Overview - HIST 187: The Making of Modern South Africa - Finding Primary Sources

Why this guide?

This guide hopes to point you to easily-obtained primary source material on 20th-century South Africa. It lists online, microform, and print materials that provide firsthand accounts or documentation. There are, of course, many more collections than what's presented here!

Good Starting Places - Primary Sources

Cambridge History of South Africa
2 volumes. Cambridge Univ Press, 2009-2011.
Also in print, Van Pelt stacks: DT1787 .C36 2010
A very recent, excellent history. Volume 1 covers up to 1885, Volume 2 covers 1885-1994. Not a collection of primary sources!
From protest to challenge: a documentary history of African politics in South Africa,1882-1990 / Thomas Karis and Gwendolen M Carter, eds.
6 volumes. Hoover Institution Press, 1972-2010.
Van Pelt stacks: DT763 .F73
Always the best place to start when looking for primary sources on apartheid and resistance in 20th-century South Africa. Volumes cover specific eras, with introductory book-length essays followed by collections of documents.
Volume 4, Political Profiles, offers profiles of 333 people selected for "political leadership, political influence, and political notoriety" during 1882-1964.
Mandela, Tambo, and the African National Congress : the struggle against apartheid, 1948-1990: a documentary survey / Sheridan Johns and R Hunt Davis Jr, eds
Oxford Univ. Press, 1991.
Van Pelt stacks: DT1757 .M36 1991
A one-volume compilation of speeches and writings by Nelson Mandela and Oliver Tambo, with basic ANC texts.
South Africa's radical tradition: a documentary history / Allison Drew, ed.
2 volumes. Mayibuye Books, etc., 1996-1997.
Van Pelt stacks: HX450.5.A6 S674 1996
Compilation of propaganda, draft resolutions, conference programs, and personal correspondence from South African socialist and communist parties, 1907-1964.
The South Africa reader: history, culture, politics / Clifton Crais, ed.
Duke University Press, 2014.
A very recent anthology that tries to emphasize the diversity of South Africa through its selected texts. Mostly narrative excerpts with some documents. Organized into themes: Pre-/peri-colonial; Colonial settlement, slavery, peonage; Frontiers; Diamonds and Boers; Life during the Union of South Africa; Apartheid and the early struggle for freedom; From Soweto 1976 to liberation; Transition and reconciliation.

South African press and media sources

The Black press in South Africa and Lesotho: a descriptive bibliographic guide to African, Coloured, and Indian newspapers, newsletters, and magazines, 1836-1976 / Les Switzer and Donna Switzer
Boston: G.K. Hall, 1979.
A very useful reference work that identifies and describes more than 700 South African apartheid-era non-White news sources. While the Penn Libraries hold only a tiny number of these titles, many will be available for borrowing from the Center for Research Libraries.
African Newspapers 1800-1924 (World Newspaper Archive)
Searchable fulltext with page images for 18 older South African newspapers. Includes long runs of Grahamstown Journal (1831-1912), Mafeking Mail (1899-1922), Natal Witness (1846-1885), Imvo Zabantsundu (1884-1922), Rand Daily Mail (1905-1910), Indian Opinion (1903-1922).
South African press digests, 1949-1972
Van Pelt Microtext: Microfiche 1082
Reproduced from the personal library of Colin Legum. This weekly typed digest summarizing all of South Africa's principal newspapers and magazines, separated by year into documents, was issued by the South African Jewish Board of Deputies throughout the first 24 years of Apartheid.
The finding aid is handy for locating weekly issues within the fiche set; entries list news item headings.
SALDRU Clippings Collection: 1975-2000 (Aluka)
7,000-plus newspaper clippings sampled from the original million-plus item archive clipped from many of South Africa's English-language newspapers by the Southern Africa Labour & Development Research Unit, School of Economics, University of Cape Town. See also the SALDRU Clippings Collection folder structure
The Bantu World. Weekly. Johannesburg.
Van Pelt Microtext: Microfilm news 662
Available dates: 1940-1952
Center for Research Libraries
Available dates: 1932-1955
Online via Center for Research Libraries
Available dates: 1932-1937
"Virtually unique in striving to be a newspaper of record for the African community." (Switzers)
Inkundla Ya Bantu = The Bantu Forum. Weekly. Verulam.
Van Pelt Microtext: Microfilm news 131
Available dates: 1944-1951 (incomplete)
Center for Research Libraries
Available dates: 1940-1945
"Probably the last, and most important, African owned and controlled publication before the Nationalists gained power in 1948" (Switzers)
Cape Herald. Weekly. Cape Town.
Van Pelt Microtext: Microfilm news 663
Available dates: 1969-1986.
The Switzers describe this as: "the major newspaper for Coloureds", "essentially a community newspaper"
Drum. Monthly. Johannesburg
Van Pelt Microtext: Microfilm cont 794
Available dates: 1951-1985
Online via Center for Research Libraries
1953-1958 (selected issues)
The leading news and general-interest magazine of the Black townships during the 1950s and 1960s, with an emphasis on visuals. Drum has a rich secondary literature (see a sample Franklin search).

Article indexing for Drum's early years is provided by:
Drum: an index to "Africa's leading magazine," 1951-1965 / Dorothy C Woodson. African Studies Program, University of Wisconsin, c1988.
Van Pelt Reference: DT3 .W66 1988
Communist Party of South African newspapers
· The International. Weekly. Johannesburg.
Van Pelt Microtext: Microfilm news 129
Available dates: 1915-1924
Online via World Newspaper Archive
Available dates: 1915-1924
· Umsebenzi = The South African Worker. Weekly Johannesburg.
Van Pelt Microtext: Microfilm news 130
Available dates: 1926-1938

Finding Biographies and Personal Accounts in Franklin

Two Penn Libraries research guides offer suggestions for searching Franklin:

Franklin's subject headings for biographies use two patterns. NOTE: Neither subject heading pattern uses the word "Autobiography"!

Personal names - last name first!
Subject Heading Browse: mandela nelson - Too many choices!
Keyword expert search: subject:("mandela nelson")
[Class of person]--Biography
Examples of relevant subject headings:
Anti-apartheid activists--Great Britain--Biography.

Anti-apartheid movements -- South Africa -- Biography.

Civil rights workers -- South Africa -- Biography.

Political activists -- South Africa -- Biography.

Political prisoners -- South Africa -- Biography.

Communists -- South Africa -- Biography.

Journalists -- South Africa -- Biography.

Police -- South Africa -- Biography.

South Africa -- Exiles -- Biography.
Keyword expert search: subject:(biography AND "south africa")
Keyword expert search: subject:(biography AND "south africa") AND subject:(apartheid OR rights OR political OR communists OR exiles)

Franklin uses several subject heading phrases to identify firsthand accounts by individual people.
The most common of these are:

Memoirs. Personal narratives. Diaries.

Correspondence.

Oral history. Interviews.

Keyword expert search: subject:("south africa") AND subject:(police OR military OR soldiers OR army OR force) AND subject:(memoirs OR "personal narratives" OR diaries OR correspondence OR "oral history" OR interviews)

Put it all together to find works that focus on individual South Africans:
subject:("south africa" AND women) AND subject:(apartheid OR rights OR political OR communists OR exiles) AND subject:(biography OR memoirs OR "personal narratives" OR diaries OR correspondence OR "oral history" OR interviews)

Research collections

Aluka: Struggles for Freedom in Southern Africa
Use Aluka's "Collection" and "Resource Type" facets to find online reproductions of interviews and oral histories, correspondence, magazines and newspapers from anti-apartheid organizations.
See Legislation and Race Relations for the core laws of apartheid.

Digital Innovation South Africa (DISA)
Much of Aluka's South African apartheid-era content was contributed by DISA. Browse the DISA collection to see what's available.

Historical Papers, University of the Witwatersrand
The digital collection of the William Cullen Library, Wits University. The "Digitised Collection" includes the transcripts of the Native Economic Commission (1930s), reports of the Harms Commission and the Independent Board of Inquiry on police activity, trial records, and reproductions of passes, classification files, and much more. Many Wits documents appear in Aluka and DISA.
South Africa, a collection of miscellaneous documents, 1902-1963
Van Pelt Microfilm: Microfilm 1368
16 reels. Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace, [1964?] The collection includes reports, memoranda, minutes, bulletins, newspapers, correspondence, and other documents relative to South Africa, with special emphasis on Communist activities and non-white political organizations, including publications of the South African Congress of Trade Unions, South African Indian Congress, Pan Africanist Congress, African National Congress, Congress of Democrats, Liberal Party, African Political Organization, and African People's Organization.
South Africa: the Making of U.S. Policy 1962-1989 (Digital National Security Archive)
DNSA uses targeted FOIA requests to assemble collections of classified US documents. This collection looks at arms embargoes, nuclear collaboration, economic sanctions, and regional Conflict.
South Africa: Overcoming Apartheid
First-hand accounts of the South African anti-apartheid movement. Includes interviews with South African activists, raw video footage documenting mass resistance and police repression, historical documents, rare photographs, and original narratives.
Records of the America Committee on Africa. Part 2: Correspondence and Subject Files on South Africa, 1952-1985
Part of Black Freedom Struggle in the 20th Century: Organizational Records and Personal Papers, Part 1, the records of the leading US anti-apartheid organization are held at Tulane University. Presents correspondence, materials on ACOA South Africa programs, and subject files. Reproduces program correspondence, reports, posters, flyers, and relevant newspaper clippings. The Penn Libraries also hold Part 1: ACOA Executive Committee Minutes and National Office Memoranda, 1952-1975
Forward to Freedom: The history of the British Anti-Apartheid Movement 1959-1994
Selected documents, images, interview videos from the British Anti-Apartheid Movement Archive at the Bodleian Library, University of Oxford.
Black Women Writers: African, African American, and Diaspora
Searchable fulltext collection of more than 570 fiction, nonfiction, and poetic works. Includes two 1960s journalistic accounts by Noni Jabavu and the anthology Women Writing Africa, vol. 1: The Southern Region / M. J. Daymond, ed. (Feminist Press, 2003).

African Writers Series
Searchable fulltext for more than 250 works from Heinemann's African Writers Series. Includes I Write What I Like / Steve Biko (1987), No Easy Walk to Freedom / Nelson Mandela, and works by Bessie Head, Nadine Gordimer, Sol Plaatje, Peter Abrahams, Can Themba, and Hugh Lewin.

Late arrivals

These were received after the course need passed. They're here to help future readers!

South Africa Truth and Reconciliation Commission (official website)
Includes fulltext for amnesty and special hearings and forhuman rights violations victim hearings and submissions.
Traces of Truth: Documents realting to the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission
A joint project of Historical Papers (Wits University Library) and the South African History Archives Project to present the records of the TRC.
Apartheid South Africa 1948-1980
British Foreign, Colonial, Dominion, and Foreign and Commonwealth Offices records from the National Archives (UK) on South Africa during the apartheid era.

Librarian & Coordinator of Social Sciences Collections

Lauris Olson

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University of Pennsylvania Libraries
203 Van Pelt-Dietrich Library Center
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215-898-0119

Subjects: African Studies, Aging Studies, Communication, Criminology, Data & GIS, Economics, Food Studies, Health & Societies, Immigration, Linguistics, Philadelphia Studies, Population Studies & Demography, Social Sciences, Sociology, Urban Studies

HIST 187: The Making of Modern South Africa - Finding Primary Sources: Overview