Why Popular
Memory?
People have
the right to be seen, heard and remembered. For marginalized individuals
and groups these needs tend to be acute. Storytelling through
various media can play a small but significant part in meeting
these needs. The Centre uses the term ‘popular memory’
because this term encompasses individual and collective forms
of memory such as community, politics, culture, family and gendered
memories. Given that memories are especially shaped and conserved
by relationships between people, the Centre of Popular memory
aims to facilitate dialogues across generations and sites of popular
memory.
Archiving
The collection
has more than 1100 hours of analogue audio recordings with people
in 5 languages crossing race/class/gender and population lines.
Covering topics from forced removals, life histories, immigration,
health and HIV/AIDS to communities, trauma and contemporary popular
culture In addition, the Centre uses digital technology to make
these collections more widely available to all. In partnership
with the departments at UCT, the Centre is building up a substantial
video archive. History, anthropology, geography, space, memory
and contemporary popular culture are included.
Research
Researchers
within the CPM are currently doing interviews around the South
African Hip-Hop / Freestying scene; masculinity in rugby and its
rituals; heritage sites in Langa; forest workers on Table Mountain;
stories of 'Cape Malay' cooks; traditional Xhosa cooking and ingredients;
and shebeens, beerhalls and liqour laws in Langa and Windermere
during Apartheid
Training
The CPM teaches
oral history practice by placing emphasis on interviewing skills,
gender dynamics, dissemination, archiving and digital access.
Disseminating
