The Natal Indian Congress (NIC) was formed in 1894 by Mahatma Gandhi to fight mainly against the discrimination meted out to Indian traders in Natal. However, Gandhi soon began organising on a much broader scale and launched his satyagraha campaign.

In the late 1930s, Dr Naicker took over the leadership of the NIC from the more conservative Indians and similarly in the Transvaal, Dr Yusuf Dadoo, took over the leadership of the Transvaal Indian Congress (TIC). They then forged an alliance with leaders from the African National Congress (ANC), leading to the "Dadoo-Xuma-Naicker Pact" in 1946. Thereafter, many joint activities between the South African Indian Congress and African National Congress were organised, the most notable being the campaign for the "Defiance of Unjust Laws" in 1952.

The NIC, TIC and the Cape Indian Congress went on to form the South African Indian Congress (SAIC).

During this period, many NIC activists were also active members of the South African Congress of Trade Unions (SACTU) and the Communist Party of South Africa.

During the swoop on Congress activists after the Congress of the People in 1955, several of the NIC leadership were jailed and then charged for treason in what became known as the 1956 Treason Trial.

After the incidents of Sharpeville and the banning of the ANC, some NIC members were actively involved in the formation of Umkhonto We Sizwe, the armed wing of the ANC; many fled the country and others were banned, house arrested and jailed. Although the NIC was not banned, this harassment on its leadership and the repressive conditions at that time, led to a halt in the activities of the NIC.

It was only in 1971 that the NIC was revived. One of the main thrust of the activities of the NIC was to concentrate on bread-and-butter issues, i.e. on civic work. This gave rise to a number of civic organisations springing up in and around Durban and Pietermartizburg. The most notable one being the Durban Housing Action Committee.

The NIC drew on many of its activists from the ranks of students, especially those attending the University of Durban-Westville. The school and university boycotts of 1980/81 threw up a new generation of NIC activists, many of whom today hold leading positions in the democratic government and the community.

In the 1980s the NIC embarked on several campaigns. The most striking of these campaigns was the Anti-SAIC campaign of 1981 and the anti-tricameral campaign in 1984 against the House of Delegates.

The NIC was also a founding member of the United Democratic Front (UDF), and remained an affiliate until the disbandment of the UDF. And as such, the NIC participated in the UDF campaigns, such as the Million Signature campaign. Prominent UDF leaders, including NIC leaders, were tried for treason in the "Pietermaritzburg treason trial" during 1984/5.

After the ANC was unbanned in 1990, the NIC together with the TIC had various meetings with the ANC to strategise on the role of the two Indian Congresses. To date, both the NIC and TIC have not decided to disband.

CCLS - Centre for Community and Labour Studies

DHAC - Durban Housing Action Committee

NIC - Natal Indian Congress

SACTU - South African Congress of Trade Unions

SAIC - South African Indian Congress

TIC - Transvaal Indian Congress

UDF - United Democratic Front

Almost all the items in this collection are copies of posters utilised in the book "Images of Defiance". The majority of slides in this collection correspond to actual posters included in the Poster Collection (AL2446)

The African National Congress Youth League (ANCYL) was re-established on the 27 October 1990 at Orlando stadium in Soweto. The launching of the Youth League was the coming together of the South African Youth Congress (SAYCO) and the ANC Youth Section which operated in exile.

The Provisional National Youth Committee (PNYC) was established to spearhead the rebuilding of the Youth League nationwide. The Provisional National Youth Secretariat (PNYS) was also established. Its main functions included: receiving reports from all departments at the Head Office of the ANCYL, addressing developments related to the rebuilding of the Youth League and strategising the way forward.

The main task of the Youth League was to mobilise all sectors of the youth: working, unemployed, students, young sports people, intellectuals and religious youth, into active participation in the struggle to secure democracy. For this reason, the ANCYL immediately established contacts with different youth and student organisations locally and abroad. Recruitment campaigns were put in place in high schools and in tertiary institutions.

Different departments and committees, e.g. women, labour and pioneers were established to appeal to different sectors of the youth. All campaigns were set up with an understanding that rebuilding the Youth League was in fact rebuilding the ANC itself.

ANCYL - African National Congress Youth League

SAYCO - South African Youth Congress

PNYC - Provisional National Youth Committee

PNYS - Provisional National Youth Secretariat

In the formative years before 1992, both SAHA and the People's History Trust were managed by activists without any formal archival training. These custodians applied techniques more often used in libraries for the collection, arrangement and description of archival materials collected or donated to the organisations. Textual materials were catalogued by subject with little attention paid to preserving documentation in accordance with the original context of the materials, what is often referred to as 'provenance' in archival discourse. After 1992, the principles of provenance began to inform the processing of SAHA material. The collections made accessible before this date could not always be rearranged into separate collections arranged by source or donor. As a result many remained, arranged by subject, in this collection. Due to the subject ordering of this collection, culled from a myriad of sources, for many years this collection was referred to as the "Database Collection".

In 1990, after the unbanning of various political organisations, the South African History Archive (SAHA) set up the Oral History Project with Tom Mathole as the co-ordinator.

The first project undertaken was to interview some of those who had been in exile and had returned to South Africa. It was to have focused on the circumstances leading to the exile, their life in exile and their perceptions of South Africa after having returned.

The second part of the project was to have done follow-up interviews one or two years later, to see what they were doing and how they were coping with being back in South Africa.

When the project was conceptualised, it was hoped to cover the wide spectrum of exile experience, of people based in the camps, in Lusaka, in London, in the Soviet bloc countries, in developing countries; of those who left in the 1960s; after 1976 and in the 1980s; and of those who grew up in exile; those who occupied leadership positions and those who were rank and file members.

Unfortunately, the project was never completed as it was undertaken in a climate of change and uncertainty. Due to the fact that the project was never completed some of the interviews stop before the period in exile could be covered. The interview with Soli Modise was included in this project because of his knowledge of Alexandra township, although he never went into exile. All the interviews were conducted by Tom Mathole.