Towards an archival collecting plan for the records generated by the Portuguese community-based organizations in the Gauteng Province of South Africa

Abstract

Certain communities are under-represented in South Africa's archival collections, such as the South African Portuguese community. This article presents the results of research which aimed to investigate how to bring the contemporary history of this group into the country's archival heritage. As South Africa has a number of Portuguese community-based organizations, and as the records created by the latter are deemed an important source in safeguarding the social history of an under-documented group, this study sought to determine possible strategies for collecting and preserving these records. The study revealed that these organizations create and hold diverse types of records that may show important aspects of the community's history and cultural life. It became evident that the record-keeping practices of these organizations were performed inadequately, with records being misplaced or simply discarded after their administrative use had expired. Although these organizations had never thought of establishing an archival programme for themselves or depositing their records in any archives, they were willing to contribute their records to a planned archival collecting initiative of the community. Recommendations were made with regards to these organizational records so as to improve their management and to facilitate their potential inclusion in an archival collecting plan for the community.