Official documents found in government archives have helped families with land claims and assisted military veterans to access pensions. Helen Joannides, an archivist at the Western Cape Archives and Records Service in central Cape Town, said this speaks to ‘Archives for Justice’, the theme for this year’s Archives Week. The latter runs from 8 to 15 May and aims to promote public access to the government-run archives countrywide.
“We are pointing to how archives can be used to empower people. There is a need to make people aware of that element. Without good record-keeping there is no transparency and accountability,” says Joannides.
“Archival records help to find out about ourselves but also for practical purposes.”
Joannides said the Western Cape archives has “60km worth of archives spanning 400 years”.
“We do tours and programmes at the archives all the time. There’s a video on our website that shows the process on how to use the archives,” she said.
“We are open during the week. You can come in and ask the archivist for assistance and you can work with primary source documents in our reading room.”
Joannides said “people get really excited when they see themselves in the archive”.
“They see a map of where they live or they find their surname somewhere and are really excited about. And that makes me, the history nerd, really excited.”
Mogamat Kamedien, vice-chairman of the Cape Family Research Forum, said sometimes archives also reveal past truths that families may have buried.
Kamedien said South Africa’s colonial and apartheid past meant that families “kept secrets to survive shame and poverty”.
For example, a white family discovered their grandfather was a coloured man who could pass for white during apartheid. Through the archive, his death certificate was found and listed him as coloured. He passed for white to find a job.
Another common example where archives assisted families was discovering parents were in fact not orphans. In one case, the grandchildren of a woman found out her mother had not died but was institutionalised for having a child out of wedlock. Their grandmother was raised by her aunt and uncle as a means to cover up what the family considered shameful in their community.
Kamedien said their forum gathers regularly at the archives to help locals piece together family trees and history.
“Whatever is not on Google, you have to go to the archives.We are all able to trace our family history via the archive. It’s public records,” said Kamedien.
“As from 1895, all non-Europeans were registered and we can trace our history back to that time via records. All inhabitants had to have their births, deaths and in many cases marriages were recorded by home affairs at the time.
“It’s all at the archive. Surnames also became standardised and stabilised from 1895 because of that. People could then be traced.”
Kamedien adds: “Lots of families have lost private papers that used to be in their possession. Government departments kept copies.”
Archives Week features a series of talks and in-person events. These are free to attend and registration information can be obtained via [email protected]
Online talk Friday 8 May, 10am to 12pm: Andre Odendaal talks about the importance of archives for justice. Odendaal was active in 1980s Struggle politics and was the founding director of the Robben Island Museum.
Online talk: Monday 11 May, 1pm to 2pm: Moegammad Tahier Kara talks about retracing the Kara family’s history through archival records and oral memory. This can help other families in their search.
Online talk: Tuesday 12 May, 1pm to 2pm: Nick Simpson talks about how climate change accelerates and impacts archives, museums and heritage sites now facing risks from sea level rise, coastal erosion, heat, fire and floods.
In-person talk: Wednesday 13 May, 9am to 10:30am : The Education Museum at: 9 Aliwal Road, Wynberg, hosts a pop-up event with Larramie Damstra unpacking “Julia’s Secret”, a memory box held in the District Six Museum collection.
In-person workshop: Thursday 14 May, 10am to 12pm: Gustav Henrich presents a ‘Family History for Beginners’ workshop at The Memory Centre in Green Point.
Online talk:Thursday 14 May, 1pm to 2pm: Verne Harris, archivist for Nelson Mandela, presents a talk entitled ‘Madiba and memory for justice in an age of AI’.
Online talk: Friday 15 May, 1pm to 2pm: Khumo Magano talks about reimagining archives through engagement with letters, dreams, oral histories, and alternative knowledge systems
Yazeed Kamaldien
iol.co.za
