Apartheid Publishing, Library, and Archival Histories: Censorship and Exclusionary Strategies

Abstract

The National Party gained power in South Africa in 1954 thus establishing apartheid and restructuring the country to fit and uphold their white supremacist ideology. South African publishing, library, and archival institutions aided the National Party in upholding apartheid ideologies. They controlled what was consumable information for the public and influenced the access to various types of knowledge in South Africa. Publishing houses controlled what books would be printed for sale, libraries allowed South Africans to borrow and learn from the materials provided, and archives preserved records and further evidence of what was ongoing at the time. Additionally, learning materials and knowledge utilized by missionary schools and other educational institutions share a relationship with the three institutions by way of obtaining books, lending them, or by having their own archival record. Therefore, there is a connection between education and missionary history with library, archival, and publishing, history. This connection can further show how pervasive and influential they were to the lives of everyday South Africans. Thus, this paper relies on these histories to aid in setting the scene of South Africa’s publishing, library, and archival history and to analyze these institutions’ various acts in submitting to the National Party’s demands focusing on the years 1950-1994 and specifically looking into their exclusionary and censorship methods.