Garth Stevens

Review of Race, Memory and the Apartheid Archive, Towards a Psychological Praxis
Edited by Garth Stevens, Norman Duncan and Derek Hook
Review by Kathy Munro.
This is a book that must invite reflection by South Africans on what a life lived during the apartheid era meant to you. What was your story? The Apartheid Archive Project was started at the University of the Witwatersrand in 2008, by two psychologists who realized that it was important to capture and collect the personal stories and narrative accounts of ordinary South Africans about their experiences of racism during apartheid. In particular poor people who were marginalised in different respects were giving the opportunity to tell their life stories. The objective was to bring these oral and personal histories into the mainstream and to offer an alternative entry point into understanding what happened to people over four decades. It was a brilliant initiative as it meant that people formerly without voice had their lives written down and captured for posterity. A bank of memories and a rich contemporary historical source has been created that testify to the era and reveal the impact of apartheid beyond the laws and the institutional structures. The collected narratives can be accessed in the Historical papers housed in the William Cullen Library at the University of the Witwatersrand. Some 30 South African and international researchers from a variety of disciplines across the social sciences, humanities, arts and education sought stories and collected narratives and stories of the experiences of diverse people. This book brings together the collaborative efforts in 16 independent essays of 14 psychologists who were interested in a psychological praxis, “a consciousness of everyday experiences re-lived as a basis for critical reflection and social transformation”. This book covers four topic areas , theoretical scaffolding, explaining how apartheid’s signifiers of racial identity impacted on the everyday life of ordinary South Africans, how were issues of race, gender and sexuality intertwined , and the final section of the book reflects on the possibilities ,challenges and limits of using this archive. Each theme has a framing introduction. The essays draw on some 48 narratives from the Archive. There is a superb and comprehensive master reference list (rather than a bibliography). The book speaks to a wider readership of psychologists as well as to those with an interest in how psychological methods applied to human stories may deepen our understanding of what happened in our society over those lifespans. I found myself wanting more extracts and more quotes from the actual narratives and to hear that lived experience. However it is useful to have the academic psychologist interpose his or her method and expertise to provide a methodological approach. The eight black and white photographs add little to the text and I think detract from the depth of the evident scholarship. I think this is a book which will become a sociological as much as a psychological classic.… (more)