Our Projects

Current lead projects include:
    • Bridging the Digital Divide: an award winning schools based project that trains learners and educators in the multiple uses of oral history and technology. This programme concentrates on bridging the generational and cultural divisions between apartheid survivors and their descendants, and the IT skills divide between what is perceived to be a ‘developing’ country and first world technology.

    • Street stories: A film documentary project tracking socio political issues and perceptions around race, gender and belonging, through the individual recollections of over 400 people who live or work on three arterial roads in Cape Town. This project produced 6 documentaries, a book and an extensive photographic exhibition.

    • Performing stories: CPM partnered with community arts centres in four provinces in South Africa, training unemployed youth to utilise oral history interviews in creating theatre, exhibitions and developing local archival resources from within their communities.

    • Dealing with climate/changing community perceptions: This new project builds on strengths developed through our ongoing interest between the intersections of geographical location and human experience. In this project we look to developing video training resources around floods and fires in Cape Town and mentoring forums to deal with the physical impact of human climate change.

      Completed projects include:

    • Imini Zakudala: Gugulethu elders remember- (2003-2004) oral history project exploring trauma and memory of elders living in Gugulethu and Nyanga during the 1970’s-1990’s. Interns conducted 32 interviews in Xhosa, (digitized, translated and transcribed) and we also produced a 12 panel A2 poster exhibition in English and Xhosa and two Xhosa radio programmes aired on community radio stations. Copies of the exhibition and radio programmes have been distributed to local schools.

    • Umqomboti, Utwala and lucky stars: (2002-2003): Three interns conducted interviews on social life and shebeens in Langa during apartheid. Research outputs include 46 interviews in English and Xhosa (translated and transcribed) and an audio-visual exhibition, launched at the Gugu se Thebe Centre in Langa. This exhibition also exhibited at the Robben Island Museum Gateway, Klein Plasie Museum, Worcester, and the Paarl Museum.