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Introduction
Most archival histories comprise of reading, accessing and shaping the past in a number of ways. The past can be remembered, recovered or even reinvented, yet no historian can present the “unvarnished truth”.1 Increasingly in the last few decades, the question of what it means to contest the past has become a charged notion, as a contested history, in a basic sense evokes a struggle in the terrain of truth.2 The idea of contesting the past, poses questions about the present, and what the past means in the present.
Contested history, like memory, is naturally fallible and the past is therefore inherently and most often considered imperfect. Historical debates often revolve around the assumption that « making » history, like the past, is imperfect, biased and flawed, as historians recognise there is no absolute “truth” in history. Similarly, archives have also always been at the intersection of past, present, and future as it is contended that archival “truths” indeed have historical consequences as these “interfaces” or spaces are the focus of power of the present to control what the future will know about the past.3
This re-examination of the past is not discipline specific nor is it a novel notion, yet nuanced work on the contested past lies at the heart of many postmodern archival studies.4 In reconsidering the place of historical knowledge in archival work, it is suggested that “the pendulum is swinging back, 1 See, for example, E.H. Carr, What is history? London: Penguin, 1961. not in a simple return to the past… but toward appreciation of the central place of historical knowledge in the distinctive body of knowledge, research, and daily work of the new archival profession which has emerged over the last quarter century”.5 There was growing recognition in the 1980s of the association between academic historical research and the archives, as humanities and social science put into question claims to objectivity as archives offered a way of engaging with knowledge of the past as inevitably partial and subjective.6
However, post-1994, the role of postmodern historical knowledge and that of archival scholarship has advanced tremendously both in terms of scope and in the development of many wide-ranging intellectual paradigms. Craven invites scholars to question “what is an archive” and to step away from the “practicalities of keeping archives” and instead consider what they actually “do in a cultural context”.7 Therefore, archives have become sites of contestation as the ‘politics of the past’ has become increasingly prominent in post democracy eras and the role of archives has to be considered and questioned. Likewise, the past must also be contested, as the question of the archive has risen to greater prominence in South Africa than ever before.8
Considering an archive
This thesis examines the contested early history of the “Mapungubwe Archive” held at the University of Pretoria and how as a manifestation of the institution, it can also be argued that the archive has become a site of contestation in the present. But what is the “Mapungubwe Archive”? Is it a collection of historical papers, a physical construct contained within walls, a university facility or merely a collection of related historical records? Unfortunately, this trajectory of enquiry of when does an archive become an archive is not seemingly simple in this study, but instead poses a rhetorical or philosophical question when attempting to reach a clear definition. Theoretically, the “decolonization of archival methodology” trend rejects the influences of colonialism and imperialism
5 T. Nesmith, “What’s history got to do with it? Reconsidering the place of historical knowledge in archival work”. Archivaria 57, (Spring 2004), pp. 1-2.
See for example discussion about the role of archives in a democracy and how heritage has been “valorised”, yet the archival system in South Africa is strained and neglected, Archives at the Crossroads 2007. Open report to the Minister of Arts and Culture, Archival Conference “National System, Public Interest”, co-convened by the national Archives, the Nelson Mandela Foundation and the Constitution of Public Intellectual Life Research as well as the paternalistic ‘western’ sense of a Rankian-type definition of an archive. Therefore, this study acknowledges to an extent, that the “Mapungubwe Archive” is part of the ongoing process or ‘turn’ of centering archival concerns both practically and theoretically in rejecting the hegemonic environments of defining archives.9
Considering that the “Mapungubwe Archive” in essence was retrospectively created in the twenty-first century, broadly speaking then this Archive can be understood to mean anything that it is no longer current, but that has been retained. Compounding the problem is also determining specific dates for the Archive, although research commenced in 1933, the archive contains a few records prior to the 1930s, some even dating back to 1900. However, to overcome the historical tendency of distilling dates, merely for the purposes of this study and motivation, the Mapungubwe Archive cannot be fixed by definition nor date. Instead, it should be viewed as a dynamic historical and heritage resource comprising of irreplaceable records and memory that has evolved from the past into the present. For this reason, the first chapter only at this stage considers and reconsiders “an archive”, and later the final chapter highlights the “Mapungubwe Archive” as a modern construct of the twenty-first century.
However, some of the earliest Mapungubwe records, which later became university departmental records, were identified at some point in time as potential research sources to the archaeologist, and over more time, the records acquired deeper meaning and greater value. Evolving over decades and transforming a significant change of name to today, what is referred to as the “Mapungubwe Archive” can be viewed as the archival canon or body of works or narrative of Mapungubwe from the University of Pretoria. More formally, the Mapungubwe Archive serves as a depository for materials of enduring historical value associated with the now world-renowned heritage site known as Mapungubwe in South Africa.10 However, they are also the fonds d’archives for the official records of the University of Pretoria thus forming an integral part of institutional memory. This study is less concerned with the history of the Mapungubwe Archive, but rather theways in which the Archive can be reconsidered, redefined and how and why the Archive constitutes part of the collective and institutional memory of the University of Pretoria. This study further interrogates the early historical archival context, as well as gaps in the Mapungubwe Archive, by examining critical aspects of the University of Pretoria’s association with Mapungubwe with a focus on the time period of mainly the 1930s. This context of the Mapungubwe Archive is particularly considered, as all decisions on Mapungubwe were taken by the Council of the University of Pretoria under the advice of a sub-committee known as the Archaeological Committee of the University of Pretoria (1933-1947).11
This early period of Mapungubwe and the University of Pretoria’s parallel history from the « discovery » of gold artefacts in 1933,12 through to the foundational years of the Archaeological Committee, who “directed” research until its cessation in the 1940s, is re-examined and to an extent deconstructed using a postmodern archival approach. Select members of the Council and the Committee were considered highly influential individuals, and were externally well-connected to government administrators who, « appear as faceless bodies obscuring the role of the individuals of whom they were constituted. »13 Thus, securing research and legal rights to Mapungubwe and the gold treasure trove that was under the ownership of the University of Pretoria on behalf of the State.
Within the milieu of the 1933 national general elections and at a time when as an institution of higher learning the University of Pretoria supported growing Afrikaner Nationalism,14 it also buttressed the ideals of national unity and perpetuated the colonial narratives that dominated Mapungubwe research in the early years. The consequences of this primary history directly provides a significant view on why the Mapungubwe Archive was created and how it evolved, backing notions of a contested past into a contested present. It was within this context that concretized the University of Pretoria’s perceived status and power over Mapungubwe’s history and heritage for more than eight decades. This study’s research questions centre on this power ofthe so-called authority and questions how, why and within which political and social settings, critical legal and institutional decisions were made. For example, securing a national cultural treasure on behalf of the Union of South Africa in 1933 that reverberated into present issues of contestation in heritage legislation and other heritage platforms.
CHAPTER I: A CONTESTED PAST AND ARCHIVE
Introduction
Considering an archive
Changing archival perspectives
Contextualizing the archiv
Reconsidering the Mapungubwe Archive
Chapter outline
CHAPTER II: REVISITING MAPUNGUBWE LITERATURE
Previous research
Early literature: 1930s to 1940s
Post-War studies: 1950s to 1960s
Discipline years of Archaeology: 1970s to 1980s
Post democracy years: 1994 to the 21st century
CHAPTER III: THE TRANSVAAL TREASURE TROVE: A CONTESTED DISCOVERY
‘Finders Keepers’
Treasure trove: a brief history
Ignored indigenous histories
Legendary Lotrie: Francois Bernard Lotrie (1825-1917)
Back to the Battle of Dongola: 1922
‘Forgetting Frobenius’: 1928-1929
The famous five discoverers: 1932 and J.C.O. van Graan (1908-1987)
The Transvaal Treasure: 1933 .
CHAPTER IV: THE UNIVERSITY OF PRETORIA ARCHAEOLOGICAL COMMITTEE
Institutional control
Formidable Fouché: a frontier of ‘his’ history
Renaissance man and reformer: J. de Villiers Roos (1869-1940) .
Contesting personalities: Fouché vs Roos
Scientific endeavours: the Archaeological Committee’s maiden years..
Collection endeavours: curatorship and co-operation with the Transvaal Museum .
CHAPTER V: HISTORICAL OWNERSHIP VS HERITAGE STEWARDSHIP
Legal chartering
Controlling history: framing the legal approach
A ‘reversionary right’: the ownership approach
A responsible right: the stewardship approach
CHAPTER VI: EPILOGUE
An imperfect Mapungubwe Archive past
BIBLIOGRAPHY
