Analysis of South African universities and communities archives

Date24 November 2019
Pages635-651
DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1108/GKMC-02-2019-0015
Published date24 November 2019
AuthorNkholedzeni Sidney Netshakhuma
Subject MatterLibrary & information science,Information behaviour & retrieval,Information in society,Information literacy,Library & information services
Analysis of South African
universities and
communities archives
Nkholedzeni Sidney Netshakhuma
Department of Records and Archives, University of Mpumalanga,
Mbombela, Mpumalanga, South Africa
Abstract
Purpose The purpose of thisstudy to investigate the relationships betweenSouth Africa (SA) universities
and universities surrounding communities (USC) for preserving community histories and serve the
universitiesmandateto support their local communitiesand support universitiesteaching and scholarship.
Design/methodology/approach The study used a multiplecase study approach through interviews.
The populationof the study comprised representativesfrom selected universities and theirUSC.
Findings The ndings revealeda lack of effective relationshipsbetween universities and USC to preserve
communitieshistories. Hence, the communitiesarchives are tools for teaching and scholarship. Relations
between universities and USC are to be built on trust. Accountability and transparency are to be considered
by both parties.
Research limitations/implications The research is limited to selected SA universities, namely,
University of Venda,Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, Pretoria and SA and USC. The ndingsare applicable to
all SA universitiesand USC.
Practical implications The relationship between universities and USC has a practical impact on the
National archivesof South Africa (NARSSA) to collect communities archives becauseit is in conict with the
mandate of NARSSA. The National ArchivesAct 43 of 1996 obliged NARSSA to collect and preserve
communitiesarchiveson behalf of societies.
Social implications Lack of universities and USC can lead to the loss of communities histories or
archives.
Originality/value This paper appears to be the rst to research the relationshipbetween SA universities
and USC.
Keywords Universities, Community, Archives, Communitiesarchives, Relations,
National archives of South Africa
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
The study aims to investigate the relations between South Africa (SA) universities and
universities surrounding communities (USC) to preserve community history to serve the
universitiesmandateof teaching and scholarship and preservation of communitieshistory.
Community engagement is one of the three founding principles along with teaching and
research of the post-apartheid reconstruction of South African higher education system in
the Higher Education Act 101 of 1997. Universitiescommunities relations provide a
mechanism for re-examining the communitiespurposes of universities and be a basis for
institutional change. Preservation of communitieshistory plays a meaningful role in the
teaching, learning and research. This is because USC possesses archives with cultural,
political, historical and educational signicance. Universities are to acknowledge having
social accountabilityand civic responsibility to engage with the wider communities.
Analysis of
South African
universities
635
Received11 February 2019
Revised30 April 2019
17July 2019
Accepted29 July 2019
GlobalKnowledge, Memory and
Communication
Vol.68 No. 8/9, 2019
pp. 635-651
© Emerald Publishing Limited
2514-9342
DOI 10.1108/GKMC-02-2019-0015
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/2514-9342.htm
Problem statement
The relations between universities and USC are under-theorized. Yet, universities have a
role to play in the preservation of community history. These relations would also serve the
universitiesmandate to support their USC and support universitiesteaching and
scholarship.
Objective of the study
To investigate the relations between SA universities and USC to preserve community
histories and fullment of universitiesmandate to support their local communities and
support universitiesteachingand scholarship.
Dening universitiescommunity archives/special collections/community
history
Scholars come with a different denition of community archives. Rodrigues et al. (2014,p.
95) dene community archives as ways of establishing and collecting disadvantages
historical narrative that may challenge, supplement or complement the one constructed by
dominant communities, organisations or individuals. Flinn (2010) stated that community
archives may be seen as any collection or initiative that records and preserves the traces of
any group or locality regardless of where thoserecords are kept or preserved. The group of
people may share the same ethnicity, religion, gender, occupation or other identifying
factors instead of a collection of materials on a historical topic or a place (Williams, 2015).
Froese-Stoddard (2014) denes community archives as collaborative processes of working
with history. Boucher (2006) dene a community archive as an archive managed by a
community organization,which is not for prot and non governmental. The collections
of archival records that originate from the community (Newman, 2010). Community
archives are collections of archivalrecords that originate in a community- that is, a group of
people who live in the same location orshare other forms of community interest (Newman,
2010). Community-based archives are collecting materials long-overlooked by mainstream
repositories (Caswell,2017).
Community archives centre on a range of topics such as ethnicity or racial background,
occupation, religion and military afliation (Williams, 2015). Community archives can be
associated with the initiatives of independent archives and libraries, oral history projects
and local heritage groups (Gilliland and Flinn, 2013). The collection may be situated in a
public library, museum and genealogy centre, be part of the university collection (Froese-
Stoddard, 2014). The community archive aims to document an under-represented segment
of society (Williams, 2015). Community archives have values, particularly to those people
who are marginalised and excluded from the society (Jones and ONeil, 2014). Flinn (2007),
dene characteristicsof community archives as the active participation of the community in
documenting. Communitiesarchives are parts of larger social and political movements of
groups who have been ignored, misrepresented or marginalised by mainstream archival
repositories. Theylaunch their own archival project as means of self-representation, identify
construction and empowerment.The creation of community archives can be seen as a form
of political protest, an attempt to seize the meansby which history is written and to correct
or amend dominant stories about the past (Caswell et al., 2016). For the purpose of this
study, community archives are referred to as sustaining communities history based on the
relationship betweenuniversities and USC.
GKMC
68,8/9
636

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