Archive coup for Rhodes library

Rhodes House library in Oxford has secured the complete archive of the Anti-Apartheid Movement, complementing its existing collection and enhancing research opportunities.

The collection, one of the largest to come to the library in recent years was donated by the movement, which was anxious that it becomes available as soon as possible to a wide audience.

Librarian John Pinfold said that Rhodes, part of the Bodleian, was chosen because it already houses the archives of other freedom movements and campaign groups such as the Anti-Slavery Society, the Fabian Colonial Bureau and the Africa Bureau.

The library has also received an anonymous donation of Pounds 80,000 through the South African Friends of the Bodleian. This will help fund someone to catalogue the archive, hopefully within three years.

The archive, which is stored in London in some 300 boxes at present, dates back to the start of the movement in 1959 and continues up to last year. It includes correspondence, tapes of speeches and other documents relating to the movement that campaigned unceasingly for the release of Nelson Mandela and the end of apartheid in South Africa.