The Struggles for Justice (SFJ) Programme

The Struggle for Justice Programme (SFJ) is dedicated to preserving and creating access to archival collections that document the struggle against apartheid as well as the ongoing struggles in the making of democracy in South Africa. Through the research, retrieval and preservation of hidden or forgotten stories in a variety of forms, SFJ places an emphasis on giving voice to marginalised histories.

The SFJ programme is responsible for ensuring SAHA's archival collections are made available for consultation by researchers and other interested individuals who visit the SAHA offices in Johannesburg. Through the ongoing development of various projects and publications, often in partnership with other heritage, civil society and educational organisations, SFJ is also committed to bringing materials out of the archive in new and innovative ways in order to reach researchers - and especially communities who would not ordinarily make use of archives.

SAHA's archival holdings contain evidence of living memory that interrogates grand narratives in South Africa and promotes debate. Thus, the function of SAHA's archive moves beyond mere preservation of the past. It takes on a new dimension - one which prompts and documents acts of memory in a novel and transformative way.

Within the formal educational sector, SFJ is particularly interested in developing products that make use of primary source materials (including oral history and audiovisual material) to frame both historical and cross-disciplinary discussions about history, identity, memory, citizenship and democracy.