Selection - FHYA curation of a selection of the Swaziland Oral History Project from Historical Papers, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg

[Source - Chloe Rushovich for FHYA using Wits materials, 2019: The inventory of Swaziland Oral History Project material at Historical Papers, Wits, was re-compiled by Ruth Muller in 2015 for Historical Papers, using Five Hundred Year Archive (FHYA) project funding from the Andrew Mellon Foundation and the National Research Foundation. In 2014 the FHYA commissioned Patricia Liebetrau, a metadata specialist and librarian, to undertake the digitization of a selection of the handwritten and typed transcripts from the recordings made by Isaac Dlamini for the Swazi king, Sobhuza II, Dumisa Dlamini for the Swaziland Broadcasting Services, and academic researchers Philip Bonner, and Carolyn Hamilton. The transcripts initially selected were those for which a typed-up summary or typed edited typescript already existed. The rationale for this was that the typed version, unlike the handwritten versions, could be subjected to optical character recognition and are thus searchable. The linked typed texts therefore act as a kind of index to the handwritten texts and the recorded audio. This selection of transcripts, as well as already digitized audio, experimental edited typescripts, and associated materials such as collection boxes, index cards, folders, audio tape cassettes and case labels, and notebooks, formed an initial FHYA selection from the Swaziland Oral History Project (SWOHP) at Historical Papers.

In 2018 the FHYA commissioned digitisation service providers, First Coast, to digitise the remaining SWOHP jotters, folder covers, cassettes and inserts, index cards and boxes. FHYA chose not to digitize the microfiche and slides, as well as any duplicates (the micro-scans, mimeographs and photocopies, including the annotated and corrected upon photocopies). These will be added to the FHYA exemplar during the course of 2020.]