Searching for Vilakazi

This article explores the archive of Wits University Press through a decolonial lens using the celebrated black author, Benedict Wallett Vilakazi, as example and narrative thread. Against the background of neglect of publishers’ archives, not only in South Africa, it makes a case for the preservation of institutional and corporate archives. As sites of contested knowledge, they have historical and literary value. They are also an important resource for publishers when digitising the backlist, especially of titles by marginalised authors, in order to address any inequality that may have marked the author-publisher relationship. Along with an interrogation of institutional histories, the publisher’s archive can shed knowledge on the history of publishing in South Africa, especially of writing in African languages.

Colonialism · Exhibition · Publishing · Anthropological Studies and Insights · Global Maritime and Colonial Histories · Postcolonial and Cultural Literary Studies

• Decolonisation

  David Boucher, Ayesha Omar•Decolonisation•2023

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• The Power of the Archive and its Limits

  Achille Mbembe•Refiguring the Archive•2002

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• A Commonwealth of Knowledge

  Saul Dubow•COMMONWEALTH OF KNOWLEDGE:…•2006

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• Ubambatha Kamakhwatha

  E H A Made, H I E Dhlomo•African Studies•1949

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