Political publications: South Africa

Publications and journals, 1943-65, gathered by the former Centre for Southern African Studies. The collection includes copies of The Educational Journal (TLSA); The Torch (NEUM); The Citizen; pamphlets on the Anti-CAD movement (1958); Bantu Education; the AAC's involvement in the Pondoland Revolt elections for 'Coloured Representatives' (1958); and the Pan-Africanist Congress anti-pass campaign in Cape Town (1960).
There is also a copy of the NEUM/Anti-CAD/AAC Declaration of Unity of 1943.

The Centre for Southern African Studies at the University of York was founded early in 1972. A multi-disciplinary centre for southern African studies it drew on staff from its parent departments of Politics, History, Sociology and (initially) Economics. Its core activities centred on postgraduate teaching and research and its aim was to extend expert knowledge and understanding of Southern Africa. The first group of graduate students to take the interdisciplinary one year B. Phil in Southern African Studies started in October 1973 and a Board of Studies in Southern African Studies was established to oversee the course. The Director of the Centre was Professor Christopher R. Hill. The Centre soon expanded its provision to offer an MA in South African Studies and well as research degrees. It also hosted visiting scholars and research fellows. From 1973 it also held specialist conferences.
When it began, the Centre offered the only tailor-made UK course that dealt specifically with southern Africa. it was the only centre concerned with this part of Africa, which the Hayter Committee that had established Area Studies elsewhere had left out. The Southern African Studies Trust was formed in 1972 to raise funds for the Centre.
The Centre for South African Studies' documentation project was launched in October 1974 with the aid of an award from the Leverhulme Trust. Its aim was to gather extensive collections of manuscript and printed material relating to southern Africa. For the purposes of the project, Southern Africa was defined to include Zambia, Malawi, Zimbabwe (then Rhodesia), Angola, Mozambique, Lesotho, Eswatini (Swaziland), Namibia and the Republic of South Africa. The search for material was focused on material held and available in the British Isles. It reached arrangements with governments to receive various government publications and took in gifts and deposits of publications, ephemera and government publications, as well as personal archives. The printed and archival material was kept in and administered by the University Library until the archives were later transferred to the Borthwick Institute.
In 1983 the Centre became part of the University's Institute for Research in the Social Sciences (IRISS). The Centre was closed in 1995.

Records are open to the public, subject to the overriding provisions of relevant legislation, including data protection laws.

The Centre for Southern African Studies at the University of York was founded early in 1972. A multi-disciplinary centre for southern African studies it drew on staff from its parent departments of Politics, History, Sociology and (initially) Economics. Its core activities centred on postgraduate teaching and research and its aim was to extend expert knowledge and understanding of Southern Africa. The first group of graduate students to take the interdisciplinary one year B. Phil in Southern African Studies started in October 1973 and a Board of Studies in Southern African Studies was established to oversee the course. The Director of the Centre was Professor Christopher R. Hill. The Centre soon expanded its provision to offer an MA in South African Studies and well as research degrees. It also hosted visiting scholars and research fellows. From 1973 it also held specialist conferences.
When it began, the Centre offered the only tailor-made UK course that dealt specifically with southern Africa. it was the only centre concerned with this part of Africa, which the Hayter Committee that had established Area Studies elsewhere had left out. The Southern African Studies Trust was formed in 1972 to raise funds for the Centre.
The Centre for South African Studies' documentation project was launched in October 1974 with the aid of an award from the Leverhulme Trust. Its aim was to gather extensive collections of manuscript and printed material relating to southern Africa. For the purposes of the project, Southern Africa was defined to include Zambia, Malawi, Zimbabwe (then Rhodesia), Angola, Mozambique, Lesotho, Eswatini (Swaziland), Namibia and the Republic of South Africa. The search for material was focused on material held and available in the British Isles. It reached arrangements with governments to receive various government publications and took in gifts and deposits of publications, ephemera and government publications, as well as personal archives. The printed and archival material was kept in and administered by the University Library until the archives were later transferred to the Borthwick Institute.
In 1983 the Centre became part of the University's Institute for Research in the Social Sciences (IRISS). The Centre was closed in 1995.

Most of the documents in this group were produced by various affiliates of the All-African Convention, a federal organisation. The AAC became increasingly dominated by those constituent organisations which drew the bulk of their membership from the Western Cape, all of which included a high proportion of intellectual workers, especially teachers, in their membership. These groups included the Non-European Unity Movement (NEUM), the Anti-Coloured Affairs Department (Anti-CAD) group and later the African People's Democratic Union of South Africa. Their policy and strategy were chiefly based on boycott of any existing political institutions. Their inflexibility tended to lead to political inactivity; but in their theoretical output they provided a constant flow of criticism of the African National Congress and frequently, substantial political analysis. Eventually they were banned in the early 1960s, but many of the ideas of the AAC affiliates were still reflected in the publications of the Teachers League of South Africa. The Unity movement and its allies were often called Trotskyist to distinguish their approach from that of the more orthodox South African left. Another group represented here was the Citizen Group, which was composed of disenchanted NEUM and ANC members in Cape Town; after it had existed for two years as a discussion circle most of its members joined the Liberal Party of South Africa.

Further details of the documents are given in Accessions List 21/77.

A reprographics service is available to researchers subject to the access restrictions outlined above. Copying will not be undertaken if there is any risk of damage to the document. Copies are supplied in accordance with the Borthwick Institute for Archives' terms and conditions for the supply of copies, and under provisions of any relevant copyright legislation. Permission to reproduce images of documents in the custody of the Borthwick Institute must be sought.

Further accruals are not expected.

Published

GB 193