The South African Banned Persons Memory Project (SABPMP) was initiated and commissioned by Eric Abraham, with support from The Common Humanity Arts Trust, to preserve the stories of those silenced under apartheid’s Suppression of Communism Act and later the Internal Security Act (Act 44 of 1950).

Between 1951 and 1985, nearly 1,400 South Africans were subjected to banning orders—measures that restricted movement, speech, association, and employment. Although the term banning does not appear in the legislation itself, it became shorthand for one of apartheid’s most invasive and dehumanising tools of control. Around 70% of those banned were African.

Through 179 filmed and recorded interviews, many conducted online during the lockdown; the project documents the lives of formerly banned persons, capturing personal accounts of isolation, resilience, and resistance. These oral histories illuminate how individuals, despite surveillance and hardship, continued to struggle for justice and social transformation.

As Paula Ensor—a member of the project and herself once banned—observes in her Introduction, the changing definitions of “communism” in apartheid law reveal how language was weaponised to silence dissent. The archive stands as both a record of repression and a testament to the courage of those who endured it.

Now housed within the UCT Libraries Special Collections, Audiovisual Archives, the SABPMP ensures that these voices, once stifled by state power, remain accessible for future generations to hear, study, and remember.