SPEAK Magazine: the gender dimensions and impacts of the work of the South African Committee for Higher Education (SACHED), 1982-1994.

Abstract

The South African Committee for Higher Education (SACHED) was established in response to the Extension of the University Education Act of 1959, which barred black students from entering universities under apartheid South Africa. As the largest anti-apartheid education organisation with over three hundred projects spanning the entire country for over five decades, SACHED is considered a national treasure and home to key figures in the struggle for democratic education under apartheid. However, for the most part, it has largely been excluded from grand narratives of the South African liberation struggle. This thesis studies new archival materials which document the development of SACHED from a focus on tertiary in the 1960s to its move into formal and informal secondary education and civic political education in the 1970s. SACHED’s shift to secondary education significantly altered the organisation’s aims in the 1970s. The 1980s saw a fundamental transformation to radical methodologies and a radicalised approach to capitalism and gender. The 1990s signaled the beginning of our democracy and the demobilisation of radical pedagogies, which influenced the organisation and its projects. After exploring these shifts in the context of SACHED’s work and focus over time, the mini-thesis then turns to studying the organisation’s approaches to gender dynamics through an examination of SPEAK Magazine, a feminist periodical published and produced by the Speak Collective. This research project sits at the intersection of three core interests: archival research of lesser-known movements and projects, the importance of periodicals and feminist zines in contemporary research and women’s histories. This research drew on extensive archival research of the SACHED Collection, including documents, periodicals, publications, and audio-visual material and combined the archives with oral history interviews with former SPEAK and SACHED employees. The mini-thesis synthesises gendered materials and debates found in the newly indexed Mayibuye archival collection of SACHED to explore SACHED’s approaches to gender and understand how these dynamics played out in the organisation and its projects. This research draws together themes of gender, activist archives, collaboration, and memory in an attempt to synthesise debates on gender and education. This thesis argues that SACHED’s core values of non-sectarianism, and anti-racism, and their dedication to democratic education influenced their approach to gender seen in their work and projects in the 1980s and 1990s where there was an acknowledgement of the need for women-focused material and research, space made for women’s initiatives.