Invitation to attend a Raymond Dart Lecture from the Bantu Studies Society, Wits (1932)
These postcards offer a window into the intellectual and political life of Johannesburg during the early 1930s. Sent to a Mr. D.P. Hallowes in Maraisburg, they serve as official meeting notices for the Bantu Studies Society at the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits).
The two speakers highlighted on the back of the cards are massive figures in South African history, addressing two defining moments of the era.
The Anthropological Pioneer: Professor Raymond Dart (August 1931)
The bottom postcard features Prof. R. Dart speaking on "Through Africa with the Italian Expedition (with Lantern Slides)."
Raymond Dart is globally famous as the palaeoanthropologist who discovered and described the Taung Child (Australopithecus africanus) skull in 1924, a pivotal breakthrough in understanding human evolution.
In 1930, Dart took a sabbatical to join the celebrated Italian Scientific Expedition led by Commander Attilio Gatti, which traveled overland from Cape to Cairo.
This specific lecture covered Dart’s adventures during that trek, most notably his participation in a trek through the Belgian Congo to study and hunt mountain gorillas—an experience that deeply shaped his early primatology views.
The Economic Segregation Debate: Frank Lucas K.C. (June 1932)
The top postcard features Mr. F.A. Lucas K.C. speaking on the "Native Econ. Commission Report."
The Native Economic Commission Report of 1932 was one of the most influential and controversial socio-economic documents of the interwar period. It laid down the foundational logic for economic segregation, arguing that African reserves should be developed so that Black South Africans would live and work "along their own lines"—a precursor to later Apartheid-era policies.
Frank Archibald William Lucas was a prominent progressive advocate, King's Counsel, and later a judge. He was actually a member of this very commission but famously disagreed with the majority's views, submitting a notable minority addendum fighting for fairer land, tax, and labor laws.
Each card: 140mm x 90mm
Some smudges; creases.
R1,250
