Southern African archives

The Borthwick Institute for Archives holds various collections relating to southern Africa, from its colonial past in the early twentieth century to the end of the apartheid regime.

The archives have been donated by writers, activists, clergy, administrators and politicians and have grown from the collections of the former Centre for Southern African Studies at the University.

The material in the collections ranges from administrative and personal correspondence, photographs and diaries, political publications by the ANC and other anti-apartheid organisations, to lectures, poems, plays and sermons.

The archives tell us of the activities of their creators (including Patrick Duncan, Dennis Brutus, the Capricorn Africa Society, Joost de Blank and Libert and Vivian Oury). They also shed light on many aspects of southern Africa's cultural, political, social and industrial past.

The images below provide an insight into some of the themes, such as education, sport and student activism, that emerge from the collections.

If you are interested in exploring any aspects of the collections further, catalogues can be consulted through our online catalogue Borthcat and in the searchroom reception of the Borthwick Institute.