-governmental agencies such as the United Nations, the OAU, international labor and ecumenical bodies, and collaborations/challenges that emerged between/against these agencies.
* the production, circulation, and reception of antiapartheid and liberation symbols, imagery, music, fiction, theater, films, and other cultural expressions and media.
* the adaptation of the global anti-apartheid cause in diverse communities and societies and its articulation to local or national demands, especially around recognition and justice for excluded or subordinated populations, such as indigenous people in Australia and New Zealand, Dalits in India, Palestinians, and people of African descent throughout the Americas. Comparative investigations are welcome.
* the application of international human rights law to the case of apartheid and the further development of this framework through interaction with the antiapartheid cause.
* the place of the global anti-apartheid struggle in the reshaping of public history and memory in post-apartheid South Africa, in museums, historical sites, and history textbooks.

Radical History Review publishes material in a wide variety of forms.

The editors will consider scholarly research articles as well as photo essays, film and book review essays, interviews, brief interventions, essays on museum and other public history forums, "conversations" between scholars and/or activists, teaching notes and annotated course syllabi, and research notes.

At this time we request that potential contributors submit 1-2 page abstracts summarizing the article you wish to include in this issue as an attachment to contactrhr@gmail.com with "Issue 119 abstract submission" in the subject line. Initial abstracts and article proposals are due by May 15, 2012.

By June 15, 2012, selected authors will be invited to prepare a full version of their article for peer review. The due date for completed drafts of articles is February 1, 2013. Final article manuscripts ready for publication must be returned to the editors by Aug. 1, 2013.

Those articles selected for publication after the peer review process will be included in issue 119 of Radical History Review, scheduled to appear in Spring 2014. The issue editors strongly encourage the submission of images or artwork to illustrate textual pieces, as well as photo or other visual essays. Please send any images as low-resolution digital files embedded in a Word document. If chosen for publication, authors will need to send separate, high-resolution images files (jpg or tif files at a minimum of 300 dpi), along with written permission to reprint all images.

Another new apartheid archive online

We recently announced announce that we had added a PDF version of the catalogue of the Marion Friedmann papers to the Senate House Libraries archives catalogue, a collection which included material regarding the Liberal Party of South Africa, of which she was a founder member.

We're very pleased today, to announce another new PDF catalogue has been made available.


The Peter Hjul papers were donated by Peter Hjul, was was active in the Liberal Party of South Africa and chaired the Cape Provincial Division. He also chaired the editorial board of the radical fortnightly "Contact" and was also the editor of the South African Shipping News and Fishing Industry Review. He and his family were harassed by South African security forces and emigrated to the United Kingdom in 1965, where Peter Hjul continued his career as a journalist.

The collection comprises material on the Liberal Party of South Africa and civil rights, and includes meeting minutes, correspondence and open letters, posters announcing meetings, election leaflets, various reports and nine issues of Contact, dating from October 1964 to June 1965.

New apartheid archive catalogue online

We are pleased to announce that we have added a PDF version of the catalogue of the Marion Friedmann papers to the Senate House Libraries archives catalogue.

Marion Friedmann was born in 1918, and was a founder member of the Liberal Party of South Africa.

 

The multiracial Liberal Party of South Africa was founded in 1954, and was forced to disband under the Prohibition of Political Interference Act of 1968.

 

The collection held at the Institute of Commonwealth Studies Library and Archive comprises of material collected on South African politics, chiefly apartheid and the oppression of black South Africans. It includes electioneering material, national statements by the Liberal Party of South Africa on political issues, correspondence, biographical material on Stephen Nkadimeng, Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe, and Duma Nokwe, and various issues of journals Assagai, Contact, Liberal News, and Liberal Opinion. The collection also includes pamphlets and leaflets produced by groups including the ANC, South African Congress of Democrats, and Civil Rights League.

A revolutionary life: Ruth First 1925-1982

The Institute of Commonwealth Studies has recently begun a project focused on the life and work of Ruth First, the South African journalist, writer, scholar and anti-apartheid activist. This project will include selective digitisation of some of the material from the Ruth First Archive collection held at the Institute of Commonwealth Studies Library.

Also as part of the project a symposium is planned for the 7th of June, details below:

A revolutionary life: Ruth First 1925-1982

07 June 2012, 10:00 - 19:00
Room 349 (Senate House, University of London)

This event is a joint initiative between the Commonwealth Advisory Bureau and the Institute of Commonwealth Studies.

Ruth First was an anti-apartheid activist, investigative journalist, and scholar. First worked her entire life to end apartheid in South Africa, writing in 1969 she explained how she her life was dedicated ‘to the liberation of African for I count myself an African, and there is no cause I hold dearer’. Her knowledge of the continent was phenomenal and she knew many of the continent’s leading political figures Nelson Mandela, Ben Bella, Oginda Odinga. First was an influential figure, who saw activism, solidarity work (for the anti-apartheid struggle) and her research and writing as inextricably linked. She was exiled from South Africa in 1964, with her husband, the prominent South African communist Joe Slovo and their children. In 1982, while working in Mozambique, Ruth First was killed by a letter bomb sent by South Africa secret service.

2012 is the thirtieth anniversary of Ruth First’s murder. The Institute of Commonwealth Studies (ICS) and the Commonwealth Advisory Bureau are holding a one-day celebration of Ruth First’s extraordinary life and work. The event is part of year long project that is digitising some of Ruth First’s papers and books held at the ICS.

The event will include Justice Albie Sachs, Gillian Slovo, Barbara Harlow, Shula Marks and Alan Wieder.

Cost: £10 (standard); £5 (students/unwaged) (includes lunch and refreshments)

Registration form

RSVP to chloe.pieters@sas.ac.uk

New Zealand, South Africa, Rugby and apartheid: 30 years since the 1981 tour

The controversial 1981 Springbok tour, which divided NZ, began 30 years today. The South African Rugby tour was the focus of intense debate and protest throughout New Zealand and sport and politics became intensely mixed. The tour also acted as a catalyst for an examination of racism within New Zealand, with indigenous Maori people highlighting the connections between apartheid in South Africa and racism in New Zealand.

The Institute of Commonwealth Studies Library holds a selection of material relating to the anti-apartheid movement in New Zealand, including publications from the National Anti-Apartheid Committee, the Apartheid Information Centre, The Wellington Trades Council and Halt All Racist Tours (HART), as well as books looking back at that time such as Trevor Richard's Dancing on our bones : New Zealand, South Africa, rugby and racism and Malcom Templeton's Human rights and sporting contacts : New Zealand attitudes to race relations in South Africa 1921-94.

A photo gallery from the 1981 tour is available from the NZ Herald website.

Happy Birthday Nelson Mandela

The Institute of Commonwealth Studies Library and Archives contains strong collections relating to the struggle within, and outside of, South Africa against the apartheid system. Today's post highlights some items relating to Nelson Mandela.


The Nelson Mandela Trials collection consists of photocopies of papers collected by Joel Joffe, lawyer acting for Nelson Mandela, relating to Mandela's trial in Pretoria (1962) and the Rivonia Trial (1963-1964); including Mandela's application to have the Pretoria trial postponed; Mandela's address to the court in mitigation of the sentence of five years imprisonment, detailing his political commitment and activities in the African National Congress (ANC); a copy of the indictment in the Rivonia Trial, the initial statement made by Mandela to his lawyers, giving details of his early life; notes by Mandela on his life and ANC association; a copy of Mandela's statement from the dock, signed by Mandela, manuscript notes by Mandela to use if he were sentenced to death, and manuscript notes by Mandela referring to the tribal council called Imbizo.

Mary Benson was born on 8 December 1919 in Pretoria, South Africa. In 1950 she became secretary to Michael Scott and first became involved in the field of race relations. In 1951 she became secretary to Tshekedi Khama, and in 1952, together with Scott and David Astor, she helped to found the Africa Bureau in London. She was its secretary until 1957 and travelled widely on its behalf. In 1957 she became secretary to the Treason Trials Defence Fund in Johannesburg. She became a close friend of Nelson Mandela, and assisted with smuggling him out of South Africa in 1962. In February 1966 she was served with a banning order under the Suppression of Communism Act and she left South Africa for London later that year. In London she continued to work tirelessly against apartheid, writing to newspapers and corresponding with fellow activists in South Africa. In April 1999 Mandela visited her at her home during his state visit to Britain and later that year an 80th birthday party was staged for her at South Africa House. Mary Benson died on 20 June 2000. Among her writings are 'South Africa: the Struggle for a Birthright', 'Chief Albert Luthuli', 'The History of Robben Island', 'Nelson Mandela: the Man and the Movement', the autobiographical 'A Far Cry' and radio plays on Mandela and the Rivonia trial. Material within the papers of Mary Benson include newspaper cuttings, correspondence, notes, and articles on Nelson Mandela and other prisoners on Robben Island, and material gathered by Mary Benson for her biography of Nelson Mandela. The collection also includes correspondence with Winnie Mandela and some photographs of Nelson Mandela from his visits in London.


Ruth First was born on 4 May 1925 in Johannesburg, the daughter of Julius and Matilda ('Tilly') First. On her graduation in 1945, First took a job in the Research Division of the Department of Social Welfare of Johannesburg City Council, but she resigned in 1946 in order to pursue a career in journalism. In the same year she produced pamphlets in aid of the miners' strike and was temporarily secretary of the Johannesburg offices of the South African Communist Party. In 1947, together with Michael Scott, she exposed a farm labour scandal in Bethal, Eastern Transvaal. Between 1946-1952 she was the Johannesburg editor of the weekly newspaper the Guardian, the mouthpiece of the SACP, and following subsequent bannings, the Clarion, People's World, Advance, New Age and Spark. Between 1954-1963 she was also the editor of Fighting Talk, a Johannesburg based monthly. In 1949 Ruth First married Joe Slovo. In 1950, First was named under the Suppression of Communism Act and her movements restricted. In 1953 she was banned from membership of all political organisations, although in 1955 she helped draw up the Freedom Charter, a fundamental document of the African National Congress, and was later a member of Umkhonto we Sizwe, the ANC's military wing. In December 1956, she and Joe Slovo were among the 156 people charged in the so-called Treason Trial, although her indictment was dismissed in April 1959. In August 1963 she was arrested and detained under the 90-Day Law for a total period of 117 days. Effectively forced into exile, in March 1964 she left South Africa for the United Kingdom, accompanied by her three daughters. From 1964 she worked full-time as a freelance writer, before becoming a Research Fellow at the University of Manchester in 1972. Between 1973-1978 she lectured in development studies at the University of Durham, although she spent periods of secondment at universities in Dar es Salaam and Lourenco Marques (Maputo). In November 1978 she took up a post as Director of the research training programme at the University Eduardo Mondlane in Maputo. Ruth First was killed on 17 August 1982, when she opened a parcel bomb addressed to her at the above university. Among other publications Ruth First wrote the foreword for and edited Nelson Mandela's autobiography, No Easy Walk to Freedom. The Ruth First papers, include background material for the book, correspondence re publication and between First and President Ahmed Ben Bella of Algeria, in French, a number of draft sections, as well as a file of reviews after publication.


The CIIR collection includes material related to the Release Mandela Campaign, transcripts of an interview with Winnie Mandela, and copies of speeches and articles by Mandela.

The Library collection also includes a large number of published work relating to Nelson Mandela and authored by him.

New lists for some South African/Apartheid archives collections

A number of smaller collections relating to South Africa and apartheid have had their handlists added to the ULRLS Archives Catalogue. These include the following collections:

Roger Southall papers (ICS77)
Roger Southall received a PhD from Birmingham University in 1975. He subsequently worked on East Africa and South Africa, publishing in 1983 South Africa's Transkei: the political economy of an independent Bantustan.  This collection is comprosed of interviews by Roger Southall with South African trade union and political leaders, including members of the National Automobile and Allied Workers Union; the Transport and General Workers Union; the United Democratic Front; the Council of Unions of South Africa; the Motor Industry Combined Workers Union; the Federation of South African Trade Unions; the Azania Peoples Organisation; National Union of Mineworkers; National Union of Textile Workers; Ebrahim "Cassim" Saloojee, United Democratic Front; the South African Boilermakers' Iron and Steel Workers, Shipbuilders and Welders Society; and the Natal Indian Congress.


University of Cape Town: Students' Representative Council papers on South African disturbances, 1976 (ICS81)
Papers relating to activities during disturbances of summer 1976, including comments on the disturbances by black, white and coloured individuals, accounts of incidents and papers by the Soweto Students' Representative Council, the South African Institute of Race Relations (SAIRR), the National Union of South African Students and the Union of Black Journalists.


University of Cape Town: Universities Amendment Bill (ICS82)
In 1959 the South African National Party Government passed the extension of the University Education Act which prohibited the admission of any person not classed as 'white' to universities, other than those established specifically for them, without a permit from the Minister of State. This legislation was strenuously opposed by the University of Cape Town and others. Following an inquiry into education, the Government published the Universities Amendment Bill in 1983, which altered the rules in that rather than a permit system, univerisities were to be prohibited from admitting black students beyond a quota to be stipulated annually by the Minister. Once again there was considerable opposition to the proposed new legislation. The Vice-Chancellor and Principal of the University of Cape Town sent copies of material to contacts in the UK for use in campaigning against the Bill. The papers in this collection comprise a set of this material
 
South Africa: Johannesburg City Council: Department of Non European Affairs (ICS94)
Photocopies of documents concerning squatter problem at Orlando, Soweto, 1946 including records of meetings between the Department of Non European Affairs and deputation from Orlando Advisory Board; record of joint meeting of General Purposes, Non European Affairs and Special Housing Committees; minutes of Sub-Committee on squatter movements, and minutes of meeting of Native Advisory Boards with Non European Affairs Committee
 
South African Institute of Race Relations: Natal Region (ICS95)
Photocopies of minutes and reports of the South African Institute of Race Relations: Natal Region; comprising minutes and papers of Regional Committee meetings; Natal Regional Organiser's Reports, with account of financing of Non-European Educational Fund; African Affairs Sub-Committee minutes and African Fact-Finding Sub-Committee minutes.




 

New Books - not so new

New additions to our catalogue and collections, but all published some years ago, the following books were all acquired by donation, and fill gaps in our collection:

J. Howard Wallace, Manual of New Zealand History, Wellington: J.H. Wallace, 1886
Written and published by J. Howard Wallace "one of the pioneer settlers of the colony... author of "The Early History of New Zealand"" this book presents a precis of the history fo New Zealand,  intended as a syllabus for students. The book includes a chronological history of New Zealand"from its discovery until the present date" (discovery refering to European discovery not the earlier Maori discovery and settlement), details of government, "spiritual conquest", governors, etc

Ceylon, Report of the Special Committee on Broadcasting in Ceylon, June, 1941, Colombo, Sri Lanka : Ceylon Govt. Press, 1941.
Report of a secial committee established in 1940 to consider broadcasting in Ceylon in all its aspects. The report includes a historical survey of radio broadcasting in Ceylon and compares development with that of India. The report makes recommendations relating to transmitting equipment to extend the coverage of broadcasts, improvements to existing studios, rural broadcasting, programme content, and the organisation of the broadcasting service.

Kenneth Bradley, The Colonial Service as a Career, London : H.M.S.O., 1950.
Aimed at young people thinking of making their careers in the Colonial Service, describing the service, the qualities required, life and work in the service, empire building and working towards the Commonwealth. Includes illustrations and photographs.

Kenneth Bradley, A Career in the Oversea Civil Service, London : H.M.S.O., 1955.
Aimed at young people thinking of making their careers in the Overseas Civil Service, with similar content as above, but "nation building" now replacing the 1950's "Empire building" chapter.

Republic of Ghana, Report of the Commission : appointed under the Commissions of Enquiry Act, 1964 (Act 250) to Enquire into the Kwame Nkrumah Properties, [Accra-Tema : Published by the Ministry of Information on Belhalf of the National Liberation Council, 1967]
A report commissioned after the coup in 1966 which overthrew the Nkrumah government. The report in scathingly critical of Nkrumah and suggests that various propoerties were acquired dishonestly and recommends that these be recovered by the government of Ghana. Also known as the Apaloo Commission.

Republic of Ghana, Summary of the report of the Commission of Enquiry into Irregularities and Malpractices in the Grant of Import Licences, Accra-Tema : Ministry of Information, 1967.
Another post-coup report, in this case looking into the granting of export licenses by Mr A.Y.K. Djin, Mr Kwesi Amoako Atta, Mr Ayeh Kumi, Mr Halm and Kweis Armah. The report claims irregularities, confused administration, preferential treatment, fraud and malpractice. The report includes details of specific allegations.

Don Barnett, With the Guerrillas in Angola, Liberation Support Movement, 1970
In this 34 page pamphlet, author Don Barnett outlines a visit to Angola and MPLA (Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola) camps. Barnett describes the situation and routines of the camps, and local villages, as well as noting Portuguese actions and the impact on victims of these actions. The pamphlet includes photographs of guerillas, villagers and some individuals.

Marga Holness, Apartheid's War Against Angola. An account of South African aggression against the People's Republic of Angola, New York, NY : Centre Against Apartheid, United Nations ; Oslo, Norway : World Campaign Against Military and Nuclear Collaboration with South Africa, 1983.
Describes South African actions against Angola, including historic co-operation with the colonial Portuguese government, the "1975-76 invasion", bombing raids, border provocations, infantry attacks and artillery shelling, and continuing acts of agression from 1979 to 1981. Describes the context of South African aggression against the "frontline states", and co-operation between frontline states and national liberation movements, as well as United Nations Security Council condemnations of South African actions.

J.H. Proctor (ed) The Cell System of the Tanganyika African National Union, Dar es Salaam : Tanzania Pub. House, 1971.
A collection of reports, originally written by third year students in the Department of Political Science at the University College, Dar es Salaam, on the ten-house cell structure of the Tanganyika African National Union (TANU). Chapters include: Building party cells in Tanzania; TANU cells: organs of one-party democratic socialism; Cells at work in Iramba; Cells in Dar es Salaam and Bukoba; Cell leaders in Mbulumbulu and the problems of effectiveness; and the operation of TANU cells in Iringa.

Un an après la libération : 5 juin 1977-5 juin 1978 = One year after liberation : 5 June 1977-5 June 1978, [Victoria : Dept. of Administration and Information, Office of the President, Govt. of Seychelles, 1978?]
In English and French, this publication celebrates a year of independence in the Seychelles, and includes: Address by President Rene on Liberation Day 1978; To the heroes... and to the future (speech by President Rene); The aim is food self-sufficiency (speech by Minister of Agriculture and Land Use, Dr Maxime Ferrari); Seychelles development strategy; and photographs of the Liberation Day Parade.
Whose Rubicon? : report of a visit to South Africa by representatives of the British Churches, London : British Council of Churches in association with the Catholic Institute for International Relations, 1986.
Reports on a visit to South Africa in 1985, with chapters on the perception of Urban Blacks; Black views of white attitudes; Political considerations; and Economic factors; as well as reporting on the churches in South Africa, and suggesting tasks for the British Churches in support of the "oppressed black majority". Includes discussion of disinvestment.

Frank Chicane, The Church's Prophetic Witness against the Apartheid System in South Africa (25th February-8th April 1988), Johannesburg : South African Council of Churches, [1988?]
Describes actions by the South African church , after the banning of a number of non-violent and peaceful organisations, severe restictions on the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) and the Banning of 18 respected leaders of the Black community in the 24th of February 1988. Church leaders took part in a series of actions including statements, a march to parliament, meetings and letters, which are described in this book as well as South African government reaction. Appendices include copies of the Statement, Call to Action and letters to and from the government.

South Africa and anti-Apartheid activists papers

The Institute of Commonwealth Studies Library archive collection contains a significant number of collections of papers relating to South Africa and the anti-Apartheid struggle. Two collections which have had catalogues (in PDF form) recently added to the collection include:

ICS30 Ruth Hayman papers

Ruth Hayman was a lawyer in South Africa, and a campainger for racial equality and justice. After she was banned for her work in South Africa, she settled in North London, and in 1969 set up the pioneering organisation, Neighbourhood English Classes, to help newly arrived immigrants settle into the UK. Her papers in this collection include: papers on politics and human rights in South Africa, c1950-c1968; comprising file of press cuttings on law cases in Eastern Districts, mainly under the Suppression of Communism Act, or for membership of the African National Congress and the Pan African Congress; file of judgements in cases of Roly Israel Arenstein, Helen Beatrice Mary Joseph, Dennis Vincent Brutus, Terence Vigors Rait Beard, Lancelot Makgothi, Isaac Heyman, Phillip Sello and Violet May Weinberg under the Suppression of Communism Act, 1963-1966; legal papers mainly counsel's opinions on the Suppression of Communism Act, 1965-1966; papers on Johannesburg City Council Election campaign, in which Hayman stood unsuccessfully as an Independent Candidate in Berea, Johannesburg; file of legal opinions and judgements, mainly relating to individuals served with Banning Notices under the Suppression of Communism Act, 1962-1965; paper by D V Cowan 'Parliamentary sovereignty and the entrenched sections of the South Africa Act', 1957; file of papers on case of Walter Vannet Hain, Adeline Florence Hain, and Fatima Meer, who had been served with Banning Notices under the Suppression of Communism Act, 1963.

ICS34 Isaac Horvitch papers

Member and Chairman of the South African Communist Party. Prosecuted in the Treason Trials, 1959-64. Isaac Horvitch was an architect and active member and later Chairman of the South African Communist Party (SACP). In 1946 he was charged with sedition, arising from the 1946 miner's strike. After the passing of the Suppression of Communism Act he became Chairman of the Forum Club, a multi-racial political discussion club. He was arrested on 5 December 1956 on charges of treason arising from his involvement in the Congress of the People and the adoption of the Freedom Charter. The preparatory examination and trial lasted from December 1956 until March 1961, when all the accused were found not guilty and discharged. After being acquitted and after the Sharpeville massacre in 1960, Horvitch escaped to Botswana and from there made his way to exile in London. Papers in the collection relate to the Treason Trials, including lists of the accused and the charges against them and a copy of the final judgement; typescript drafts for issues of 'Treason Trials Press Summary, 6 Feb 1959 - 10 Mar 1960'; miscellaneous material concerning the Treason Trials, 1957-1958; including appeals for funds by the Treason Trials Defence Fund; Horvitch's personal papers, 1957-1958 including details of payments received from the Treason Trials Defence Fund, and details of Horvitch's architectural practice; publications; papers on Ghana, 1960; and press cuttings on the Treason Trials.

International Defence and Aid Fund for Southern Africa Press Cuttings Archives

Today we want to focus on an important collection held on microfiche – the International Defence and Aid Fund for Southern Africa Press Cuttings Archives.


The International Defence and Aid Fund for Southern Africa (IDAF) was an anti-apartheid organization that smuggled £100 million into South Africa for the defence of thousands of political activists, and to provide aid for their families while they were in prison. It paid lawyers to defend political detainees and provided financial support families of political prisoners. It published numerous books and films on repression in South Africa. IDAF, was the brain-child of John Collins, a canon of St Paul's Cathedral. The organisation resulted from Canon Collins's guaranteeing the legal costs and support for the 156 accused under the 1956 Treason Trials, and their families. The organisation continued to support anti-apartheid activists through the Rivonia Trial and numerous other political trials (most of which were not high profile). Defence and Aid became an international organisation in 1965, with branches in Britain, New Zealand, Scandinavia, Holland and India.

On 18 March 1966, the South African Defence and Aid Committee was banned as an 'unlawful organisation' under the Suppression of Communism Act. Lengthy prison sentences were promised for those who handled money on behalf of IDAF and the Terrorism Act made it a capital offence to attempt to bring about social change with the help of a foreign government or institution, even when no violence was involved.

IDAF reacted by creating a system where a network of respectable individual donors funded defences, who in turn received funds from IDAF, and with the assistance of a network of friendly solicitors who corresponded with the South African trial lawyers and transmitted funds to them. IDAF’s welfare programme, aimed at alleviating the hardship of both political prisoners and their dependents, also relied on circumventing a direct connection with IDAF, with the use of hundreds of letter writers sending money directly to recipients through the post.

As well as raising and transmitting funds, IDAF continuing public activities, with research and publicity sections. The work of these sections included monitoring the press, and IDAF built up a large press-cuttings archive. This was microfilmed in 1991 before IDAF transferred its activities to South Africa, and copies lodged in countries affected by apartheid, as well as research libraries in Europe and North America

The Institute of Commonwealth Studies Library was fortunate to be selected by IDAF as the UK depository for microfiche copies of the South Africa and Namibia press cuttings archives. These include some 500,000 press cuttings from the South African, Namibian and British press from 1975 to 1990 and documenting all aspects of apartheid in South Africa, especially resistance and repression. The Namibian materials cover the South African occupation and the apartheid system subsequently imposed on the people of that country. Both archives include materials on cultural, social and economic issues and international relations. The Library holds an index to these, and in addition many of IDAF publications, including its journal Focus.