Paper short abstract:

The private library of Lamu poet and imam Ustadh Mau can be regarded as a unique yet overlooked archive where local epistemologies are collected and produced. This paper will discuss how to enhance its accessibility and findability through digitization, accurate metadata and OA platforms.

Paper long abstract:

Counter to the idea of “restricted literacies” on the African continent, a thirst for knowledge has stimulated the making of local and private libraries and archives in various parts of Africa. Despite the relatively abundant Swahili-language collections in East Africa and Europe, it has nevertheless also been highlighted how the local collections housed in university libraries and/or private households in East Africa are in fact, fragmented, difficult to access and often endangered, and/or on the verge of disappearing. The private library of living poet and imam Ustadh Mau from the Indian Ocean island of Lamu (Kenya) can be regarded as a representative contemporary example: a unique yet overlooked and at-risk site where local epistemologies composed in the regional language variety of kiamu are collected and produced. In 2022, the Ustadh Mau Digital Archive (UMADA) was among the 29 international cultural preservation projects that received a grant from the Modern Endangered Archives Program at UCLA Library. In this paper, we will present the collection, made of roughly two thousand fragile materials that we aim to document and digitize, among which: handwritten manuscript poetry in Arabic script, letters, printed texts, biographical photos and audio cassettes of his Friday sermons, delivered since 1986. We will also discuss how to enhance the archive's accessibility and findability through accurate metadata. Providing the materials via multiple OA platforms opens them up for new audiences and readers and will enhance new research into overlooked local productions and literary canons from postcolonial contemporary Kenya.