Abstract:
Investigates the process of historical research in Mamre, a mission village fifty kilometres north-west of Cape Town. A Community Education Resources research methodology provided the basis of interaction between the author as an academic historian and members of the Mamre community interested in researching their own history. Through her participation as facilitator, sharing skills of oral history methodology and resource production, members of the Mamre History Project were able to research and present a new vision of Mamre's history to the community. This thesis documents the process of this interaction and interrogates the meaning of history in the Mamre community. It focuses on the experience of migration in the first half of the twentieth century based on oral testimony from life history interviews of Mamriers born in this era. It also probes how community identity in Mamre is forged over time, and transcends spatial boundaries. Mamriers' community identity incorporates both city and countryside because the common experience of migration to Cape Town began last century and the networks between the two milieus still persist. The study also raises issues of memory and nostalgia in the creation of both individual and collective identity. The aim of this thesis is to discover new ways of making history in the academy and in the community, and to break down barriers between the two audiences.
