Giving voice to resilience: the Banned Persons Memory Project

When apartheid South Africa used banning orders and house arrest to silence dissent, it didn’t only restrict political speech, it fractured lives, families, careers and communities. The Banned Persons Memory Project, housed at the University of Cape Town Libraries digital archive, is a belated effort to restore those voices. The project was initiated and commissioned by film and television producer, former journalist, and human rights activist Eric Abraham, who was himself banned and placed under house arrest in South Africa in 1976. Funded by the Common Humanity Arts Trust, it aims to ensure these stories remain in public memory.

At the heart of the project are 179 interviews with some of the 1,400 people who lived under banning orders, alongside transcripts and biographical sketches. These testimonies reveal how repression seeped into every aspect daily life: preventing attendance at meetings (defined as gatherings of more than two people), silencing public speech, cutting individuals off from colleagues, and enforcing deep isolation. People became named targets for extremists and lifelong friendships were criminalised.

Among the interviewees is Albie Sachs, renowned activist, writer, and later Constitutional Court judge. He reflects on his political awakening at 16 when he was drawn into the Defiance Campaign after hearing poet Uys Krige link art to global justice. He recalls how his first banning order in 1955 restricted him but also pushed him further into underground activities. His later detention led to The Jail Diary of Albie Sachs and, eventually, exile.

Other interviews highlight the shifting meaning of terms like “communism” under state propaganda, and how language itself became weaponised to control dissent.

The project honours those who spoke publicly against the inhumanity of apartheid and whose quiet organising, clandestine teaching, and acts of defiance have often been omitted from mainstream histories. It deepens our understanding of how banning reshaped social networks, identities, and personal histories, and how politicised language can be used against individuals and communities. Ultimately, it reminds us that memory and testimony are powerful tools, bridging past repression with present struggles for justice and recognition.

In a world where archives often reflect the record-keepers rather than the silenced, the Banned Persons Memory Project embodies a different ethos: listening, restoring and making accessible. It is a reminder that access to arts, culture and history matters, and that preserving and sharing the testimonies of those once erased is in itself an act of justice.