Abstract
This chapter assesses the state of rural South Africa on the availability of strategies, infrastructure, programs, information sharing, and skills. The conditions of rural community libraries were affected by limited budgets allocated by the South African government. The majority of rural community libraries are illiterate, impoverished, or marginalized because of the apartheid system. The study recommend rural librarians to provide education to rural communities because of the need to social justice education. This is important during the COVID-19 pandemic as disadvantaged communities need information.
TopIntroduction
The chapter aims to analyze the role of South Africa's higher education libraries in a collection of marginalized communities’ archives. The marginalized records are associated with a group of people discriminated against by the apartheid government. Welland & Cossham (2019) explained marginalized records as “non-dominant cultural, gender, religious, linguistic, ethnic, political, and social identity records”. In this study, marginalized communities refer to historically marginalized people as the consequence of the apartheid policy. The marginalized groups lacked a voice or recognition of their culture embedded in records by the apartheid system in South Africa. Marginalized records may aid in universities' teaching, learning, and research program. The rationale for South African university libraries to embark on the collection of marginalized community archives is that the National Archives of South Africa (NARS) was not playing its role to collect such materials. South African archives redefined archives to collect marginalized groups through the enactment of the National Archives and Records Service Act 43 of 1996. Similarly, In the United Kingdom, records that include evidence of ethnically diverse populations and racialized oppression were excluded from the United Kingdom National Archives repositories.
Problem Statement
Community archives with historical, cultural, and scientific values were lost because NARS was not proactive to collect marginalized community archives. Hence there is a need for South African universities to collect community archives to enhance teaching, learning, and research. Such marginalization is indicative of the neglected narrative history of South Africa. The transformational discourse in the realm of archives challenges institutions to collect marginalized community records (Mhlanga, 2014). This implies that the librarian needs to expand the collection scope to collect archives materials despite the profession being small (Eastwood 2017). Therefore, South African university libraries' strategy requires collecting and documenting marginalized community records. South Africa's higher education takes the mandate of the NARS because most communities' archives with archival values are not collected.
Research Questions
This research was conducted to answer the following research questions:
§ What is the role of South Africa Higher Education Libraries in the collection of marginalized communities' archives?
§ What is the level of skills of personnel responsible for the collection of marginalized community’s archives?
§ What is the role of the National Archives of South Africa in the collection of marginalized communities’ archives?
§ What is the role of Archives Management policy in a collection of marginalized community's archives?
§ What is the level of archives infrastructure in South Africa?
§ What is the level of awareness and training on the collection of marginalized community archives?
§ How are the relations between community and universities regarding the collection of marginalized community archives
Key Terms in this Chapter
Community Archives: These are records created by communities without formal archives institutions, such archives
State Archives: This is a national archive of South Africa established to preserve records of enduring value.
Apartheid: The system of governance introduced by the National Party (now known as the Democratic Alliance Party) to separate people according to their tribe, race, and language. Black people were sidelined because of the apartheid system in South Africa.
Community Engagement Program: This is a project initiated by universities for the advancement of community.
International Council on Archives: This is an international body responsible for archives and records management.
Archives: These are records preserved by institutions because of their significance such as historical, cultural, and scientific values. Such records are preserved permanently.
National Party: This is a political organization that came to power in 1948 in South Africa and enacted the apartheid policy to separate black and white.
Marginalized Records: These are records created by people fighting for social justice and human right such as Lesbians, Gays, women, and people oppressed because of the apartheid systems. Most of these people were denied access to information and were previously denied the privilege to vote.
Indunas: These are traditional leaders based in rural areas providing leadership roles.