Negotiations, contestations and fabrications: the politics of archives in South Africa ten years after democracy

Abstract

Archives, whether as spaces or as records, are continually transforming and shifting in meaning. However, they are fundamentally political in nature and as such are mediated sites of power, ideology and memory. Ideological agendas and battles therefore frame the contested archival terrain and notions of ownership, access, control, privilege, propaganda and fabrication underpin and shape archival policies and processes. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) archives, the Rivonia Trial Records and South African/USA Heritage projects provide concrete examples of how social memory and identities are produced, managed, accessed and owned, in ways which commodify information, privilege the state over the public, reinforce notions of globalisation and cultural imperialism and perpetuate an uneven flow from the South to the North.

Innovation Vol. 30 2005: 1-11