Liberation Politics and Archives. A Conversation with Journalist Ruth Weiss

In view of South African journalist Ruth Weiss’s 90th birthday in
2014, BAB’ s archivists invited her in 2013 to a public
conversation in the series “Archivgespräche” – “Archive talk”. In
this podcast episode, conducted in both German and English, we
provide an extract from the live-recorded conversation held in
Basel. It includes introductions to Ruth Weiss’s collections by the
archivists Dag Henrichsen and Susanne Hubler Baier, followed by
historical interview snippets from her impressive tape collection
and her reflections. The conversation took place as part of the
preparations for the BAB exhibition “’My very first question to
you’. An acoustic portrait of the journalist Ruth Weiss and
southern African liberation politics”, shown between 2014 and 2917
in Basel, Cape Town, Lusaka, and Bayreuth. The exhibition went
along with the publication of her autobiography “A Path through
Hard Grass. A Journalist’s Memories of Exile and Apartheid” (BAB
2014), with a foreword by South African writer Nadine Gordimer,
Ruth Weiss’s lifelong friend about whom she also talks in the
conversation. The recording also features snippets from interviews
with the Anglican bishop Trevor Huddleston and ANC’s president
Oliver Tambo. This podcast episode is a fitting format to
congratulate Ruth Weiss on her 100th birthday in 2024.