Memory of the World; 2012 - unesdoc - Unesco

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Liberation Struggle Living
Archive Collection
Inscribed 2007
What is it
Unique audiovisual recordings documenting key
events that occurred as part of the struggle against
the apartheid government in South Africa. Footage
includes many of the main leaders of the antiapartheid
movement.
Why was it inscribed
The apartheid struggle in South Africa was one of the
defining racial and ideological confrontations of the 20th
century and has had a global political and cultural impact.
Where is it
Doxa Productions/Visual History Archive,
Cape Town, South Africa
Audiovisual material is a fundamental source in helping
our understanding and knowledge of the history of South
Africa in the late 20th century, and particularly once film
makers acquired light electronic news-gathering video
equipment and were present at major turning points of the
struggle for liberation from the system of apartheid. Under
the apartheid regime in South Africa, due to the developed
infrastructure of the country, the foreign media were able
to show the world what was happening within the country.
Some local filmmakers were also able to document many
nuances of the unfolding history of the country. However,
many of the local inhabitants, both black and white, never
saw that footage and are still unaware of what really
happened in their country of birth.
With the democratization of South Africa, press
freedom and freedom of speech are now considered
to be secured rights and, in this context, archives are
considered as important repositories of history and
memory. However, much of the audiovisual archival
material of the post-colonial liberation struggles in South
Africa is not digitized and is degenerating. As a South
African journalist working for international networks
and agencies during the 1980s, Craig Matthew, of Doxa
Productions, filmed the day-to-day events in the Cape
Province as well as other significant events in the rest of
South Africa, Angola, Mozambique and Namibia. Since
544 Liberation Struggle Living Archive Collection
then, Doxa Productions has strived to preserve, maintain
and develop a unique audiovisual archive. It is the firsthand
realization of the fragility and the uniqueness of
these important historical records that led Doxa to create
the ‘Liberation Struggle Living Archive Collection’. It is
preserving crucial audiovisual archives and transferring
resources on the history of the South African liberation
struggle into a digital format to make them accessible.
The Doxa collection comprises 674 tapes from the 1980s
to 1994. The archive holds some unique material, which
documents key events during the struggle against the
apartheid government as these unfolded in the Western