Dr. Joseph Hanlon was born in 1941 in the United States of America. In 1971 he emigrated to the United Kingdom (UK) where he gained citizenship. He holds a PhD in physics. One of his reasons for moving to the UK was to write for The New Scientist, a British magazine. While in the UK he cultivated a passion for development issues. As part of his assignment as a writer of development-related matters, he traveled to Mozambique, a country he reckoned tackled development issues seriously. Between 1979 and 1985 he also wrote for newspapers such as The Guardian in London, The Star in Johannesburg and the British Broadcasting Cooperation (BBC). His interest in Mozambique increased following Zimbabwe's independence, after which South Africa started attacking Mozambique. Dr. Hanlon also did a study about South Africa in 1994 under the auspices of the South African National Civics Organisation (SANCO), which focused on how funding could be done when it comes to people-driven development projects. He still writes about Mozambique. For some years he has also been teaching at the Open University in England, offering a course that involves examining Post-Civil War Intervention from a development perspective. He was also a campaigner for the Jubilee 2000, a movement that fought for the cancellation of third world debts.

Hanlon and the archives

Dr. Hanlon was the coordinator of the Commonwealth Sanctions Committee, a body that examined ways and means through which pressure could be brought to bear on the racist Pretoria regime by imposing sanctions. Prior to being approached by the Commonwealth that sought advice and suggestions on how best to impose and implement sanctions on South Africa, he had written two books on the subject. The first is titled "The Sanctions Handbook". In this book, he looked at sanctions against South Africa thus far, how effective they had been and how best they could be rendered more effective. He co-authored his second book in 1985 with Omond Roger titled "South African destabilization: begging your neighbors".

Joseph and the records

The sanctions study that Dr. Hanlon carried out specifically intended to identify a series of key areas within the South African economy, where with sanctions in place, would not perturb the economy in a very significant way, particularly as far as the job situation was concerned. It must be noted that this was one of the very few times in history that a study was ever done that pertained on how best sanctions can be implemented while at the same time, taking into consideration the people's welfare and development.

One of the findings that came out of the study was that, if the population supported sanctions, the sanctions would work because those imposing the sanctions would not be opposed. A case in point here is the Cuban situation where sanctions have been in place for a long time, but have failed to yield the expected results because the people are against them. As part of the study, experts on the South African economy were invited to shed light on areas where sanctions would not have a terrible affect on employment. If the car industry for instance was targeted for sanctions, given that it employed so many South Africans, the effect would be devastating, as such only areas that could not be subjected to such huge consequences were targeted after the study.

Therefore with immense pressure already being exerted on the mainly white business community in South Africa due to sanctions, at the end of the study a clear message was sent to the government and the business community that the screw could still be tightened on them.

The finding and the message were very influential in forcing the apartheid regime to not only release Nelson Mandela from prison, but also pressured the government to enter into meaningful discussions with the African National Congress (ANC). The collection is made up principally of records that provided material for the first book The Sanctions Handbook as well as records from studies that were commissioned by the Commonwealth, on how to handle the sanctions debacle. Also, the collection comprises records from the Southern Africa Development Coordination Council (SADCC) region as a whole dating from as far back as its creation.

SADCC - Southern Africa Development Coordination Conference

SANCO - South African National Civics Organisation