On Tuesday 19 April 2011 a meeting was held at the IISH presenting the official completion of the archiving project around the anti-apartheid and Southern Africa collection which the IISH received in March 2008 from the Netherlands institute for Southern Africa (NiZA).
Funded by the SNS Reaal Fonds, the archivist and former anti-apartheid activist Kier Schuringa in the past three years processed the archives and related documentation collections of the Dutch Anti-Apartheid Movement, the Angola Comité/Holland Committee on Southern Africa (HCSA) and the Eduardo Mondlane Foundation, which merged in 1997 into NiZA.
After a welcome speech by IISH director Erik-Jan Zürcher, Kier Schuringa reported on the results of his work and reflected on the significance of this collection for the Institute. Researcher Roeland Muskens informed the audience about the doctoral thesis he is working on - largely based on the archives at the institute - about the Dutch contribution to the struggle against apartheid. Finally, the South African ambassador to The Netherlands, Mr Peter Goosen, underlined the importance of the archives for studying the shared history of both countries.
Consequently, the ambassador opened a small exhibition of photographs and campaigning materials of the actions against apartheid by the Dutch AAM and HCSA.
Selection of posters at:
www.flickr.com/photos/iisg/sets/72157626365265711/