With close links to the liberation organisations, unions and mass democratic movement the collective had unprecedented access and produced the most in-depth video archive of that period. At that time, images of what was happening in the townships and industrial areas were not broadcast in South Africa. Afravision would document what was happening and cut ‘video pamphlets’ or short films which were then distributed through the unions and youth structures in South Africa and to the liberation structures outside the country. The master tapes of these video pamphlets and films are busy being digitized and they form an important window on our past. The story of VNS/AFRAVISION Collective and its archive is presented as part of NAV’s ongoing Archive Lab series which gathers scholars, students, artists and archivists to think together with pre-selected materials about archival practice, research methods and the activation of research collections.

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