The recordings were made of the last surviving fluent speakers of two major South African Khoisan linguistic families, the Khoekoe (Khoi) and the !Kwi (San). Many of the original recordings on the shellac records were made in the Phonetics Laboratory of the University in 1936, when a group of Bushmen visited Johannesburg for the Empire Exhibition. The recordings on the 33rpm record was made some 18 years later. The recordings were later archived on optical discs with manual enhancement. More description about the project, comments about the recordings and the Khoisan languages, can be found in the booklet which accompanied the CD, produced by Professor Anthony Traill and the Department of Linguistic, Wits University.
Page 5 of the booklet contains a ||Xegwi rendering of the text 'The North Wind and the Sun', which is a standard text developed by the International Phonetic Association.
Letter signed by Sol Plaatje, written to Major Cooke, Director of Native Labour in Johannesburg, 17 January 1931, appealing for funds to help publish 'native literature'. The letter was found in Mhudi, Lovedale, 1930.
Criminal claim and conclusion made and demanded by the fiscal versus Marthinus Prinsloo and his accomplices. 1800 August 29. Document signed by W.S. van Ryneveld.
Contains pronouncement of sentence on 3 September 1800 against Marthinus Prinsloo, Adriaan van Jaarsveld and 16 others for their part in the armed rebellion in the Graaff Reinet district and inventory of documents used. Prinsloo and van Jaarsveld were sentenced to death but the sentences were not carried out.
Papers relating to an unsuccessful expedition to British Somaliland to prespect for diamonds and garnets, 1906.
Included are a Memorandum of agreement between J.R. Emerson, W.H. Pring and E.J. Pullinger on the expedition, sponsored by Pullinger and led by R.S. Barnard Williams; Somaliland game and prospecting licences and mining regulations; report on the expedition by R.S. Barnard Williams; correspondence, telegrams and financial statements.
A synopsis of a series of 13 radio programmes on the life of J.C. Smuts, former Prime Minister of the Union of South Africa. The programmes were compiled by S.G. Millin and presented in the Hotel Plaza, New York, on the 21 April 1944.
The collection contains the typescript for "African tragedy: the life story of a native doctor", written by the Psycho-analyst Wulf Sachs.
There is no date on the typescript, it was received in 1944, and has 'Draft' written on its spine. The content is similar to "Black Anger" by W. Sachs, published in 1947, as it deals with the same character 'John'. But whereas "African tragedy" is told in the first person, "Black Anger", although including identical incidents, is written by Wulf Sachs as told to him by 'John'.
