Sanitation, Claims, and Repatriation of Records in Pre- and Post-Apartheid South Africa: Implications on Social Memory And Justice

Abstract

South Africa has been both a colony and colonial master from the time of the Dutch East Indian Company (1652-1795) up to the end of the apartheid era in 1989 when South-West Africa obtained independence from South Africa. This paper aims to examine sanitation, claims, and repatriation of records in pre- and post-colonial South Africa, as well as the implications for social memory and justice. Qualitative data were collected through interviews with archivists from South Africa, Namibia, and Botswana to investigate the sanitation, claims, and repatriation of records in pre- and post-colonial South Africa. While records for colonial office were removed from South Africa by the coloniser, the findings further revealed that a chunk of records was destroyed on the eve of democratic South Africa and in the years immediately following 1994 without the written authority of the national archivist. As a coloniser, and as part of a group of societies colonised by the United Kingdom, South Africa holds large archival resources related to the history of Namibia, Lesotho, Botswana, Zimbabwe, and Swaziland. It is argued that the destruction and displacement of records has had a severe impact on South Africa’s social memory and justice.