Showing 763 results

[Source - Chloe Rushovich for FHYA, 2018: File contains an edited typescript, index cards, a collection box, and a collection box label associated with the interviewing of Dlelankulu Masilela.]

[Source - Chloe Rushovich for FHYA using Wits materials, 2017: The inventory of Swaziland Oral History Project material at the Wits Historical Papers was re-compiled by Ruth Muller in 2015 as part of the Five Hundred Year Archive Project, with funding from the Andrew Mellon Foundation and the National Research Foundation. In 2014 the Five Hundred Year Archive commissioned Patricia Liebetrau to undertake the digitization of a selection of the handwritten and typed transcripts from the recordings made by Isaac Dlamini for the Royal House of Dlamini, Dumisa Dlamini for the Swaziland Broadcasting Services, Philip Bonner, and Carolyn Hamilton. The transcripts 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 the already digitized audio, and associated materials such as collection boxes, index cards, folders, audio tape cassettes and case labels, and notebooks, formed the FHYA selection from the Swaziland Oral History Project at the Wits Historical Papers. The selection also includes the experimental edited typescripts made by Carolyn Hamilton and Ronette Engela in the late 1980s to early 1990s. The FHYA organized this material into ‘series’, with each series being named after the primary interviewer or interviewing body, of the work.]

[Source - Chloe Rushovich for FHYA using Wits materials, 2017: In 1970, Philip Bonner recorded a series of interviews, as a part of his doctoral research at the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London, under the supervision of Professor Shula Marks. Bonner’s work constitutes the earliest independent investigation of Swazi oral traditions and is informed by a set of concerns very different from those of earlier researchers. Not only do his interviews focus on regional specificities, but they address a set of issues shaped by the Africanist currents which influenced the writing of southern African history in Britain in the early 1970s. His work locating and recording local traditions served as a counter weight to the better-known royalist traditions. He also investigated Swazi oral traditions as much for what they could reveal about the Swazi interaction with the broader context of southern Africa as for what they say about internal Swazi relations. His research formed the basis of his thesis, as well as the book he subsequently published in 1983. In 1985, a selection of Bonner’s recordings was transcribed and translated in Swaziland by a number of students or graduates from the University of Swaziland working with Carolyn Hamilton. This process took place at the Swazi National Archives. In 2014 the Five Hundred Year Archive commissioned Patricia Liebetrau, a metadata librarian who had worked on the Digital Imaging South Africa project, to undertake the digitization of a selection of the transcripts from the recordings made by Bonner. The transcripts 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 the already digitized audio, the rejected experimental edited typescripts, and associated materials such as collection boxes, index cards, folders, audio tape cassettes and case labels, and notebooks, formed the FHYA selection from the collection of Bonner recordings. The Bonner series is separated into ‘files’ named after each interlocutor.]

[Source - Chloe Rushovich for FHYA using Wits materials, 2017: In 1983, a series of interviews on the ‘precolonial’ history of southern Swaziland was conducted by Carolyn Hamilton. The setting of spatial and temporal limits to this project resulted in the accumulation of a denser body of testimony, with greater detail and more versions of individual traditions than in any of the other series. In addition to recording historical narratives, forms of oral data not found in the other series, such as clan praises, interclan relationship claims, the origins of clan names, and myths of origin, have been collected. In 2014 the Five Hundred Year Archive commissioned Patricia Liebetrau, a metadata librarian who had worked on the Digital Imaging South Africa project, to undertake the digitization of a selection of the transcripts from the recordings made by Hamilton. The transcripts 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 the already digitized audio, the rejected experimental edited typescripts, and associated materials such as collection boxes, index cards, folders, audio tape cassettes and case labels, and notebooks, formed the FHYA selection from the collection of Hamilton recordings. The Hamilton series is separated into ‘files’ named after each interlocutor.]

[Source - Chloe Rushovich for FHYA using Wits materials, 2017: In the mid-1960s King Sobhuza II commissioned a series of interviews about the history of Swaziland. These interviews were conducted across the length and breadth of Swaziland from the mid-1960s to the early 1980s. They embrace a range of historical topics, notably the origins of the people of Swaziland, as well as the origins of its many chieftaincies. These interviews display a strong regional emphasis, and were conducted, in part, as a part of a program undertaken by the Swazi monarchy for the recovery and reinvigoration of Swaziland’s customs and traditions in the 1960s and 1970s. The transcripts 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. In 2014 the Five Hundred Year Archive commissioned Patricia Liebetrau, a metadata librarian who had worked on the Digital Imaging South Africa project, to undertake the digitization of a selection of the transcripts from the recordings made by Isaac Dlamini for the Royal House of Dlamini. This selection of transcripts, as well as the already digitized audio, the rejected experimental edited typescripts, and associated materials such as collection boxes, index cards, folders, audio tape cassettes and case labels, and notebooks, formed the FHYA selection from the collection of Royal House of Dlamini recordings. The Royal House of Dlamini series is separated into ‘files’ named after each interlocutor.]

[Source - Chloe Rushovich for FHYA using Wits materials, 2017: During the mid-1960s through to the early 1980s, Dumisa Dlamini conducted a series of interviews for the Swaziland Broadcasting Services and recorded them for radio. These interviews cover a wide range of topics, including traditions, nursery tales, praise poems, and stories of past heroes. Radio was an important media format in Swaziland at the time, and broadcasted interviews are likely to have had a strong influence on the historical conceptions of Swazi people. The transcripts 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. In 2014 the Five Hundred Year Archive commissioned Patricia Liebetrau, a metadata librarian who had worked on the Digital Imaging South Africa project, to undertake the digitization of a selection of the transcripts from the recordings made by Dumisa Dlamini for the Swaziland Broadcasting Services. This selection of transcripts, as well as the already digitized audio, the rejected experimental edited typescripts, and associated materials such as collection boxes, index cards, folders, audio tape cassettes and case labels, and notebooks, formed the FHYA selection from the collection of Swaziland Broadcasting Services recordings. The Swaziland Broadcasting Services series is separated into ‘files’ named after each interlocutor.]

[Source - Debra Pryor for FHYA, 2019: Series contains the A2760 finding aid, the Wits inventory for the Swaziland Oral History Project at Wits Historical Papers, as well as any other material pertinent to the collection.]