After the banning and forced exile of the African National Congress and the Pan Africanist Congress of Azania in 1960, students at the so called Black campuses of the Universities of Fort Hare, Zululand, North, Western Cape and Natal (Black Section), formed the Black Consciousness Movement (BCM). The BCM became the most dominant political force within the country for the period for which the older organizations were banned and exiled.
The University of For Hare was, therefore, a founder member of the BCM, and the Azanian People's Organization (AZAPO), is proud to deposit its archives, publications and artefacts with the Centre for Cultural Studies of this University. In addition, the University is the alma mater to many of the past and present leaders within the Black Consciousness Movement. Amongst the names that some to mind are those of:
The Azanian People's Organisation strongly supports the launch of the University of Fort Hare Centre for Cultural Studies and the deposit of artefacts, publications and archives for the liberation movement in Azania. As the oldest of the universities for Blacks in the country, Fort Hare is most appropriate for this honour. Many of the past and present leaders in independent Africa studied at Fort Hare, as also many of our own past and present leaders in the current struggle. All liberation organisations in the country have one or other revolutionary link with this institution, and AZAPO and the whole Black Consciousness Movement is proud to be part of this experience.
All freedom-loving persons worldwide are urged to facilitate, in whatever way possible, the successful launch and maintenance of the University of Fort Hare Centre for Cultural Studies by way of monetary donations, the collection of artefacts, publications and other articles of archival interest relating to the long and rich history of the Black man's struggle for freedom and justice in our land.
One of the worst legacies of the present situation of oppression in Azania is the total absence of the documentation on the Black resistance. It has become imperative to re-write the history of the struggle, as the Centre hopes to do, by preserving all what can still be found in the troubled past of this struggle. The Black nation can only be rebuilt when its history is properly resourced, documented and immortalised in historical artefacts, publications and archives of the nature that the Centre intends to store.
Don Nkadimeng
National Heritage Cultural
Studies Centre Welcome Page
Last updated 18 September 1998