The materials deposited by Lloyd Ross (series A-C) form the core of the Shifty Records project collection and include Shifty Records organisational material, but largely a wealth of materials relating to the musicians whose music Shifty recorded, such as the digitised audio recordings, artists’ correspondence, lyric sheets, press releases, news clippings and photographs, as well as digitised copies of album releases (covers, inner sleeves and vinyl records). Documents from the Shifty archive (series A) were withdrawn from SAHA by Lloyd Ross in 2020 and lodged with the Africa Open Institute (AOI) for Music in Stellenbosch as part of their Hidden Years Project. All digitised items included here will remain accessible on this site.

Series D contains materials donated by people other than Lloyd Ross:

Michael Drewett donated education material relating to music and censorship; copies of materials relating to the censorship of Shifty Records' Kalahari Surfers release 'Bigger than Jesus' and Mzwakhe Mbuli's 'Change is Pain'.

Copies of materials relating to the SABC's restriction on airplay of music recorded by Shifty Records were obtained from the SABC Record Library and include: Agendas of the SABC Central Record Acceptance Committee (CRAC) meetings; SABC internal correspondence memos; lyric sheets with comments by the SABC CRAC on why a particular song was restricted; faxes from the SABC Record Librarian to Shifty records to inform them of decisions taken by CRAC; and digitised copies of a number of vinyl records with covers and inner sleeves containing the ‘Avoid’ stickers next to song titles and scratched tracks to prevent DJs from playing the songs.

In order to fill the gaps identified in the collection, SAHA has also obtained artefacts from other sources, such as Shifty artists, Shifty workers and Shifty friends.

Series E contains the oral history component of the project and materials include the audio recording and transcripts of interviews with Lloyd Ross, Warrick Sony, Carl Raubenheimer, Brendan Jury, Chris Letcher, Mzwakhe Mbuli, Koos Kombuis, Chris Letcher, Matthew van der Want, Gary Herselman, Simba Morri, Willem Möller, Roger Lucey, and Hannalie Coetzee. The interviews were conducted by Michael Drewett on behalf of the South African History Archive (SAHA) and the Rhodes University Department of Sociology for the Shifty Records Legacy Archive Project in 2013-2014, and transcribed by Victoria Hume.

The collection includes correspondence, notes and writings relating to the work of the Communist Party, the Industrial and Commercial Workers Union of Africa (I.C.U.) and other trade unions, labour relations and race problems, as well as S.P. Bunting's contributions at the Sixth Congress of the Communist International in 1928.

The collection also entails correspondence and newspaper articles by Edward Roux, a founding member of the Young Communist League in 1921 and leader in the early Communist Party. Together with S.P. Bunting and his wife Rebecca Bunting, he went to Moscow as a South African delegate to the Sixth Congress of the Communist International in 1928. He wrote a political biography of S.P.Bunting in 1944.

A substantial proportion of the documents are in Tswana. The Rolong tribal papers were easy to identify as most are on paper with the tribal letterhead. Most of Plaatje's correspondence is in Tswana, and as he discusses important developments in South African history, the correspondence had to be translated. Thus a Calendar could be compiled to describe the documents. The Ca1endar format has also been used to describe the papers of Chief Montshiwa.

In the body of the inventory names and places are spelled as they appear in the documents, and because of the inconsistency in Tswana orthography the same name may have various spellings. The term "native" instead of African or Black reflects the usage current at the time, and has been retained when describing documents. All references to the Rolong refer to the Tehidi branch of the tribe, and where other branches are meant they are referred to specifically e.g. Rapulana Rolong.

In the index (unpublished) modern spelling of names has been used, thus Montshiwa and not Montsioa. Where there are various spellings the one most commonly used has been chosen and the variations in spelling appear in brackets after the chosen form. If a person is usually referred to by his English first name, the Tswana name appears in brackets after the English names, thus Chief Wessels (Boccie) Montshiwa. It is a Tswana custom to refer to a person by the name of his father thus Seetsele Modiri Molema is sometimes referred to as Silas Modiri Molema.

It is also customary to call a woman after the name of her first born thus Elizabeth Plaatje is often called Ma Sainty, Sainty being the nickname for St Leger, her eldest son. Married women have been indexed under their married name with a reference from their maiden name. Place names are indexed under the English or Afrikaans name rather than the Tswana name and the modernised spelling of the name as used at the time of the compilation of the documents is preferred, thus Bechuanaland and not Botswana. In general, references to Bechuanaland in the documents do not differentiate between British Bechuanaland and the Bechuanaland Protectorate, therefore most references in the index will be to Bechuanaland unless a document refers specifically to either of these territories. The prefixes from the names of Bantu tribes have been dropped in accordance with current usage but have been retained in the body of the inventory, thus Rolong in the index and not Barolong.

Many of the people have been difficult to identify and family relationships are often difficult to establish. Therefore in order to increase the value of the index elementary biographical information has been included. In general, R F Hunnisett's Indexing for editors (British Records Association, 1972) has been consulted.

The papers cover a wide range of subjects such au history and local history in particular, politics, ethnology and social anthropology and Black literature and journalism. The papers of Chief Montshiwa document the encroachment of the Boers, the Warren Expedition and the annexation of British Bechuanaland in 1885. Others document the South African War, in particular the siege of Mafeking in which the Rolong played an important role; the formation of the South African Native National Congress; the Native Land Act (1913) and the delegations to England in 191L and 1919 to protest against the legislation and in particular Plaatje's participation. General tribal administration is reflected in the documents, both by the chiefs and the British (later South African) government officials. Prom the ethno-sociological point of view the papers represent a bourgeois, educated and Westernised.

Black family. The papers are also of literary interest, both Plaatje and S M Molema having made significant contributions to South African Black literature:

I would like to acknowledge the valuable assistance of Tim Couzens and Brian Willan. Mr Couzens was able to obtain information from living members of the Molema and Plaatje families, which helped to identify individuals and photographs. In order to establish complicated family relationships he has compiled a family tree of the Molema family (p.xiii, based on information obtained from Mr Morara T Molema, in interviews which took place on the 2-3 June 1978.

The following abbreviations have been used:

SANNC - South African Native National Congress.

Captain of L'Océanie

Report of Captain Coste to F. de Lettre. French consular agent at the Cape; 2 death certificates of crew members and inventories of their belongings.

This collection consists of Heads of Argument, Judgment and correspondence (records).

Admiral

Two letters to Lord Melville on Bertie's claim for compensation by the East India Company for extra expenditure incurred while in command of the squadron at the Cape, opinions of Lord Melville, Mr. Perceval and Mr. Yorke and Lord Melville's reply to Bertie.

Handwritten letters of which 12 were replies to a questionnaire sent out by Smith from the South African Museum asking for information on the habits of the tiger wolf. A printed copy in Dutch of this questionnaire together with the answers completed in handwriting on the opposite page, also in Dutch. The questionnaire was published in the Cape Town Gazette and African Advertiser of 9 June 1826. Appeals were made in this newspaper by Smith during 1826 for zoological information and the other letters are mainly in response to them. Correspondents included Dr. J. Atherstone, D. Campbell, Edward and Thomas Philipps and George Rex.

2 other letters of later date (1) 21 Jul. 1838, from T.E. cantor, on the classification of reptiles; (2) 13 Mar. 1850, Newera Ellin, from E. Kelaart, also on reptiles and enclosing a water-color drawing of a frog. Notes on the natural history of South Africa, some of which were compiled by Smith.

British Admiral

Journal written from 2nd October 1812 to 15th October 1813

An account of the squadron at the Cape, including summaries of orders given and received, and also of the voyage of H.M.S. 'Semiramis', bearing the flag of Rear-Admiral Tyler, from England to the Cape. It is preceded by 'Remarks on board H.M. ship 'Barfleur', at anchor off the Tagus', Jul-Oct. 1808.