South Africa: Overcoming Apartheid, Building Democracy is a project of
MATRIX: Center for Digital Humanities and Social Sciences,
the African Studies Center, and the
Department of History at Michigan
State University.
We wish to acknowledge support
from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) Program
for Teaching and Learning Resources and Curriculum Development. Any
views, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this website
do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the
Humanities.
Many organizations and individuals have allowed their materials to be used in this site in ways that immensely enrich it.
Interviewees: We greatly appreciate the more
than 60 people who agreed to be interviewed in order to provide public education about the struggle against apartheid. They are:
Pikkie Annanmalay, Kader Asmal, Louise Asmal, Obed Bapela, Shireen
Brown, Mary Burton, Laloo Chiba, Renfrew Christie, Peter Clark, John
Daniel, Eddie Daniels, Betty Davenport, Colin De Souza, Jenny
de Tolly, Peggy Delport, Eddie Daniels, Ben Fihla, Anne Finsen, Cherry
Fisher, Glenda Glover, Verne Harris, Sipho Hlati, Peter Jones, Joe Schaffers,
John Tindall, Ahmed Kathrada, Ben Khoapa, Horst Kleinschmidt, Linda
Fortune, Lionel John Oaker, Luli Callinicos, Ben Magubane, Lettie Malindi,
Shepi Mati, Patrick Mkhize, Ivan Naidoo, Phyllis Naidoo, Prexy Nesbitt,
Noor Ebrahim, Diana Oliver, Yusuf Omar, Donald Parenzee, Bobby Peek,
Richard Werbner, Ruth Noel Robb, Beva Runciman, Kgati Sathekge, Roderich
Sauls, Roseberry Sonto, Crain Soudien, Stan Abrahams, Eulalie Stott,
Ben Turok, Peter Utting, Robert Vassen, Barbara Versfeld, and Randolph
Vigne.
Interviewers: Ruen Govinder, David Wiley,
Robert Vassen, David Bailey, Peter Alegi, Jim Sleight, Joshua Ogada,
Julie Frederikse, Sean Fields, and Leslie Hadfield.
Several South African organizations have contributed to this site in ways that immensely enrich it.
Community Video Education
Trust (CVET) in Cape Town
has graciously allowed us to
incorporate selected unique videos from their video archive.
The Gandhi-Luthuli Documentation Centre at the University of KwaZulu-Natal gave permission to use a series of interviews conducted in October 2004 with some participants at the conference “A Decade of Freedom: Celebrating the Role of the International Anti-Apartheid Movement in South Africa’s Freedom Struggle.” Overcoming Apartheid also gives users access to segments from interviews in the Documentation Centre’s Voices of Resistance collection, with links to the full interviews on the original site.
Phyllis Naidoo graciously gave permission to use selected materials from her personal papers, which are held in the archive of the Gandhi-Luthuli Documentation Centre.
Sean Fields at the Centre for Popular Memory of the University of Cape Town gave permission for the inclusion of audio interviews he conducted with residents of Langa, Cape Town.
Kelly Brisbois and Trevor Getz allowed us to use videotaped interviews they arranged with John Biyase, Gerrit Coetzee, Ayesha Hoorzook, and Ntombizandile Tshaballa.
The archival collection at
the South African National Library
in Cape Town was very helpful, providing access to several collections
of historic documents and granting permission to use historic photographs
from the Cape Times Collection.
We appreciate being given permission to reproduce ten posters from the book Images of Defiance: South African Resistance Posters of the 1980s, published by the South African History Archive.
We have included selected photos from the UN Photo Collection with their permission. These and other photographs are acknowledged where the individual images are displayed.
South African History Online
(SAHO) allowed us
to include biographies in this website that appear on their site. We
also have provided links that take users to many valuable resources
on the SAHO website.
We also wish to acknowledge the following other websites with valuable digital collections about South Africa to which we have linked.
Digital Imaging South Africa
hosts a collection of 44 South African periodicals from a wide spectrum of political views. We have selected a number
of articles from this source to which we provide links
African National Congress Archives
is an important collection of documents, speeches, and books to which
we direct users of this site.
The South African Truth
and Reconciliation Commission Videotape Collection hosted by the Yale Law Library contains
valuable South African Broadcasting Corporation broadcasts, from which
we provide a few segments and to which we direct users for further content.
The African Activist Archive sponsored by the African Studies Center and MATRIX at Michigan State University contains materials about the United States movement in solidarity with African freedom and independence.
The Posters from the Melville J. Herskovits Library of African Studies collection at Northwestern University Library contains a number of anti-apartheid posters.
This project is a team effort
of many authors, advisors, and production personnel.
Project coordinators: Joy Palmer and Christine Root
Historical and thematic
narratives : Peter Alegi, Peter Limb, Christine
Root, Mona Jackson (Bantu Education, Soweto Uprising, Religion and Activism,
Bannings), Leslie Hadfield (Death of Steven Biko and Black Consciousness
Movement), Robert Vassen (Detentions, Political Prisoners, and Sports),
Ruen Govinder (Truth and Reconciliation Commission materials), Nicky
Rousseau (Mandate of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission), Neil
Leighton (Labor Organizing), and Renfrew Christie.
Advisors: Peter Alegi, Ruen Govinder, Robert Vassen.
Website design, programming,
and production: Tyler Furtwangler, Daniel Jaquint,
Scott Pennington, Eric Limbach, Zach Punch, and Jim Sleight.
Recommended Films: David Wiley, John Metzler, and Kristin Kingsbury Smith from the African Media Program of the African Studies Center.