UNDERTAKE RESEARCH IN YOUR OWN COMMUNITY...
CONTRIBUTE TO THE CREATION OF GRASS-ROOTS SOUTH AFRICAN HISTORY!
South Africa, the NEW, democratic South Africa, needs a new kind of history. For many years the South African history that was taught in schools and written in most of our history books focused almost entirely upon white South Africans, neglecting the role of all the other groups that make up our rainbow nation. This was clearly unacceptable. The first requirement of our new history, then, is that it must be a history that encompasses all South Africans, irrespective of their race, language, class, beliefs or whether they are men, women or children.
In the last few decades, and particularly since 1994, when South Africa became a democracy, many people including historians and those who were actively involved in the liberation struggle against apartheid, have written their stories and recorded their experiences. Others have gone further back to do research into the rich history of the early black communities who lived in southern Africa centuries before the first white settlers arrived. Still others have studied how South African communities, both black and white, reacted to and resisted colonialism. All these endeavours have to some extent filled the gaps in what was previously a very biased and lopsided history of South Africa. This process of re-writing and re-consideration of our history, of looking at the role of all population groups, is still going on, and must go on for many years to come. No history can ever claim to be the last, definitive version or the “absolute truth”. We must keep improving our knowledge of the past and gaining insight as new sources come to light.
This brings us to the second way of enriching our new democracy by creating a new kind of history. Most of our written history so far focuses on great leaders, important people and broad social and economic trends such as industrialisation and urbanisation. We now need to develop a different approach and create grass-roots history, a history from below. A history, in other words, of the broad spectrum of ordinary South Africans. We need to explore the history of the people around us in our local communities. The way to do this is to use oral history, to ask these people to tell us about their memories of the past, their experiences, their traditional folklore and their cultural practices. There is a wealth of information of this kind but all too often traditional communities did not write these things down; it was not part of their culture to do so. Instead it was passed down by the older people to their children in the form, for example, of story-telling, praise songs, incantations or rituals. Unless we use oral history techniques to discover and then record this vital information about our indigenous cultures, it will be lost forever.
And this is where the idea of the Albert Luthuli Competition comes in. You can be involved in building South African grass-roots history by conducting research in your local area. Your school will soon be sent a package, including a compact disk, providing full details of how to become involved in this exciting project. There are great prizes and incentives to participate, even including the possibility of having your presentation (be it a play or an exhibition, or a written piece, for example) adapted for a production on national television! Wouldn’t that be exciting! And with your project, you and your group would have the satisfaction of contributing to the recording and preservation of the cultural heritage of the new South Africa!
Some help to get you started
Before you begin it is important that you have a clear understanding of the scope of oral history and the meaning of some key terms. Information given verbally (oral information) can be used by researchers (that’s YOU!) in a number of ways. Here are some ideas to get you started.
1) Family History
You could decide to compile a family history. Perhaps there is a particular family that has been in your area for a number of years, or a member of this family who has made a social contribution in some way in your community. Tracing back the history of this person and his or her family background would tell us about their way of life, their homes, their experiences, the roles of family members within the family unit and their cultural practices. You could even compile the history of your own family if you think this would make a contribution to grass-roots history. Maybe someone in your community is a traditional healer, a community leader, or a well-know story-teller, or is a person who knows a lot about how your community lived long ago. Use your ingenuity; talk to your parents, grandparents, teachers and others to get some good ideas.
2) Local History
Oral information could also be used to present a local history of the rural area, or town, or city where you live. Local histories have been written on some of the bigger, more important places in South Africa but almost invariably these have not included oral evidence or the history of traditional black communities. There are hardly any studies of rural districts at all, so here you could make a real contribution. The oral evidence you learn from local residents of your area would have to be combined with evidence from maps, and also reading in the library to get information on early settlement, buildings, environmental features etc. You would have to trace the development of your region over the years, and once again you would have to try (using your evidence, of course) to re-create early traditional life in your area. That would be a very exciting challenge indeed and could make an important contribution to the history of the new South Africa.
3) Thematic study of an aspect of traditional life
Another way of using oral evidence is to make a study of a special theme, a particular aspect of traditional life in your area. If you and your group decide to take this option you would first have to decide on your theme. For example you could investigate the local story-telling culture, or traditional medicine in your area, or the rituals and festivals practised in your community. These themes and many others are very important in the reconstruction of our heritage! Unless they are recorded they may well die out and be lost forever.
4) Reminiscences: Community reaction to or participation in a historical event
You could also decide to use oral history to trace how your local community was affected by, for example the Land Act of 1913, the Great Depression of the 1930s, or more recently, how it took part in the freedom struggle. A project like this will need a lot of background study in the library and on Web sites. Did anyone in your local area take part in the Defiance Campaign of the 1950s? How did the local people feel about women marching to Pretoria in 1956; did any of them participate? Did local people discuss these issues among themselves in your town? Did they follow developments closely as South Africa moved towards democracy? Were there any local meetings about it or any attempts to participate? Or were they content to let others push for freedom on their behalf? What difference has the new democracy made to the local way of life compared to life in the old, pre-democratic era. The answers to all these questions will fill gaps in our historical knowledge, but be careful to structure your findings and give them coherence around a particular aspect or set of memoirs ... you should avoid ending up with a jumble of disconnected memories.
Organise a think-tank; then take a decision on your topic
In the meantime, until you have received full details of the Albert Luthuli Competition, you are welcome to contact us for further information. And to whip up some enthusiasm at your school we suggest that you hold a class discussion to talk about possible topics that would be feasible in your own local community. You could do a class project or split up into smaller groups. Those of you who feel confident enough to work alone, or have a small cameo study (a family history, for example) which you feel you could manage without the team approach, could even attempt to do the research on your own. Either way your research must be directed at a definite topic. You cannot begin research until you have decided WHAT particular topic you are researching.
Take a tentative decision on the FORM of your presentation
Once you have decided what you are going to research, you are going to have to give some thought to how you plan to present it. You don’t have to decide on this immediately, and maybe you will change your mind as the research develops and you collect more information. But you should at least begin thinking about how you may be able to present your findings. For example the information you get could be turned into a play, because drama and simulation (role play) is a wonderful way to present evidence that is traditional. Or you could make an exhibition of your work, produce a written document. You and your teacher could surprise everyone with a fresh, inventive idea for your presentation. There is more information on how to present your work in the document below.
Some sources for further reading
Before you begin you may like to read the two papers on Oral History by Sephai Mngqolo and Claire Dyer (in the Resources section of our website). Or you could consult some of the books in this list. They give examples of some very ambitious Oral History projects done by professional historians, but don’t be overwhelmed by these. Your project, done at school and in your local communities can be just as valuable because you have the unique opportunity to make contact with your own society.
Bozzoli, B with Nkotsoe, M (1991). Women of Phokeng: Consciousness, Life Strategy and Migrancy in South Africa, 1900- 1983. Johannesburg, Ravan.
Colwell, S (1997). Tracing Your Family History. London, Hodder & Stoughton.
Groenewald, H.C., ed, (1990) Oral Studies in Southern Africa. Pretoria, Human Sciences Research Council.
Hofmeyr, I. (1993). “We spend our years as a tale that is told”: Oral Narratives in a South African Chiefdom. Johannesburg, Witwatersrand University Press.
Now consult the schedule below for practical instructions on how to go about collecting and sorting your information, how to conduct an interview, some hints on presentation etc.
Happy researching, and remember: SOUTH AFRICA NEEDS YOU TO HELP DISCOVER THE STORY OF OUR PEOPLE AND TO INSTILL A SENSE OF NATIONAL PRIDE AT ALL LEVELS OF SOCIETY AND AMONG ALL SOUTH AFRICANS
