UNAM Archives

Collection PA 2 - du Pisani Collection

Open original Digital object

Identity area

Reference code

PA 2

Title

du Pisani Collection

Date(s)

  • 1935 - 1991 (Creation)

Level of description

Collection

Extent and medium

ExtentThe collection consists of 60 boxes or 15 cubic feet of paper documents.

Context area

Name of creator

(1949 -)

Biographical history

André du Pisani was born on 15 January 1949 in Windhoek, Namibia. He earned his bachelor's degree from Stellenbosch University in South Africa in 1971 and honours’ in politics from Stellenbosch in 1972. He later earned a Master's degree in politics from Stellenbosch in 1975. From 1975-76, André was a research student at the London School of Economics. In 1988, he earned his Ph.D. in politics from the University of Cape Town. From 1995-96, he did post-doctoral research through the Global Security Fellows Initiative at the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom. During the course of his career, Prof. du Pisani has undertaken extensive research, and published prolifically, on Namibia’s political history. He has a renowned interest in Namibia’s political history, particularly Namibia’s political transition. It is these interests which are reflected in this collection, part of which has been donated to UNAM.
He is now a consultant to SADC, and also Professor of Politics at the Department of Political and Administrative Studies at the University of Namibia.

Repository

Archival history

Immediate source of acquision.

Immediate source of acquisition or transfer

Donated to UNAM Archives by Prof. du Pisani

Content and structure area

Scope and content

The collection, with some documents going as far back as 1935, is mostly concentrated on the 1960s, 1970s up to Namibia’s independence. It comprises of many official publications of the South African Government, newspaper cuttings, conference papers, periodicals and journal articles referring to aspects of Namibia in pre-independence period. It holds an extensive collection of academic papers on Namibian history and aspects relating to the struggle for independence. The collection pays a special focus on Namibia’s unique international legal status, and the activities of the various internal political parties (DTA, SWAPO, SWAPO-Democrats, SWANU, FCN, UNITAG, Republican, Namibia National Front, United Party,) in the independence process, particularly the Multi-Party Conference, the Transitional Government, the role of the United Nations, Resolution 435, and the lead-up campaign to the independence elections of 1989. Gathered together for the student of Namibian political history, is an irreplaceable collection of party manifestos, declarations, principles, and standpoints on burning issues of the time. The collection also has a tape recording of speeches given by various politicians of the Transitional Government as well as election posters of the parties, flags and other small items used by the parties during campaign. The collection is mainly in English but also contains some documents in Afrikaans and German. The descriptions have been done in the language that the document is made of.

Appraisal, destruction and scheduling

Accruals

System of arrangement

In most cases the original arrangement as provided by Prof. du Pisani was maintained, especially where he was putting together documents covering the same broad subject, e.g. documents relating to the Multi-Party Conference were kept together. Thus, most subject files are listed under MISCELLANEOUS as they could not fall under a specific class e.g. REPORTS or MINUTES. However, where files did not refer to any specific subject theme, these were entered under the various classes to which they would fall e.g. ARTICLES, NEWSPAPER CUTTINGS, CORRESPONDENCE etc. (See summary of classes list). All the articles from each folder are listed individually because each folder has a broad and general theme not a specific one. Thus, individual listing of each article was done, though unusual, in order to allow easy access to specific articles and topics.

Conditions of access and use area

Conditions governing access

Unrestricted access.

Conditions governing reproduction

Can duplicate a maximum of a third of a file. The material duplicated may not be published without permission of copyright owner.

Language of material

  • Afrikaans
  • English

Script of material

Language and script notes

Physical characteristics and technical requirements

Finding aids

Finding aid available on digital objects here.

Allied materials area

Existence and location of originals

Existence and location of copies

Related units of description

Related descriptions

Notes area

Alternative identifier(s)

Access points

Subject access points

Place access points

Name access points

Genre access points

Description control area

Description identifier

Institution identifier

Rules and/or conventions used

Status

Level of detail

Dates of creation revision deletion

Language(s)

  • English

Script(s)

Sources

Digital object (Master) rights area

Digital object (Reference) rights area

Digital object (Thumbnail) rights area

Accession area

Related subjects

Related people and organizations

Related genres

Related places