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Video: Incredible Amazwi South African Museum of Literature

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The Amazwi South African Museum of Literature, previously the National English Literary Museum (NELM), is a museum that houses archival material relating to South Africa’s literary heritage. It is located in Makhanda (formerly Grahamstown) in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa.

In 2016, NELM moved into a 147 million rand, purpose-built building in Worcester Street, on the outskirts of Grahamstown. A project of the Department of Arts and Culture, it was executed by the Department of Public Works. The building has been certified by the Green Building Council of South Africa as the first five-star Green Star certified project in the category Public & Education Buildings in South Africa. There are numerous display areas as well as humidity-controlled sealed archives. The large ‘green’ roof over the collections’ storage area enables constant temperature control and substantially reduces electricity consumption. There are exhibition spaces, a small lecture theatre, and an endemic landscaped garden.

The energy efficient electrical and mechanical equipment is tracked by a Building Management System installed by Gqeberha Experts – BA Systems who have done many outstanding projects other than this one some of which include the Campanile, SAPS 1011 Radio Control, Livingstone Oncology, NMU Business School and the PTI Building in Coega for which BA Systems won an award for the most energy efficient building in the country.

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Amazwi’s primary functions are to collect and conserve material evidence pertaining to South African literature, to publicise and popularise it, and to provide all sections of the reading public, both locally and abroad, with the means of access to it. The museum has three principal collections: manuscripts, books and journals, and press clippings. The museum also conducts many outreach programmes (mainly focused on school pupils and university students) aimed at promoting and creating awareness of South Africa’s rich literary heritage.

The museum was known as the National English Literary Museum from its founding in 1972 to May 2019. The museum then formally changed its name to Amazwi South African Museum of Literature at the order of Minister of Culture Nathi Mthethwa, aligned to a new organisational vision of linguistic and cultural inclusivity, and a new mandate to promote and preserve important South African literary works produced not only in English, but across all indigenous languages.

The museum was established in 1972. Professor Guy F Butler, the Head of Department of the Rhodes University English Department and himself a poet, became aware of the need for the manuscripts of South African authors to be collected. His collection of his and other writers’ material soon became too large for the cupboard he at first housed it in. By an Act of Parliament, NELM was eventually born.

Over the years, NELM has evolved into a national resource, housing a significant amount of literary works. In 1980, NELM was declared a cultural institution, governed by the Cultural Institutions Act (Act 119 of 1998).

In the 1960s many South African literary manuscripts were ending up in collections in foreign countries. Butler had a vision of a national repository for South African literary manuscripts, and this was the genesis of NELM. The Thomas Pringle Collection for English in Africa was founded in 1972. In 1974 this became the National Documentation Centre for English and in 1980 was declared a cultural institution and renamed the National English Literary Museum and Documentation Centre.

In 2017 the number of literary artefacts in the museum’s collection stood at over 100 000. These include authors’ manuscripts, printers’ proofs, diaries, correspondence, publishers’ archives, photographs, posters, play-scripts, theatre programmes and cultural artefacts. The museum’s collection of published poems, short stories, novels, plays, autobiographies, travel writing and children’s literature exceeds 30 000.

A walk through the museum will highlight not only the quality of the building but also of it’s exhibits which highlight the great wealth of literary talent that South Africa has spawned and continues to spawn.

At the time that MyGqeberha visited the upstairs section housed a collection of works and artefacts from the 1983 Booker-McConnell Prize – J.M. Coetzee. He won the prize for his novel titled; “Life and Times of Michael K.”

Also highlighted in the Museum is Nontando (Noni) Jabavu (1919 – 2008). Jabavu was born on 20 August 1919 in Middledrift, Eastern Cape and is considered a pioneering South African writer who worked and lived all over the world.

Jabavu’s family were personal friends of General Jan Smuts who, on Noni’s 14th Birthday, presented her with a book. Later Noni was to read it and discover that the book was a copy of a speech delivered by Jan Smuts at St Andrews University. It’s theme was ‘Freedom’ and in it he developed a theory that freedom was not for the uncivilised black people of South Africa! Not quite what one expects from Smuts.

Amazwi Exterior
Amazwi Exterior

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Alan Straton

Chief Cook, Bottle Washer and Broom Mechanic at MyPE
Passionate about Port Elizabeth and definitely NOT packing for Perth. Alan's ethos is epitomised in the words of Nelson Mandela; "I have fought against white domination and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the idea of a democratic and free society. If need be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die." See more articles by Alan.