The American Political Science Association (APSA) is pleased to announce a call for applications from individuals who would like to participate in a July 19- August 6, 2010 workshop on “Global Perspectives on Politics and Gender” in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.  This workshop is designed for university and college faculty in the social sciences residing in Africa, who have completed their Ph.D. and are in the early stages of their academic career. All workshop fellows must be engaged actively in an empirical research project in political science or an area of inquiry related to politics. Fellows should be working on a manuscript, paper, book chapter, or article that can be developed during the workshop into an eventual article-length publication.  Program announcements, the 2010 Application Form, and more information about the workshop can be found online at the APSA Africa Workshops project website, www.apsanet.org/africaworkshops. The application deadline is April 2, 2010.  Founded in 1903, the American Political Science Association is a major professional society for individuals engaged in the study of politics and government.

This past Sunday, the world remembered those killed 50 years ago in Sharpeville, South Africa.  This event was of great historical importance both for the region and for galvanizing momentum in the civil rights movement in the US. This article and the following excerpt from an article in the Guardian remind us of the important sacrifice made on that day and the important work that remains.

“Sunday marks the 50th anniversary of the day that changed the course of South African history. When police opened fire on thousands of unarmed protesters, killing 69 and injuring about 180, they inadvertently provided a catalyst for decades of armed struggle and forced the rest of the world to confront the iniquity of apartheid. White minority rule finally collapsed in 1994. Two years later it was in Sharpeville that the country’s first black president, Nelson Mandela, signed a new constitution.”

The journal Africa Today (published by Indiana University Press) had an insightful series of articles about the massacre in their May 1960 issue, including a eyewitness account of the shooting as well as a chilling excerpt of a speech made by Bernadus G. Fourie, the regime’s then Ambassador to the United Nations. JSTOR’s Struggles for Freedom in Southern Africa collection contains a wealth of important primary source and historical materials about the massacre including pamphlets (see below as an example), interviews with witnesses and victims, and various UN reports and investigations into the massacre. 

The myriad dangers facing heritage and cultural sites in Africa (as well as across the world) is well known, well documented, and well researched. Heritage sites everywhere are threatened by population growth and natural disasters.  News reports are still sketchy but it appears that a fire that destroyed the tombs subsequently led to protests and strife between civilians and a Presidential convoy seeking to visit the site.   The Kasubi Tombs were listed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site because of its architectural and cultural significance but also because of its value as an expression of Africa’s intangible heritage.  As one of the premier digital and scholarly sites collaborating with others to share and preserve documentation and research of Africa’s cultural heritage, we are saddened by these events and we urge the protection and preservation of these and other cultural tangible and intangible heritage sites around the world.  CyArk has a interesting video on their YouTube channel about some documentation that was undertaken at the tombs in Uganda recently.

Two new collections of content have been made available recently in the Struggles for Freedom in Southern Africa collection - bringing the number of sub-collections available in Struggles for Freedom in Southern Africa to 69!  The Study Project on Christianity in Apartheid Society (SPRO-CAS) collection includes the 11 occasional papers published by SPRO-CAS between 1971 and 1973, including its first analysis of The Anatomy of Apartheid and the final report of the study project, entitled A Taste of Power. The Study Project on Christianity in Apartheid Society (SPRO-CAS) was established in mid-1969 by the South African Council of Churches and the Christian Institute of Southern Africa. Including six commissions and a diverse set of over 140 commissioners and consultants, it focused on the need for change in South Africa, examining economics, education, law, politics, sociology and the Church. The project not only played a critical role in thinking within the South African churches about how to overcome apartheid but also marks a critical stage in the birth of the Black Consciousness Movement. The project was directed from 1969-1972 by Peter Randall, formerly the Assistant Director of the South African Institute of Race Relations and later the director of Ravan Press.The Theses Completed in South Africa collection includes a selection of theses (rights cleared) from the holdings at the University of Cape Town. The theses focus on various topics such as the South African Congress of Trade Unions, history of the National Committee for Liberation, the Federation of South African Women, and the Congress of South African Students, amongst others.  As with most of the content in the Struggles collections, there is much synergy between the primary sources and historical documents available in this collection and the scholarly literature available in the various JSTOR collections.  For example, this article in the Journal of South African Studies does a good job of describing the important role of women’s political action in South Africa from 1910 - 1960’s - a topic of direct relevance to the history and existence of the Federation of South African Women.

A colleague of mine at ITHAKA, Michael Gallagher, has done a wonderful job of creating brief and excellent video tutorials and posting these on our YouTube page.  There is also a separate video tutorials page for the JSTOR archival collections. The video tutorials provide detailed and lucid instruction on how to best use the features and content in the African Cultural Heritage Sites and Landscapes and Struggles for Freedom in Southern Africa collections.  Topics include how to zoom on images, view 3D models, browse through a publication using our book viewer, and how to become a search genius using our advanced search.These tools (in addition to printing, downloading, and the MyAluka functionality) are only available to institutions, libraries, and schools that have registered or licensed access.  Keep in mind that acccess to our content to institutions in Africa is free via our Africa Access Initiative.  So if you’re based at a school or library somewhere on the African continent, you simply have to register with us to access our amazing digital collections.  We hope you enjoy viewing these videos and we welcome all your comments, feedback, and suggestions.