Apartheid South Africa, 1948-1994

Content

In its entirety, Apartheid South Africa (ASA) will make available British government files from the Colonial, Dominion, and Foreign and Commonwealth Offices spanning the period between 1948 and 1980. The scope of the file ranges from the implementation of apartheid by South Africa's National Party in 1948 through 1980. Content, which comes from the National Archives in Kew, is being released by AM in three sections: 1948-66, 1967-75, and 1976-80. As the third part, 1967-80, will be available in March 2015, this review covers the first two sections available at the time of publication.

The materials here were previously restricted and illustrate in detail the history of South Africa's apartheid regime. Included in the file are antiapartheid movement campaign materials; deliberations on discussions in the UN; documents on trials and court cases; economic statistics and analyses; government memoranda and reports; maps; newspaper cuttings; profiles of people, places, and organizations; reports of meetings, investigations, and surveys; information detailing international reactions to events in South Africa, and much more.

Data presented is full-text searchable across all documents, and a clickable list of popular search terms is provided for researchers' convenience. Perhaps most significantly, the metadata for each document in the file not only includes its title, reference, and date; but also lists key people, places, and topics mentioned within. ASA is an Archives Direct (AD) collection and is cross-searchable with other AD content. See ow.ly/IDndX for a full listing of collections.

Usability

ASA uses the AD search interface, the opening screen of which offers a simple search box accompanied by an advanced option at the top of the page. These allow for searching the entire AD portal, so if users have access to multiple AD collections, they can search them all here. Since this reviewer only had access to ASA, documents from other collections appeared grayed out in the results list. Below the search area is a toolbar providing five options, described below.

Through the Information option, patrons can access details about each collection. The Documents link leads exclusively to files within ASA, but the Chronology option allows entry to all collections, from 1820 to 1983. Even more impressive is the Interactive World Map area, in which this reviewer selected a country via either a menu or using a globe feature. Lastly, the Essays option makes available all 18 essays "written by leading scholars on (AD's) editorial boards, introducing the document collections and serving as interesting points of departure for researchers to explore the material."

The system also permits searching ASA only by selecting the collection from a list of options below that toolbar and clicking a button to View Collection. Unfortunately, for this reviewer it took a couple tries to realize that the bottom half of the screen changed when selecting this button because much of the screen's taken up by a photograph. A new toolbar appears beneath the top level one, but it's a very neutral color for this collection, and in this instance the buttons were overlooked on the new toolbar the first couple of times the ASA collection was selected.

Once the user encounters the new toolbar, the buttons there - Home, Documents, Essay, Chronology, Popular Searches, and Maps - lead to a wealth of material. For example, there are eight pages of document listings; the excellent essay “Awkward Relations: Apartheid and the British Response, 1948-1980," by Colin Bundy, collection editor; the chronology previously described; prepopulated popular searches for people, places, and topics; and an array of more than 50 maps, ranging from "African Reserves in South Africa - September 1969" to "South West Africa as Envisaged in the Odendaal Report, 1964". The maps can be enlarged, rotated, added to a lightbox, downloaded, etc. through the system's powerful Visual Resource Image viewer.

The bottom of the screen provides a short description of the file, an option to "search just this collection," and quick links to the nature and scope of the collection as well as external links.

An initial search within ASA for 'rivonia trial' found 107 results. These included a confidential letter from J M O Snodgrass of the British Embassy in Cape Town to John Wilson of the British Foreign Office, referencing Joel Joffe acting for the defense in the trial; multiple telegrams, letters, reports, pieces of evidence, and International Discussion and Reactions about the trial and concern over sentencing (expressing concern that death sentences would be pronounced for the defendants and discussing what "representations" should or should not be made to the South African government in that situation); a pamphlet soliciting support for the International Defense and Aid Fund, noting their work in the Treason Trial (of 1956) and the Rivonia Trial; and many other materials. Most results had easily readable penciled annotations.

Another search for 'black sash movement' retrieved 12 results, including confidential letters reporting on the members and actions of the movement and newspaper clippings about Black Sash opposition to reference books (also called passes) being issued to African women. The documents are very clear and easy to read; it can take time to move through the system and the images, but that's a negligible cavil given the breadth and depth of material here.

Pricing

ASA is available for onetime purchase with a nominal annual hosting fee (0.5 percent of the purchase price). AM uses a banded pricing structure to determine discounts and payment plans for institutions of all sizes. The "typical" purchase price for all three sections of ASA (1948-66, 1967-75, and 1976-80) ranges from $26,550 to $88,500, varying according to factors such as full-time equivalent (FTE), purchase history, and Carnegie Classification.

Verdict

This collection gives ready, granular access (thanks to meticulous metadata) to an exhaustive archive of formerly confidential material. Large research libraries with the available funds will want to make this extraordinary collection available to students and scholars studying African history, apartheid, international relations, and global politics.