It is with great pleasure to announce that the Antarctic Legacy of South Africa project has received a South African National Antarctic Programme (SANAP) Grant from the National Research Foundation (NRF) for the period of January 2018 to December 2020.
South Africans have played a considerable role in conducting scientific research in the Antarctic region. Until the start of the Antarctic Legacy of South Africa project, however, the history of South African involvement in the Antarctic region (here defined to include the African Sector of the Southern Ocean and Prince Edward and Gough Islands) was poorly documented and, as a consequence, was little known and studied.
The currently funded project represents the continuation of the Antarctic Legacy Project started by Prof Steven Chown (as principal investigator), Mr J Cooper, Prof J Glazewski and Dr H Prozesky in 2009. The aim of the project then was to create a platform for the social sciences, law and humanities and was extended until 2014. In 2015, the project was continued under John Cooper as Principal Investigator and Ria Olivier as Co-investigator to ensure that a more comprehensive open-access digital archive (database) was established. During this second phase, the aim was to create an open-access archive to preserve and promote the Antarctic Legacy of South Africa (ALSA). The material gathered has given a better view of all the South Africans involved in the South African National Antarctic Programme (SANAP).
To preserve this legacy, the archive now needs to grow both with current information and with material from previous eras that comes to light. It will then be able to be used as a tool to promote research initiatives within South Africa and internationally for presentations, publications and research by academics and scientists. In addition, the archive will be used to create awareness among the South African public to highlight the importance of the country’s presence in the Antarctic Region and to encourage South Africa’s younger generations to become more knowledgeable of the country’s Antarctic legacy.
The project will continue to preserve and promote South Africa’s Antarctic legacy by; maintenance of the online archive and websites that will take place at Stellenbosch University and promoting the archive that will include presentations, exhibitions and talks on a national and international level, to the public and tertiary institutions. ALSA will continue to make contact with persons who have been involved with SANAP, in any capacity, over the years, in an endeavour to obtain and archive their stories and memories. An important way we do this is by continuing to offer a free slide and print scanning service, providing permission is then given to load the scanned images to the public access part of the ALSA archive. Thanks to all those who have contributed their photos in the last three years. If you have photographic material you would like to contribute contact us on antarcticlegacy@sun.ac.za or via our Facebook Page.
You can follow ALSA’s activities on its website and social media pages; Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.
John Cooper, Principal Investigator for ALSA over the period 2015-2017, steps down from this role at year end but will remain involved as a collaborator over the next three years. He is confident that under the new leadership ALSA will continue to grow as it strives to archive South Africa’s Antarctic legacy for posterity.
Anché Louw, Antarctic Legacy of South Africa, Department of Botany and Zoology, Stellenbosch University, 24 October 2017