Back

ICFRC: A Story of Political Awakening and Activist Archives in South Africa

Listen to an audio podcast of this program.

Debora Matthews worked for seven years as Archival Coordinator in the Struggles for Justice Programme at the South African History Archive (SAHA), an independent activist and human rights archive in Johannesburg. SAHA is an independent human rights archive dedicated to documenting, supporting and promoting greater awareness of past and current struggles for justice through archival practices and outreach, and the access to information laws. Established by anti-apartheid activists in the 1980s, SAHA was closely connected in its formative years to the United Democratic Front, the Congress of South African Trade Unions and the African National Congress. Matthews archived the Constitution Hill Collection at SAHA.

Debora is now an Archives Consult working for the Public Affairs Research Institute (PARI), developing and implementing a records and research data management system. She will also be working as a Contract Archivist at GALA, the Gay and Lesbian Memory in Action Archives at the University of the Witwatersrand.

Debora discusses the many roads she has traveled as a middle class Afrikaans woman. In this quest she continues to better understand her Afrikaner roots, as well as better understand the decades of racial segregation under Nationalist government rule. She has come to terms with these two things through her work with activist archives as she continues to better comprehend the injustices done to millions of South Africans during apartheid. Her talk is a glimpse into some of the most exciting and prolific activist archives in South Africa.

For more information on the Foreign Relations Council visit their website at www.icfrc.org.

Related Programs

thumbnail of video

ICFRC: Living in Ukraine: My Story of an Unbreakable Nation
Recorded: August 24, 2023
Runtime: 01:05:41

thumbnail of video

ICFRC: How the Young Generation of African Political and Business Leaders are Carrying Nelson Mandela's Legacy
Recorded: July 19, 2023
Runtime: 01:27:50

thumbnail of video

ICFRC: Earth Day in the Pacific
Recorded: April 19, 2023
Runtime: 01:16:34

thumbnail of video

ICFRC: Tik Tok, Boom
Recorded: April 12, 2023
Runtime: 00:32:05

thumbnail of video

ICFRC: Narrative Making and the Politics of Juxtaposition
Recorded: April 5, 2023
Runtime: 00:59:35

thumbnail of video

ICFRC: Peace Corps Volunteer Service as a 50-Year-Old
Recorded: March 29, 2023
Runtime: 00:57:39

thumbnail of video

ICFRC: We Were Ever Here: Chinese Exchange Students in Iowa, 1909-1937
Recorded: March 22, 2023
Runtime: 00:58:20

thumbnail of video

ICFRC: Islamic Feminism and Women's Rights
Recorded: March 8, 2023
Runtime: 01:04:22

thumbnail of video

ICFRC: Cedar Rapids' Afghan Community, 18 Months On
Recorded: March 1, 2023
Runtime: 01:01:37