About the Antarctic Legacy of South Africa | Antarctic Legacy of South Africa

The Antarctic Legacy of South Africa Project aims to preserve the legacy of South Africa in the Antarctic region and all those involved in the South Africa National Antarctic Programme (SANAP) and promote this legacy for future generations on national and international level. It is to preserve the South African National Antarctic Programme (SANAP) community and promote its activities. The SANAP community is unique within the science environment and extra measures need to be taken into account to preserve the community. ALSA is able to bring the community together and finding ways to protect and improve the SANAP community. Preserving and promoting mean honouring the past while embracing the future of the SANAP community for all South Africans

Since South Africa annexed the Prince Edward Islands in 1948, South African researchers have been undertaking regular expeditions to the Antarctic Continent, the Prince Edward Islands and Gough Island, as well as elsewhere in the Southern Ocean. The Antarctic Legacy of South Africa (ALSA) project, based at the Department of Botany and Zoology, Stellenbosch University and funded by the National Research Foundation as part of the South African National Antarctic Programme, aims to preserve the rich human history of the expeditions conducted over the past decades.

The Antarctic Legacy of South Africa (ALSA) Project focuses on records from SANAE IV, located at Vesleskarvet, Dronning Maud Land in Antarctica, Marion Island (the larger of the two Prince Edward islands) and Gough Island, as well as from South Africa’s successive Antarctic research and supply vessels, the R.S.A., S.A. Agulhas and S.A. Agulhas II, which have transported researchers and supplies between Cape Town and the three research stations and conducted oceanographic research in the Southern Ocean. The expeditions on these vessels and to these stations have produced a wealth of photographs, videos, and written and oral accounts.

These historical records include maps, journals, logbooks, newspaper articles, and artworks. ALSA collates, digitises and archives these records, along with out-of-print South African research articles and unpublished documents residing in governmental archives, university departments and museums, and makes them accessible to the interested institutions and the public.

The ALSA website serves as a public portal to provide access to this information, which currently stands at over 26000 records.

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The South African National Antarctic Programme (SANAP) manages three bases: SANAE IV, located at Vesleskarvet, Dronning Maud Land in Antarctica, Marion Island (the larger of the two Prince Edward islands) and Gough Island. There have been three previous South African bases on Antarctica, named SANAE I, II and III. The Antarctic Legacy of South Africa Project focuses on records from these three bases, as well as from South Africa’s successive Antarctic research and supply vessels, the R.S.A., S.A. Agulhas and S.A. Agulhas II, which have transported researchers and supplies between Cape Town and the three research bases and conducted oceanographic research in the Southern Ocean.

The very first SANAE mission makes its way through an ice sheet in 1960, on its way to the Antarctic — The very first SANAE Expedition makes its way through the ice on its way to Antarctica in 1960

ALSA is headed and run by Ria Olivier, an archivist with a passion for the human side of Antarctic research, together with Anché Louw who is focussing on using her sound knowledge on Marion Island and the project’s material towards science communication. Others currently involved in the three-year project include Conrad Matthee, head of Department of Botany and Zoology at Stellenbosch University, John Cooper, a retired marine ornithologist and conservationist who has studied Southern Ocean seabirds; Jaco Boshoff of Iziko Museums of South Africa, Steven Chown of Australia’s Monash University and Annie Bekker of the University of Stellenbosch. The archive is hosted by the Department of Botany & Zoology at Stellenbosch University. Physical artefacts and souvenirs given to ALSA are curated by the Iziko Museums’ Social History Collections Department. ALSA is funded by the National Research Foundation as part of the South African National Antarctic Programme (SANAP).

In addition to providing a portal to the archive, this website also provides information and facts about Antarctica, Antarctic resources for students, and up-to-date news and events from South Africa’s SANAP research.

ALSA’s archive is constantly expanding. If you have any relevant historical records to contribute to the growing archive, you can submit them via this contact form.

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