Love in the Radio Archives #loveheritage

I went in search of real love stories in the SABC Radio Archives for Valentine's Day  via #AskArchivists and their love initiative for 2012.

Although there are countless books and poems and discussions about love in the literature, I wanted to find  people talking about romantic love in their lives.

Mamphele Ramphele interview in 1995 on SAFM
PrtScn of  our Natural Document Management (NDM) cataloguing

One of the treasures is the 1995 interview with Dr Maphela Ramphele, the Chancellor of UCT, by Patricia Glyn on SAFM in 1995. She was involved with the Black Consciousness Movement and had a relationship with Steve Biko, an anti-apartheid activist in the 1960s and 1970s. She published an autobiography "Mamphela Ramphele - a Life" which was published in the same year.

Part of the interview as it was transcribed in the NDM cataloguing is copied.
It gives such a beautiful insight in a love story that intertwined with the history of South Africa:

"DR MAMPHELE RAMPHELE LOVE STORY IS PART OF ALL SOUTH AFRICANS HISTORY 

- SHE BECAME STEVE BIKO'S COLLEAGUE - FRIEND AND LOVER WHEN

THEY WERE HEAVLY INVOLVED IN THE BLACK CONSCIOUSNESS MOVEMENT - SHE

WAS CARRYING HIS CHILD WHEN STEVE BIKO WAS BEATEN TO DEATH - STEVE 

BIKO WAS MARRIED AT THE TIME WHEN THEY WERE CONDUCTING THEIR       

RELATIONSHIP - THERE WAS A LOT OF EXTERNAL INTERFERENCE - THEIR    

RELATIONSHIP WAS VERY COMPLEX - THEIR RELATIONSHIP WAS BUILT ON THE

FRIENDSHIP THEY HAD FIRST AND THE SHARED CONCERNS THEY HAD - SHE   

WAS VERY BUSY - HER JOB OCCUPIED HER EVERY WAKING MOMENT - BECAUSE 

OF HER WORK SHE COULD NOT REFLECT AS OFTEN AS SHE WANTED TO - THE  

PAIN OF SHARING A PARTNER WITH A MARRIED SITUATION - IT INTRODUCES 

AMBIVALENCE - SHE DID NOT WANT TO HURT ANOTHER WOMAN - THEY NEW    

THEY COULD NOT BE SEPERATED - SHARING HIM WITH FELLOW POLITICAL    

ACTIVIST WAS ALSO A PROBLEM - THEY DID NOT HAVE MUCH TIME TO       

THEMSELVES - MAMPHELE IS A VERY PRIVATE AND SENTIMENTAL PERSON -   

STEVE LOVED PEOPLE AROUND HIM - HE ALSO HAD MANY AFFAIRS..."

_____________________

PrtScn of the 1990 Radio Suid-Afrika (former SABC radio station) interview on the Program Vrouerubriek

Another treasure is the 1990 Afrikaans interview by Daniel Hugo with Jan Rabie, a South African author, about his relationship with his wife Marjorie Wallace, a painter from Scotland, whom he met in France in 1949.
It was part of series of interviews with well-known male writers about the role of the most important women in their lives.
He was Afrikaans and she was English. She learnt the Afrikaans language within 3 months, and they had been together until his death in 2002. She followed him to South Africa and had to adapt to a different way of living in South Africa.

                                                           ______________________

There are countless such stories that has been told on radio that are being preserved for future generations and that add to our wealth of heritage.


Springbok Radio, a former SABC Radio station that was preserved by the Springbok Radio Preservation Society of South Africa, and are being hosted again through the SABC Radio Archives, is also doing a Valentine's stream for this week.

Check the Springbok Radio Audio Stream for this week.


Hope you had a happy Valentine's Day!

Blog post by Karen du Toit, Afrikaans Archivist in the SABC Radio Archives.


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Related post:

Valentine's Day invitation 2012 #loveheritage