About the National Heritage Cultural Studies Centre

• History and Purpose
• Mission
• Staff
• Divisions

History and Purpose

The University of Fort Hare located in Alice, South Africa, is the oldest historically black university in Southern and Eastern Africa. Founded in 1916, the Univeristy of Fort Hare has continued to champion black advancement. The University has made history through its invaluable contribution to the struggle for liberation and the development and affirmation of Black intelligentsia. Several outstanding leaders of Africa south of the Sahara graduated from the University. Among the distinguished alumni are such figures as President Nelson Mandela of South Africa, President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe, the late President Seretse Khama of Botswana and Yusuf Lule of Uganda.. The commitment of Fort Hare to the preservation, development and affirmation of African Heritage goes to the University's decision to establish a University Museum, which officially opened in 1942. The National Heritage Cultural Studies Centre of the University of Fort Hare began as the Centre for Xhosa Literature, attached to the Faculty of Arts, in 1981. By 1991 the Centre had made such tremendous progress that the University of Fort Hare Governing Council approved its transformation into the broad-based Centre for Cultural Studies. In September 1998, in recognition of its national significance, the Centre was renamed the National Heritage Cultural Studies Centre. For more than three centuries, the disadvantaged majority in this country have been denied not only first-generation political rights, and second-generation social, economic and cultural rights, but also third-generation conservation rights. These rights have been the exclusive preserve of the ruling minority. As a result, the management of heritage resources has been the exclusive domain of the whites. Black heritage resources have not only been marginalised, but also comdemned into extinction. Until recently, the existing heritage resources and facilities were racist, elitist and eurocentric in converage, content, form and organisation. Given this distorted heritage scenario, the University of Fort Hare has decided to spearhead the affirmation and empowerment of anti-apartheid heritage resources and facilities. There are several reasons for this undertaking:

• The historical status of the University of Fort Hare. This institution has been the cradle of both the African liberation movement and African intelligentsia. One cannot talk about the history of the African National Congress, the All-African Convention, the Unity Movement of South Africa, the Black Consciousness Movement or the Pan Africanist Movement without a substantive reference to the University of Fort Hare, which nurtured such African liberation movement stalwarts as Oliver Tambo, Nelson Mandela, Z K Matthews, Robert Sobukwe, I B Tabata, A C Jordan, Cecila Makiwane, Robert Mugabe, Jerry Modisane and Twiggs Xiphu.
• The national need for an infrastructure to recover and reconstruct anti-apartheid heritage resources, making them accessible to the disadvantaged majority.
• The regional need for heritage facilities that can foster the cultural movement both in the Eastern Cape and Border region, indlucing the Transkei.
• The academic need for cultural studies opportunities. The majority of black students in South Africa continue to emerge from historically black universities. Yet there is no a single black university that fosters academic programs and research in cultural studies. The National Heritage Cultural Studies Centre intends to offer numerous academic and research opportunities, as well as playing a pivotal role in the transformation of the University of Fort Hare from primarily a teaching institution into one that will focus equally on teaching, research and community service.

Mission

In light of the considerations described above, the mission of the National Heritage Cultural Studies Centre is:

• To serve as custodian of historical manuscripts and a repository for the records and artefacts of the liberation movements, public, or quasi-public, private, commercial, financial and enterprises, individuals, families, trade and labour unions, cultural bodies, ecclesiastical bodies, learned societies, etc.
• To design and offer cultural studies and African studies that give primacy to the cultural dimension of development.
• To initiate and engage in research on arts and culture and foster research based on primary source materials at its custody.
• To facilitate community activism that offers the general public the opportunity to exploit the resources of the University of Fort Hare.

Staff

Responsible for general adiministration of the Centre as well as such areas as grants & linkages.

Mr R Letsatsie, Curator

Ms. N Lupuwana, Assistant Archivist

Mr. J Klu, Projects Manager