he African National Congress (ANC) is South Africa’s oldest and most dominant political organization that led the struggle against discrimination and apartheid, and has been the ruling party in South Africa since the historic democratic elections in 1994. In March 1999, the University of Connecticut signed a partnership agreement with the ANC to promote international understanding and cooperation based on the principle of reciprocal learning and consultation. The partnership is especially important because the ANC, founded in 1911, was the first national party in world history to have a vision of a non-racist society where all people are respected equally. UNESCO Chairholder Prof. Omara-Otunnu says the ANC represents something extraordinarily special in the history of human rights because it “had a clear vision for society that would practice social justice.” He says that this partnership is “a strategic decision because of commonalities in the history of race relations in the United States and South Africa. We can learn a lot from them, and they can learn a lot from us.”
The UConn-ANC Partnership consists of three initiatives: a) the Comparative Human Rights Program, now the UNESCO Chair and Institute of Comparative Human Rights; b) the ANC Archives Project, which has made the University of Connecticut the only university in the United States that holds copies of ANC archival materials; and c) the ANC Oral History Project, which assists in gathering oral histories of ANC leaders. These oral histories are critical to chronicling the ANC’s history, as many leaders sought to limit written records in order to protect the participants from apartheid law. Since many ANC leaders are aging, it is important to preserve their stories.
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