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This paper proposes that archives can play an important role in historical climatological research. Major projects in Europe, such as CLIWOC, examine ship logbooks from the era of sail. These sources provide critical weather-related data from the era before scientific climatological measurements and surveys after World War I. Ship logbooks have proved to be crucial sources that have been identified and digitised in major projects such as the CLIWOC project. While CLIWOC has concentrated on the ships concerned of the European maritime powers, their information is of worldwide relevance. This paper then looks at the research that has been undertaken in South Africa and at the sources that have been uncovered by local scientists. The paper also suggests further potential sources within South Africa. Thereafter, the potential sources within the ESARBICA region are suggested with a focus on the African Great Lakes. Finally, an ESARBICA-wide project similar to the CLIWOC and TANAP projects is suggested, and it is proposed that ESARBICA approach IORA for endorsement and funding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 2003 CITRA conference on "Archives and Human Rights" held in Cape Town, South Africa was a watershed for the ICA. For the first time the issue of archives and human rights moved firmly on to the international body's agenda. It must not be forgotten that Charles Kecskeméti was one of the pioneers promoting the recognition of this issue. This article is a personal reminiscence of the trials and triumphs in organizing the conference. From the South African perspective, two factors contributed to the success of the conference. The first was the important keynote address by Nobel Peace Laureate Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu, and the second was the meeting of ministers responsible for archives in southern and eastern Africa and the declaration on archives that they adopted. The article also mentions some of the more amusing and challenging moments around the conference. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the role of Sir Matthew Nathan, British permanent under secretary for Ireland at the time of the Easter Rising in April 1916, and how critical events in his career as soldier, colonial governor and civil servant shaped his conduct and reaction to events in Ireland as the Rising unfolded around him. The article raises issues of identities: namely Nathan's own identity as an English gentleman, when, given his Jewish background, he was an outsider to that caste. Nathan's brief military career and lengthier career as a colonial governor earned him high praise as a model bureaucrat. In this paper Nathan's track from the War Office through government houses situated in West Africa, Hong Kong and Natal to Dublin Castle is traced to illustrate the changes in his character from decisiveness to indecision. While Nathan clearly misread the volatile situation in Ireland over the 1916 Easter weekend, his actions demonstrated both indecision and bureaucratic delaying tactics. It is argued that his experiences with obdurate settler ministers in Natal played a role in shaping his hesitancy at the time of crisis in Dublin and that this hesitancy provided an opportunity for the direct action of the Irish Volunteers. The conclusion is that, at the time of the Irish crisis, Nathan failed to exercise the ‘power of the personal influence’ expected of an experienced governor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the historical context in which the so-called 'Ashanti Golden Stool' was acquired as an iconic artefact for the new Natal Museum in the first decade of the 20th century, the heyday of imperialism. The multi-layered symbolism surrounding the stool and the importance of chiefly stools as symbols of authority in Ghana are explored. The role of the donor, Sir Matthew Nathan, governor of Natal and former governor of the Gold Coast (Ghana), in obtaining the stool and the West African collection for the museum is discussed in the context of inter-colonial imperialism. The history of the memorial stool provides a case study for historians examining artefacts of material culture as sources of historical knowledge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]