Page 19 - Research & Innovation Report 2020

HUMANITIES

are processes in place to preserve it. “We want Nelson Mandela
University and the Faculty of Humanities to position ourselves as a
site for archiving the literary legacy of the Eastern Cape,” says Prof
Maseko, adding that this would be an invaluable contribution to
the revitalisation of the humanities.

“An important part of the archives will be to include the
knowledge and historical writings of women. As we know, women
have been marginalised for various reasons and their work has not
been recognised and archived, compared to that of their male
counterparts.”

Prof Maseko explains that it won’t be a traditional archive “where
you put things in boxes and people page through the work with
gloves on. We want it to be highly interactive, where people can
see the physical archive but also have digital interaction with it. It
will be linguistically diverse and feature all South Africa’s languages.
The original works will have to be well protected against fire and
water damage, given the fragility of the materials, as we saw with
the fire that consumed the African Studies archive in Cape Town
earlier this year.”

The archive will be part of the process of revaluing indigenous
knowledge and at the same time revaluing the humanities
and social sciences and placing them back at the centre of the
academy. As Prof Maseko explains: “It’s the focal point of how we
train our students as people who need to understand the origins
of knowledge as power, to value themselves, their heritage and
the importance of diversity. This is how we nurture graduates who
such as Dr Brigalia Bam, who represents the marginalised voices of respond in a humane manner to societal problems and challenges.”
women in the academy.”

Prof Maseko is currently working with Professor Jeff Opland,
co-editing a Literature Series that republishes works from Prof
Opland’s private library collection. These include books and works
from early newspapers that were historically stored in national
libraries, to which black South Africans did not have access, as even
libraries were segregated at the height of apartheid. “Jeff had the
privilege of accessing them and collected as much as possible
in his personal library,” says Prof Maseko. Prof Opland and Prof
Maseko have collaborated with African scholars in translating and
editing the writings of several early South African intellectuals and
have published eight volumes to date.

The original works, especially the newspapers, have not been well
preserved and the paper disintegrates when touched, but there Prof Pamela Maseko

“Prof Opland and Prof Maseko have

collaborated with African scholars in translating

and editing the writings of several early South

African intellectuals ... ”

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