This blog was written by Luvuyo Wotshela, Professor of History, and Head of NAHECS, University of Fort Hare.
It is ever so germane that we recognise the month of Black History by reaffirming the continuing partnership between Cambridge University’s Churchill Archives Centre, and the University of Fort Hare (UFH)’s National Heritage and Cultural Studies Centre (NAHECS).
Recently, from 21 August to 22 September 2024, the Churchill Archives Centre offered two by-fellowships, enabling us a month’ s visit at the Churchill College. I went with Ayodele Ladokun, one of NAHECS Archivists, who also had prospect to return to the Churchill Archives Centre after having visited there for the first time during 2023, with one UFH student intern, Ayabonga Meyi.
Luvuyo Wotshela and Ayodele Ladokun
Despite our visit this year overlapping with late summer holiday break, it was yet a prolific trip, and we were thrilled by the amount of work and further collaborations we were able to accomplish. We spent most of our visits doing own works at the Churchill Archives Centre – Ayodele focused on enhancing his expertise on records’ conservation, which is essential in this partnership since there will be eventually shared archival resources between our two Centres.
At the same time, I did an archival search on the Churchill collection for a paper I will contribute to a Special Issue devoted to a 150-year Memorial of Sir Winston Churchill. The Special Issue, expected for 2025, will be coedited by the Director of Churchill Archives Centre, Allen Packwood, and another British Historian, Jayne Gifford, from the University of East Anglia. My paper will add a South African context to the life and legacy of Winston Churchill. That contribution is also expected to crystallise the growing partnership between the Churchill Archives Centre and the NAHECS.
During our month stay, Ayodele and I were also introduced by the Churchill Archives Centre to more members, and various chattels of Cambridge University, as well as those of other bodies that can potentially augment this collaboration. These included Southern African papers kept at the main Cambridge University, shown to us by Sally Kent, and the collections from the African Studies Centre revealed to us by Jenny Skinner.
We were also shown by Eva Namusoke some pertinent displays of the Archeological and Anthropological Museum. In one of the trips, we made to the Foreign Office in London, we were also welcomed to the British Diplomatic Oral History Programme (BDOHP) that also works with the Churchill Archives Centre in this venture.
Luvuyo Wotshela presenting at a symposium in Cambridge.
Our trip was rounded with a symposium on 18 August, attended by most participants whom we had already met. We had special honour of being joined by Lord Paul Boateng, the British High Commissioner in South Africa for the years 2005 to 2009, who initiated the idea of this partnership and prospect of sharing collections between our two centres. A representative attended from the Office of the South African High Commission in the United Kingdom, which has also pledged support for the partnership.
Luvuyo Wotshela and Ayodele Ladokun with Tabitha Mwangi, Programme Director of the Mastercard Foundation Programme.
With the NAHECS being vital in the UFH’s Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities’ new program on Liberation Studies, the importance of this collaboration remains very high. Its relevance and continued significance to the month and overall endeavour of Black History remains decisive.
Finally, we learnt there are even greater prospects for emergent scholars to attain Cambridge postgraduate qualifications, as evidenced by the Mastercard Foundation Programme that is managed by Tabitha Mwangi. Caroline Trotter also explained to us about grants aligned to Research Africa that allow research partnerships between Cambridge academics and those from the African continent. All of these, which we became aware of during our trip, have potential to grow this partnership as we move forward.
Ayodele Ladokun and Luvuyo Wotshela with Caroline Trotter, the Director of Cambridge Africa.
