March 1999
US varsity safeguards ANC's past

Cape Times

The University of Connecticut's Dodd Centre is to be the official repository of African National Congress archival material in the United States.

An agreement to this effect was signed at Parliament yesterday by Speaker Frene Ginwala in her capacity as the head of the ANC's archives committee and Mark Emmet, chancellor of the University of Connecticut.

Ginwala said promoting information about the history of the liberation struggle was vital in building the understanding necessary for healing.

"We knew it was necessary to maintain and preserve our archives," Ginwala said in a statement. "We now realise how crucial it is for the future of South Africa."

The struggle against apartheid had been waged in many countries, Ginwala said.

The link with the university provided an opportunity for co-operation in archival projects, such as comparative studies in human rights and collecting oral histories.

The Dodd Centre is also the repository for material on the Holocaust and the Nuremberg trials, including the papers amassed by the late Thomas Dodd while he was a prosecutor at Nuremberg.
 
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