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- Convenors:
-
Duane Jethro
(University of Cape Town)
Julia Binter (University of Bonn)
Send message to Convenors
- Format:
- Panel
- Stream:
- Social media, archiving and ‘the digital’
- Transfers:
- Open for transfers
- Location:
- S46 (RWII)
- Sessions:
- Tuesday 1 October, -, -
Time zone: Europe/Berlin
Short Abstract:
Calls for the return of African artifacts in European museums emphasize urgency in digitizing archives for provenance research. This panel profiles digital archival projects by African institutions, NGOs and art collectives that intervene in knowledge connected with object collections.
Long Abstract:
As calls for the restitution of African artefacts held in German and European museums mount, the need for opening and digitising archives to enable provenance research into the histories and colonial entanglements of objects and collections has grown. In turn, the nature of colonial archives, their omissions, silences and fallacies have come under greater scrutiny. From hacking the archive to reconfiguring them into new archival assemblages, a host of new attempts to Intervene in and plurify the knowledge connected with historical objects via digital means has arisen. Despite these efforts, a majority of European institutions have yet to speed up and diversify their digitization practices. On the other hand, African institutions, NGOs and art collectives have made great leaps in the field of archives and digitization. They are increasingly generating new frameworks for presenting what traceability and accessibility of knowledge about the past can look like online. This panel presents examples of digital archival projects from the African continent and about African collections held in European institutions that advance such archival innovation. Shedding light on the rich and diverse digital epistemologies emerging on and from the African continent, it explores the possibilities they present for shifting key debates in African Studies in areas such as heritage, cultural restitution and digital archival practice today.
Accepted papers:
Session 1 Tuesday 1 October, 2024, -Tabitha Osoro (Moi University) Elizabeth Murey (Moi University) Jane Sinyei Mwonga (Moi University)
Paper short abstract:
This paper maps out major digitization projects that selected Kenyan archives have carried out, and sheds light on digital archival processes in an effort to establish how these activities recreate a new learning space and opportunities that enhance access to indigenous music learning resources.
Paper long abstract:
The practice of archiving music materials has been taking place in various institutions in African countries. While some practices in these countries remain similar, others differ based on both geographical and historical contexts. It is noteworthy that archives are gradually evolving from basically being preservation sites to centers of knowledge production. Digital archival practices in Kenya keep on being reinvented in various institutions such as Permanent Presidential Music Commission (PPMC), Kenya Broadcasting Corporation(KBC) and KETEBUL studios. In this paper, we explore the many benefits that the advancement of these repositories pose to the music education sector in Kenya. It is notable that the PPMC has for a while acted as a link between the music industry in Kenya and the Kenyan music education field. This being the case, this paper elucidates the progress in archival practices, and the endless possibilities that PPMC and other selected archives present to the Kenyan music classroom. We start by mapping out major digitization projects that these institutions have carried out, and shedding light on digital archival processes in an effort to establish how these activities recreate a new learning space and opportunities that enhance access to indigenous music learning resources.
Key words: Music archives, Digital Archiving, Music Education, Digital Repositories
Shamila Abrahams (University of Cape Town)
Paper short abstract:
The San tsî Khoen ǂoaba ǂans Digital Archive showcases an innovative emergent indigenous ontology. The organisation and description of archival contents reflects eight knowledge themes that more accurately represent indigenous knowledge systems and the ambitions of indigenous scholarship.
Paper long abstract:
Developing the San tsî Khoen ǂoaba ǂans Digital Archive highlighted the need for an epistemological shift to restore the integrity of southern African indigenous knowledge systems. This shift was required to bypass the misrepresentation, tokenism, and assimilation challenges arising when analysing indigenous information through the lens of the knowledge system that contributed to its silencing and distortion. The first transformative development was the repatriation of displaced indigenous knowledge residing in the western paradigm. The second was developing an ontology capable of the just representation of indigenous knowledge systems. The epistemological shift to an integrated knowledge ecosystem enabled the foundational development of such an ontology. The emergent ecosystem supports an indigenous ontology by providing two sites of knowing and three knowledge domains. The inclusion of heart knowing alongside rational knowing allows for the inclusion of the degree of complexity and nuance distinguishing indigenous knowledge systems from the western knowledge system. Two of the knowledge domains support the interconnected worldview of humanity contextualised within the natural world. The third domain is the metaphysical world which is uniquely positioned to support the survival and well-being of humanity and the natural world while being apart from it. Archival contents are analysed, organised and thematically described within the context of this integrated knowledge ecosystem. Based on such subject positioning the San tsî Khoen ǂoaba ǂans Digital Archive reflects eight indigenous knowledge themes. In this way the archive provides a more accurate representation of indigenous knowledge systems and its societal contribution.
Ivonne Charlotte Marais (University of Brighton)
Paper short abstract:
This paper uses the southern African archive at the Horniman Museum and Gardens to expose how colonial knowledge is still present in displays of African people. It will focus on social justice and decolonial frameworks to argue for new ways to engage with archives, physical and digital.
Paper long abstract:
The Horniman Museum and Gardens holds a vast collection of material culture and animal specimens. The museum opened in 1890 as the vision of Frederick Horniman as an education museum for an impoverished council of London to be taught of the empire and their place within it. While the museum is currently open about their colonial past and focus on community projects they still rely on knowledge gathered during the colonial period when working with the material culture in their collection. This failure can be traced directly to the museum archive – an archive filled with degradation of southern African people, ominous silences and harsh taxonomies that straddle paper and digital archives. I am currently undertaking a Collaborative Doctoral Studentship with the Horniman to find the path of colonial violence in museum archives to museum displays and to propose new ways of engaging with the museum archive with a focus on their South African collections. My work seeks to unpack what the colonial archive is – not a monolithic institution against which we work but fallible and fractured human made attempts at control which can be dismantled. I have now turned to the experimental work of social justice archives, as seen in South Africa and Canada, to build up a malleable museum archive which is accountable to its silences and holds space for differences. This is particularly important to the museums digital archive. This is a work in progress, and I hope to be inspired and challenged by this panel.
Debra Pryor (University of Cape Town)
Paper short abstract:
This paper seeks to address what is ‘left out’ of the archive as a result of selections made by colonial agendas. It highlights the importance of locating and naming these (and other) absences, and explores some opportunities the digital archive affords us, for presenting and curating absence.
Paper long abstract:
Archival collections are inherently incomplete as they only comprise a selection of materials. Past and present processes of selection must therefore be in the forefront of our minds and remain a critical point of interrogation into the archive. The selection process is guided by specific individual, intellectual, epistemological, public, and political agendas regarding decisions about what to include or exclude from a collection. Archives that were produced through colonial projects, with collecting that was overwhelmingly conducted by colonial actors, often resulted in the othering and/or archival erasure of the (then) colonized. As these archives are preserved over time and used to substantiate the knowledge that has been produced from them, an ‘epistemic coloniality’ is sustained and entrenched. Things that were considered less important than others fell out of view and were therefore rendered invisible or absent. This paper seeks to address what is ‘left out’ as a consequence of colonial agendas and goes further to explore other absences in the archive as well. It brings these absences to the fore and highlights the importance of locating and naming these absences. It explores some of the opportunities the digital archive affords us, for presenting and curating absence. One of the things this paper will do is theorize the conceptual strategy of placeholding in relation to absence and demonstrates examples on the Five Hundred Year Archive (FHYA) exemplar, EMANDULO, where this can be seen in action.
Oladele Ayorinde (Stellenbosch UniversityMountain Top University) Bayo Ogunyemi (Mountain Top University)
Paper short abstract:
This presentation draws a perspective from an ongoing digital archive initiative, the Organ House Documentation and Digitization project, at Mountain Top University, Ibafo, Nigeria, to show processes of reconfiguring the notion of archive through digital epistemologies in Nigeria.
Paper long abstract:
Archives are spaces of power. They perpetuate uneven power relations, privileges and colonial structures. In many African societies, archives and frameworks for documentation still maintain colonial epistemologies. This reproduction of colonial structures is embodied and performed through principles and strategies archivists and scholars have adopted. Thus, the concept of archives remains a colonial epistemology. What might it mean to reconfigure the idea of an archive in Africa? What might decolonial digital epistemologies mean for rethinking archives and documentation in contemporary Africa? This presentation draws a perspective from an ongoing digital archive initiative, the Organ House Documentation and Digitization project, at Mountain Top University, Ibafo, Nigeria, to show processes of reconfiguring the notion of archive through digital epistemologies in Nigeria.
Mary Otu (University of Ibadan)
Paper short abstract:
Digitization, decolonization, and knowledge production require some sort of transformation to reshape traditional archival practices. Looking at critical questions surrounding access and representation, this study aims to investigate the necessity of preserving the archives through digital means.
Paper long abstract:
In an era where the decolonization of knowledge is paramount, digitization will help those objects once silenced or marginalized in conventional historical narratives find a voice in this digital realm. This abstract explores the evolving landscape of archival practices in Africa, focusing on the imperative to reimagine traditional methods in light of digital advancements.
This digital archive not only preserves these voices but also invites an interactive engagement with history. Users can explore the stories behind each object, delving into the cultural, social, and political contexts from which they emerged. This participatory approach fosters a more nuanced understanding of history, encouraging a critical examination of past narratives and prompting a reconsideration of present perspectives.
To this effect, one of such organizations called the Talking Objects Archive proposes the decolonization of African archives and knowledge production systems by digitizing objects and artifacts. Also, there is MOWAA (Museum for West African Arts), who is dedicated to the preservation of heritage, the expansion of knowledge and celebration of West African arts and culture. The Benin Bronze Project serves as a compelling illustration of how digitization initiatives empower local communities to reclaim, safeguard, and disseminate their cultural patrimony on a global scale.
Digital technologies offer unprecedented opportunities to expand access to archival collections, democratize knowledge, and foster intercultural dialogue. Through digitization initiatives, archives can transcend geographical barriers and reach diverse audiences, enabling communities to reclaim and reinterpret their historical narratives.
Keywords: Digitization, Benin Bronze, Archive, Heritage, Decolonization and Knowledge production.