{"id":2260,"date":"2018-09-11T18:51:52","date_gmt":"2018-09-11T16:51:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ifas.org.za\/research\/?p=2260"},"modified":"2022-12-07T15:09:15","modified_gmt":"2022-12-07T13:09:15","slug":"listening-to-the-rivonia-trial-international-colloquium","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ifas.org.za\/research\/blog\/listening-to-the-rivonia-trial-international-colloquium\/","title":{"rendered":"Listening to the Rivonia Trial"},"content":{"rendered":"

Courts, Archives and Liberation Movements<\/h4>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

A one-day international colloquium<\/h4>\n

as part of the opening and study of the apartheid archives in South Africa<\/em><\/p>\n

Since 2012, the Department of Arts and Culture, the National Archives and Records Service of South Africa (NARSSA) and Institut national de l\u2019audiovisuel (INA \u2014 French National Audiovisual Institute) have worked to restore the audio recordings of the Rivonia Trial, making the previously inaccessible recordings available to the public.<\/p>\n

In the year of the Mandela Centenary, a colloquium, hosted at the University of the Witwatersrand, intends to reflect on the contemporary and historical significance of the restored Rivonia Trial sound archive and other legal archives, through a comparative reach into the experiences of colonial and repressive regimes in other parts of Africa. New perspectives on liberation movements and emancipatory politics will be at the heart of the panel discussions. A presentation of the processes of mapping the Rivonia Trial sound archive will serve as a point of departure for the study of archives elsewhere: the act of collecting, mapping, restoring and digitising the archives raises ethical questions that, in turn, become historical questions. These processes also shed light on the technical challenges of heritage management which hamper accessibility to such heritage for future generations.<\/p>\n

The colloquium is organised by the Wits History Workshop<\/a> and IFAS-Research<\/a>, in partnership with the INA<\/a>, the Institut Fran\u00e7ais<\/a>, the Department of Arts and Culture<\/a> (DAC), the National Archives and Records Service of South Africa (NARSSA), the Nelson Mandela Foundation<\/a>, the Embassy of France in South Africa<\/a>, the CNRS<\/a> (French National Centre for Scientific Research), the Hanns Seidel Foundation<\/a> and research centres CHS XXe si\u00e8cle <\/a>(Paris) and LARHRA<\/a> (Lyons and Paris).<\/p>\n

Scientific and organising committee: <\/strong>Sarah Bruchhausen (Wits History Workshop), Brenda Kotze (NARSSA), Arianna Lissoni (Wits History Workshop), Noor Nieftagodien (Wits History Workshop), Matthieu Rey (IFAS-Recherche), Razia Saleh (Nelson Mandela Foundation) and Thomas Vernet-Habasque (IFAS-Recherche). With the teams of NMF, IFAS, IFAS-Recherche, NARSSA and INA.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Thursday 27 September 2018<\/h4>\n

9:00 to 16.30 | Wits University<\/h4>\n

Graduate Seminar Room, South West Engineering Building, University of the Witwatersrand<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/h4>\n

 <\/p>\n

> RSVP <\/a>for the colloquium<\/p>\n

> Join the Facebook event<\/a><\/p>\n

> Read the event programme<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/h4>\n

\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a><\/h4>\n

\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a><\/h4>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Colloquium programme<\/h4>\n

The colloquium will be organised around three thematic panels:<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

> PANEL 1 \u2013 PROCESSING AND MAPPING THE RIVONIA TRIAL AUDIO ARCHIVE<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"

Rivonia Trial Dictabelts folders <\/em><\/span>
(c) Henri Chamoux<\/em><\/span><\/p><\/div>\n

Sarah Bruchhausen<\/strong><\/a> | Ph.D. fellow, Wits History Workshop<\/p>\n

T<\/em>he Rivonia Trial and Emancipatory Politics: Listening to an Apartheid Archive<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Henri Chamoux<\/strong><\/a> | Researcher and Sound Engineer, CNRS, LARHRA<\/p>\n

Digitising the Rivonia Trial Dictabelts with the Archeophone Phonograph<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Quentin Geffroy<\/strong><\/a> | Sound Engineer, INA<\/p>\n

Restoring the Rivonia trial recordings <\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Nkwenkwezi Languza<\/strong><\/a> | Head of Sound Preservation, NARSSA<\/p>\n

Freeing the Voices of Freedom: Trials and Triumphs in the Preservation of the Rivonia Trial Dictabelts<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Chair\/discussant: Razia Saleh<\/strong> <\/a>(NMF)<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

> PANEL 2 \u2013 ARCHIVES AND THE FIGHT FOR THE PAST<\/strong><\/p>\n

Leyla Dakhli<\/strong> <\/a>| Researcher, CNRS, Centre Marc Bloch<\/p>\n

Tunisia, between Memory and Justice, the Aftermath of the Revolution of 2010-2011<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Yasmin Sooka<\/strong><\/a> | Executive Director, Foundation for Human Rights in South Africa and Former TRC Commissioner<\/p>\n

Access to the TRC Archives and the Link to Accountability and Reparations<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Sylvie Th\u00e9nault<\/strong><\/a> | Senior Researcher, CNRS, CHS<\/p>\n

The Archives of Colonisation in Algeria: a Political and Scientific Problem<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Agn\u00e8s Magnien<\/strong><\/a> | Director of Collections Department, INA<\/p>\n

Individual and collective Responsibilities in Collecting, Selecting, Describing, Securing and Giving Access to our Memory<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Chair\/discussant: Nomzamo Zondo<\/strong><\/a> (Socio-Economic Rights Institute of South Africa)<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

> PANEL 3 \u2013 THE LAW AND LIBERATION MOVEMENTS<\/strong><\/p>\n

Chaymaa Hassabo<\/strong><\/a> | Postdoctoral Fellow, Centre for Social Change, University of Johannesburg<\/p>\n

Law and Revolution in Saad Zaglul Memoirs<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Tembeka Ngcukaitobi<\/strong><\/a> | Advocate, Author<\/p>\n

Title TBC<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Meredith Terretta<\/strong><\/a> | Associate Professor, University of Ottawa<\/p>\n

The Heart of the Matter: Changing Definitions of Death, International Anti-Apartheid Advocacy, and Transformative Law<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Chair\/discussant: Arianna Lissoni<\/strong><\/a> (Wits History Workshop)<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"Rivonia Trial Dictabelt files<\/em> (c) Henri Chamoux<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Context | The restoration of the Rivonia Trial audio archive<\/h4>\n

The Rivonia Trial (1963-1964) was a defining moment in South African history. At the time, the trial was carefully recorded on Dictabelts, a now obsolete audio recording format. Nearly 250 hours of the trial proceedings were recorded on 591 Dictabelts, kept by the National Archives and Records Service of South Africa (NARSSA). In the 1970s, Dictabelts had fallen into disuse and, consequently, countless Dictabelt recordings of other apartheid-era trials \u2013 invaluable records of history and heritage \u2013 were not accessible to researchers and the general public.<\/p>\n

In 2012, NARSSA approached the French Institute of South Africa (IFAS) and the French National Audiovisual Institute (INA) to start a process of digitisation and restoration of the entire Rivonia Trial sound archive, which is now complete. At the same time, INA has been offering ongoing training to NARSSA sound technicians, so that South Africans may have their own agency over tens of thousands of Dictabelts dating from the apartheid era, which are yet to be restored and studied.  These archives \u2013 a treasure trove of memory \u2013 should therefore not remain hidden away. Efforts to (re)gain access to historic records is a process that revives the universal impetus of archives for research, art, culture, the law and beyond.<\/p>\n