HIST 398: South Africa's Freedom Struggle: Primary Sources
What are primary sources?
Primary sources are original, first-hand testimony.
They tell the story as experienced by witnesses. Primary sources provide a first-hand account of an event or time period and are considered to be authoritative. They represent original thinking, reports on discoveries or events, or they can share new information. These sources help depict what actually happened - or at least what someone who was there says he or she experienced. These may include photographs, interviews, novels, speeches, letters, statistical data, artifacts or treaties.
Here are some questions you may want to keep in mind when considering the source:
• When, where, and why was it written?
• What do you know about the author's role in society or world-view?
• For whom was it intended? What's its purpose?
• How typical is this opinion for the period?
• Is there corroboratory evidence for the author's depiction?
• What is the context of the document?
Secondary sources comment on, interpret, or analyze primary documents.
The individuals who provide secondary source depictions are somewhat removed from the event they describe. These may provide historical or critical perspectives. They often try to answer the above questions. Secondary sources, like primary sources, offer additional information but are not inherently neutral. You should assess secondary sources as critically as primary sources.
Primary Sources: Overview. SMU Libraries, https://guides.smu.edu/primarysources
Primary Source Collections: South African History
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African National Congress (ANC)African National Congress (ANC) is the Republic of South Africa's governing social democratic political party.
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Digital Innovation South AfricaDISA is a freely accessible online scholarly resource focusing on the socio-political history of South Africa, particularly the struggle for freedom during the period from 1950 to the first democratic elections in 1994, providing a wealth of material on this fascinating period of the country’s history.
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Nelson Mandela Foundation: Digital ArchiveThe Nelson Mandela Foundation (NMF) is a non-profit organization focused on memory, dialogue and legacy work, founded by Nelson Mandela in 1999.
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South African Film & Video ProjectVideo footage, audio interviews and archival materials from the years of struggle against apartheid.
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The South African History Archive (SAHA)SAHA is an independent human rights archive dedicated to documenting, supporting and promoting greater awareness of past and contemporary struggles for justice through archival practices and outreach, and the utilization of access to information laws.
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South African History OnlineContains both primary and secondary sources
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Southern Africa Labor and Development Unit (SALDRU) Clippings Collection 1975-2000.The clippings collection built up by SALDRU at the University of Cape Town covers what is probably the most crucial quarter century in South Africa's history. Started in the mid-1970s as a necessary tool to help social scientists and others to keep track of what was happening inside the country and in the wider region of Southern Africa.
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Truth and Reconciliation CommissionFull text transcripts of amnesty and special hearings, press releases, and other important primary documents.
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University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. Historical Papers, Digitized materials.One of the most comprehensive public archives in Southern Africa, with over 3400 collections from NGOs, trade unions, political parties, women's organisations, church bodies, human rights activists and political trials.
Anti-Apartheid Movement
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African Activist Archive ProjectThe African Activist Archive is preserving and making available online the records of activism in the United States to support the struggles of African peoples against colonialism, apartheid, and social injustice from the 1950s through the 1990s.
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Forward to Freedom. The History of the British Anti-Apartheid Movement 1959-1994Forward to Freedom tells the story of the British Anti-Apartheid Movement and its campaigns to support the people of South Africa in their fight against apartheid.
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Liberation AfricaThe Nordic Documentation on the Liberation Struggle in Southern Africa Project.
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Ruth First PapersThe collected notes and writings of Ruth First, activist, campaigning journalist and scholar.
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South Africa: Overcoming Apartheid, Building DemocracyPresents first-hand accounts of this important political movement. Interviews with South African activists, raw video footage documenting mass resistance and police repression, historical documents, rare photographs, and original narratives tell this remarkable story.
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Apartheid South Africa 1948-1980Primary source collection from The National Archives, UK for the study of the apartheid, South African politics, trade relations, international opinion and humanitarian issues. Includes diplomatic dispatches, institutional records, biographies of prominent personalities, press reports, correspondence, books, maps, statistics, reports, analyses, and ephemera.
Oral History Collections
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African Oral Narratives: CollectionsAfrican Oral Narratives is a free, open access digital library containing 6 collections of oral and life histories, folklore, and songs from Ethiopia, Ghana, and South Africa.
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Padraig O'Malley's Oral History InterviewsPadraig O'Malley interviews prominent political roleplayers in South Africa about the country's transition from apartheid to democracy.
Edited Primary Source Collections
When you search the library catalog, begin with a simple keyword search to identify one or more relevant resources. Keyword terms used to find primary sources can include:
| - Personal narratives | - Diaries |
| - Correspondence | - Letters |
| - Interviews | - Autobiography |
| - Memoirs | - Maps |
| - Pamphlets | - Speeches |
| - Sources | - Archives |
| - Archival Resources |
Examples of keyword searches might look like:
Apartheid -- South Africa -- History -- Sources.
Anti-apartheid movement -- South Africa -- History -- Sources.
South Africa -- Politics and government -- Sources.
Mandela, Nelson, -- 1918-2013.
Government Documents
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UK Parliamentary ArchivesA selection of parliamentary papers can be accessed online for free.
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ProQuest CongressionalComprehensive source of current and historical U.S. Congressional material, including bills, testimony, reports, documents, selected prints, the Congressional Record, the U.S. Code, Federal Register, and the Code of Federal Regulations.
Newspapers
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New York Times Academic Pass UNC Chapel Hill students, faculty, and staff now have full, year-round access to The New York Times, including smartphone, tablet, and browser access, thanks to a sponsorship from the University Library. For app downloads, visit NYTimes.com/mobile.
Access does not include e-reader editions, NYT Cooking, Premium Crosswords or The New York Times Crosswords apps. Pass users also receive access to the New York Times archives (1851-2002) which includes 5 PDF downloads from the Times Machine per day via timesmachine.nytimes.com/browser. Archive articles outside that date range are not subject to that limit. Digital access is available only during the time that our New York Times Site License is active.
To set up your account: Please consult https://guides.lib.unc.edu/nyt-academic-pass for detailed directions on setting up your account. -
New York Times Historical NewspaperAvailable through the ProQuest Historical Newspapers database, offers over 3 million pages of full-text and full-image newspaper articles covering the entire publishing history of the newspaper, from 1851 to 2 or 3 years ago. Researchers can use the images to find not only news, editorials, letters to the editor, obituaries, and birth and marriage announcements, but also historical photos, stock photos, and advertisements.
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Washington Post (Online)Access articles for the The Washington Post in 15 years of rolling archival content to the present. Available to all UNC students, faculty, and staff.
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Times (London) Digital ArchiveA full-image online archive of every page in the complete run of the world's oldest continuously published newspaper. Please note that online coverage of the Times after the end date in this database is available in several sources. Click here for more details.
