Voices from the Island - Administrative staff at the University College for Indians, c1960-1971

Abstract

This study of administrative staff at the University College for Indians on Salisbury Island in Durban is largely based on oral history. As the events recalled here are reported four to five decades after they occurred they are most likely affected by time and memory. What is interesting is that informants remembered minor details about their experience on the Island. Some tended to dwell on the positive, while others recalled the negative aspects of their experience. After all, memory is dynamic and the challenge is to understand why some people have positive and others negative recollections of the past. Smith writes that the role of the researcher is to do more than listen to respondents for there is a “danger of oversimplifying reality by presenting a binary pair with hegemonic history on the one hand and popular culture on the other”. The task of the researcher is to critically engage with the narratives so as not to simply accept the picture painted by the respondents.