Pan Africanist Congress of Azania
United Nations Mission

Records, 1975-1994 (Inclusive)

University of Fort Hare, Centre for Cultural Studies


EXTENT: 10.5 linear metres

ACQUISITION: Records received by the University of Fort Hare in 1995.

ACCESS: Open pending review by the PAC.

PHOTOGRAPHS: Photographs are located in Box 17.

VIDEO MATERIAL: Videotapes are incorporated in the PAC Audio Visual Materials group . See separate finding aid for description.

AUDIO MATERIAL: Audio tapes are incorporated into the PAC Audio Visual Materials group. See separate finding aid for descriptioN.

PRINTED MATERIAL: Some serial publications have been transferred to PAC Publications group. See separate finding aid for description.

COPYRIGHT: Copyright retained by the Pan Africanist Congress of Azania.

PROCESSED BY: William K. Wallach and Jack Simpson, 1998.

History

The Pan Africanist Congress was granted observer status by the United Nations General Assembly in 1974. The following year, David Sibeko was appointed permanent representative to the UN for the PAC. In a letter written on October 3, 1975, Sibeko explained the main objectives of the office: it would give the PAC a permanent presence at the world body, allow the PAC to engage in bilateral discussions with UN member states, and have an impact on public opinion in North and South America. During his tenure, David's wife, Elizabeth Sibeko, was also an important figure at the UN Mission. Sibeko held the position of permanent observer until his death in 1979.

Sibeko was succeeded by Henry Isaacs, who served as permanent observer until March 1982. Elizabeth Sibeko continued to work in the New York office as Labor and Women Coordinator. In March, 1982, Isaacs was replaced by Ahmed Gora Ebrahim. In 1985, Lesaona Samuel-Fabian (L.S.) Makhanda took Ebrahim's place. However, by 1989, Makhanda no longer represented the PAC at the UN, and Deputy Chief Representative Count Pieterson handled most of the mission's official duties. In 1990, S.E. Motsoko Pheko was appointed Chief Representative and served until November 1993. He was succeeded by Reginald Khumalo in January 1994. The UN Mission closed at the end of April 1994, following the South African elections.

The UN Mission carried out many of the objectives described in Sibeko's letter. It represented the PAC in the world body and participated in United Nations bodies such as the Centre Against Apartheid. It also served as a liaison with U.S. anti-apartheid movements and expressed the PAC perspective on South African politics in the American media.

For a general history of the Pan Africanist Congress, please see the finding aid for the Pan Africanist Congress of Azania Collection.

Scope and Content

The records of the PAC UN Mission include correspondence, memoranda, circular letters, reports, speeches, printed material, diplomatic statements, press releases, photographs and financial documents. While these documents and records are useful for studying the history and ideology of the Pan Africanist Congress, they also cover many other topics. Throughout this record group there is a wealth of material concerning grass-roots anti-apartheid efforts in the United States and elsewhere. The records, particularly those in the Nations and Diplomatic Organizations subseries of the Topical series, also document the diplomatic positions on apartheid held by various nations. The records also document PAC liaisons with afrocentric, black nationalist, pan-africanist and civil rights organizations in the United States. Finally, the record group provides insight into the role of the United Nations in the anti-apartheid struggle.

The United Nations Mission record group is divided into eight series: Administrative Material, Correspondence, Photographs, Press Releases and Public Statements, Topical, United Nations, Newspaper Cuttings and Electronic Records.

The Administrative Material series contains correspondence, memos, financial documents, and records documenting the administration of the United Nations Mission.

Correspondence contains incoming and outgoing letters, faxes, telegrams and telexes. The series is organized chronologically by year; in the folders labeled "sorted", the correspondence has also been sorted by date within the folders.

The Photographs series consists of a single folder of photographs depicting PAC members at the United Nations, including Urbania Mothopeng.

The Press Releases and Public Statements are organized chronologically by year; in the folders labeled "sorted," the correspondence has also been sorted by date.

The Topical series contains a wide variety of documents organized into subject groups. The series is divided into five subseries: Biographical and Historical Material, General Topics, Nations and Diplomatic Organizations, Organizations, and PAC Topics. The Biographical and Historical subseries consists of material describing historical topics, PAC figures, and important figures in other liberation movements. It is organized alphabetically. The General Topics subseries contains a wide variety of subjects, and is also organized alphabetically. The Nations and Diplomatic Organizations subseries contains material regarding nations or international coalitions such as the Organization of African Unity. The subseries consists of diplomatic correspondence, diplomatic statements, and information about international anti-apartheid efforts, and is organized alphabetically. The Organizations subseries contains material on a wide variety of organizations, including South African political parties, international anti-apartheid organizations, and American radical groups. The PAC subseries contains material concerning PAC offices, departments, policies and activities.

The United Nations series consists of material either published by the United Nations or about the activities of UN bodies. The series is divided into seven subseries: Anti-Apartheid Bodies, Committees and Conferences, General Assembly, Oil Embargo, Press Releases, UN Radio, and Security Council. The Anti-Apartheid Bodies subseries consists of material produced by two UN bodies: The Centre Against Apartheid and the Special Committee Against Apartheid. The Committees and Conferences subseries contains material concerning UN events and organizations that involved the PAC. The General Assembly subseries primarily consists of General Assembly reports and documents regarding South Africa. The Oil Embargo subseries contains reports on UN efforts to impose an oil embargo on South Africa during the apartheid period. The UN Radio subseries consists of reports and correspondence about UN radio broadcasts. The Security Council subseries consists of reports and statements by the Security Council concerning South Africa.

The Newspaper Cuttings series consists of articles cut from newspapers and magazines concerning PAC and South African politics. Presently, these clippings are in folders, but are not otherwise organized.

The Electronic Records series contains 533 electronic files on ten disks generated in Wordperfect 5.1 for DOS between 3/3/92 and 12/12/93. These files include correspondence, statements, speeches and reports. A list of the disk titles, file sizes and dates is included in the inventory listing for Box 106. Additionally, all files in disks 2, 6 and 10 and a sample of files in the other disks were viewed in order to determine their content. These files have been categorized into six subseries: Correspondence, Internal Documents, Press Releases and Public Statements, Reports and Proposals, Speeches and Lectures, and Unidentified Document Type. This subseries listing appears in Appendix A immediately following the box listing.

A Microsoft Word 6.0/95 copy of each viewed file is also available. All file names for the Microsoft Word copies are the same as the original file names except that all extensions from the originals are now reflected with underscores. For example, the Microsoft Word copy of "Albright.usa" is "Albright_usa.doc".

Processing Notes

The material in the PAC UN Mission was accessioned at the University of Fort Hare in 1995. Between 1995 and 1997, archivist Robert Kukubo inventoried and performed some preliminary organization and arrangement of the material. In March, 1998, William Wallach, from the University of Michigan in the United States, organized the papers into rough groupings. At that time, student archivists at Fort Hare also sorted some of the press releases and correspondence by date. In May and June of 1998, Jack Simpson further refined these groups into series by sorting the majority of the records and papers into topical or chronological order and removing duplicates and extraneous material such as routine financial documents from the collection. However, the newspaper clippings were not sorted at this time.

Box Lists

Box 1

Administrative

Box 2

Box 3

Box 4

Correspondence

Box 5

Box 6

Box 7

Box 8

Box 9

Box 10

Box 11

Box 12

Box 13

Box 14

Box 15

Box 16

Box 17

Photographs

Box 18

Press Releases and Public Statements

Box 19

Box 20

Box 21

Box 22

Box 23

Box 24

Topical

Box 25

Box 26

Box 27

Box 28

Box 29

Box 30

Box 31

Box 32

Box 33

Box 34

Box 35

Box 36

Box 37

Box 38

Box 39

Box 40

Box 41