Building Blocks for Democracy
Democratic Participation in Cradock
Date of publication: May 2010
This resource guide, Democratic participation in Cradock, is the first in the new series, Building Blocks for Democracy.
The resource guide for educators has been developed in partnership with the Eastern Cape Education Department, Cradock. It outlines the series of workshops held as part of his project which included the oral writing process, development of storyboards for short films, using the interview transcript, and how oral histories could make a contribution to democratise the local archives. .
The guide traces in broad outline the origins of democracy in the world and explores in greater detail the contributions made by locals in the attainment of democracy in South Africa.
Project participants were drawn from local high schools and community members. Learners documented the contributions made by lesser known participants, in the struggle for democracy, by conducting oral history interviews and producing short visual representations of their findings.
One of the key aspects of the oral history project in Cradock was the workshop that explored A Vision for Cradock by 2019 that interrogated some of the issues related to creating an inclusive and desirable future. This was an inter-generational dialogue with participants drawn from historically divided communities in Cradock.