Case study: the Digitization of Africa

Web

Africa Research Central
Africa Research Central is your gateway to the archives, libraries, and museums with important collections of African primary sources. ...
Africa Research Central has as its goal to centralize and constantly update information about institutions with African primary source collections so as to facilitate international research in African Studies. Research in African primary sources--be they records, manuscripts, personal papers, photographs, film, or artifacts-- has posed challenges to the research community since the dawn of African Studies as a discipline. Scholars outside Africa struggle to learn about the holdings, services, and clearance procedures of African repositories, while scholars within Africa must cope with the fact that much of the African primary source heritage is housed beyond the borders of Africa. The core of the site is the Repositories section with its searchable database of African archives, libraries and museums with primary source collections. Although far from comprehensive, links to the web sites of North American and European repositories are also provided.
In addition to helping researchers, Africa Research Central also assists African repositories in the urgent task of preserving African primary sources. A growing number of African institutions have made their preservation needs known to Africa Research Central and may be searched easily in the Repository Wish List located in the Preservation section. In the same section, African institutions may search the International Funding Agencies database to locate possible international funders.
» http://www.africa-research.org

Aluka
Aluka is an international, collaborative initiative building an online digital library of scholarly resources from and about Africa. ‘Aluka’, is derived from a Zulu word meaning ‘to weave’, reflecting our commitment to connect resources and scholars from around the world. In 2008, we announced that Aluka became part of JSTOR, a not-for-profit organization building trusted digital archives for the global scholarly community.
We seek to build digital collections by attracting high-quality scholarly content about Africa from institutions and individuals across the globe. By contributing their collections to the Aluka platform, content owners will have a means of offering access to their collections to an international audience—without having to develop and support their own technology platforms. Our web-based platform provides powerful tools for research, teaching, collaboration, and knowledge exchange.
The Aluka website includes a wide variety of high-quality scholarly materials contributed by our partners, ranging from archival documents, periodicals, books, reports, manuscripts, and reference works, to three-dimensional models, maps, oral histories, plant specimens, photographs, and slides. By aggregating these materials online, the Aluka collections link materials that are widely dispersed and difficult to access, opening up new opportunities for research, teaching, and broader public discussion. One of our primary objectives is to provide African scholars and students with access to scholarly materials originally from Africa, but now out of their reach.
We also works closely with partner organisations in Africa to build capacity in digitisation and the use of online materials for teaching and research. In some cases this includes setting up digital labs and providing technical training in scanning and creating metadata records; in others, we convene training workshops for librarians, archivists, faculty, and heritage professionals on topics related to digital imaging, preservation, and the use of online tools in the classroom.
To demonstrate the potential of Aluka as a scholarly resource, three collections are currently under development: African Cultural Heritage Sites and Landscapes, African Plants, and Struggles for Freedom in Southern Africa. New materials are added to the collections on an ongoing basis.
» http://www.aluka.org

Iyare!
"For centuries, Nigeria’s Benin Kingdom was one of West Africa’s most-renowned and powerful political states, its unsurpassed artists recording personalities, ceremonies, and deities. Benin’s Edo people still profess loyalty to their monarch the Oba, even as they fully participate in modern life. Inside the Benin palace, noblemen and women meet, as they always have, to play out rivalries, reenact historic conflicts, impress, inspire, plan, and gossip with one another.
Nearly 100 objects from the Penn Museum's extraordinary Benin collection of cast bronzes, carved ivories and wooden artifacts are in the exhibition. They date from the 16th to the 21st centuries and help to illuminate the activities—cultural, religious, political, and intensely social—that make up the experience of palace life. "Actors" and "audiences" alike--the Oba, chiefs, courtiers, commoners, and visitors--participate."
» http://www.museum.upenn.edu/new/exhibits/iyare/index.shtml
» http://www.conceptvessel.net/iyare/home.html

Afro-IP - African intellectual property law, practice and policies
"This weblog has been set up in order to provide free, reliable, informative and entertaining news and comments about intellectual property law and practice throughout Africa."
» http://afro-ip.blogspot.com

African SIMs in Second Life
Virtual Africa
"On 30 March 2007, Alanagh Recreant (Dorette Steenkamp of South Africa) wandered into Second Life and started exploring the virtual world after hearing about virtual worlds on CNN …
It was life-changing. It was a new turning point for our registered NGO (non-governmental organisation) called UTHANGO Social Investments based here in Cape Town, South Africa, and for our clients. This blog is our record of the experiences we have as we pursue our dream to create a gateway for Africans into virtual worlds, and specifically into Second Life, as a starting point. We are indeed the very first registered African-based company - as far as we know and have been told - in virtual worlds. We strategically position ourselves in virtual worlds such as Second Life (R) to create awareness for our real world innovative programmes in sustainable development and established linkages."
» http://slurl.com/secondlife/Virtual%20Africa/126/93/23
» http://slafrica.wordpress.com

Robben Island
» http://slurl.com/secondlife/Robben%20Island/229/125/25

Real Africa Live
» http://slurl.com/secondlife/Estings/192/56/26

Saminaka
Virtual Nigeria. "Ekaabo to Tarkwa Beach and to Saminaka Island, a vibrant little slice of virtual Nigeria! Please come back any time, and explore all of the sim. There are different free gifts by the peacock.
The sim will always stay lovely, with Nigerian-style traditional architecture from different parts of the country. Other interesting & fun features include Guarara Falls and Wikki Warm Springs (look for romantic pose balls and the rope swing), a free palm wine bar, a free book store, shops with African and diaspora clothes, jewelry, furniture, art, pottery and shapes, and an art gallery. Play African music videos by picking "Party One" on the giant screen menu and dance by the beach!
We have informal lectures on African art and culture, occasional dances, and other events. Make us your African hangout and feel free to use us for your events.
To keep abreast of activities, join the Ngas Travelers group, or (for sales and special offers) join Afro-Atlantic World!"
» http://slurl.com/secondlife/Saminaka/63/209/22

Africa
» http://slurl.com/secondlife/Africa/193/137/27

[t.b.c.]

References and further reading

Britz, J. & Lor, P. (2003). 'A moral reflection on the digitization of Africa’s documentary heritage', World Library and Information Congress: 69th IFLA General Conference and Council, Berlin, 1-9 August 2003.

Britz, J. & Lor, P. (2003). 'A Moral Reflection on the Information Flow from South to North: An African Perspective', Libri 53, 3, pp.160-173.

Lalu, P. (2007). 'The virtual stampede for Africa: Digitisation, post-coloniality and archives of the liberation struggles in Southern Africa', Innovation, Vol.34, pp. 28-44. [PDF]

Limb, P. (2005). 'The Digitization of Africa', Africa Today, Winter 2005, Vol. 52, No. 2, pp. 2-19.

Limb, P. (2008). 'The Politics of Digital ‘Reform and Revolution’: Towards Mainstreaming and African Control of African Digitization'. Eighth North Eastern Workshop on Southern Africa (NEWSA), Bishop Booth Center, Burlington, Vermont, USA, 17-19 October 2008. [PDF]

Masango, C. (2007). Digital content licenses, a barrier to digital content?: A South African survey', Innovation, Vol.34, pp. 51-66

Pickover, M. & Peters, D. (2002). 'DISA: an African perspective on digital technology'. Innovation, Vol. 24, pp. 14-20.

Supplementary and background reading

Walker, R. (2006). When We Ruled. London: Every Generation Media. ISBN: 0-9551068-0-X [Web]

"This landmark publication, which is superbly illustrated with high quality photographs, maps and drawings, provides an extraordinary and cutting-edge synthesis of the archaeological data, the documentary evidence, and the historical linguistic research. It recounts the fascinating story of the origin and development of indigenous civilisations across the vast panorama of the African continent.

In particular, the author answers the key question in Black history: How much documented history is there beyond the Slave Trade, Mary Seacole, and Malcolm X? In 713 pages that question is answered again and again with a vast array of evidence that explodes the widely held view that Africans were without historical distinctions. In particular, there are ancient and medieval monuments that are still standing all over Africa. In addition, there are Black families and institutions that still possess their medieval manuscripts.

The history of Black people cannot be divorced from the history of peoples on other continents particularly Asia, Europe, and the Americas. Topic areas that have traditionally been ignored, such as Black Women's history, early African science and technology, and the two-way influences between Africa and Europe, are also discussed.

What is remarkable about this work is that for the first time it dares to connect Egypt, and its cultural affinities, with Africa and its chronological timeline within the vast chronology (nearly 90,000 years) of African achievement. It is now untenable for Egyptologists to consider themselves to be experts on Egypt without understanding the African cultural signature embedded within Ancient Egypt and its long history."

Web

The Swedish-African Museum Programme (SAMP)
"Samp, the intercontinental museum network, facilitates the development of museums as fora for dialogue promoting human understanding and human rights together with the community, through responsible use of heritage, history and science".
» http://www.samp.org


Centre for Heritage Development in Africa (CHDA)
"CHDA is an international Non Governmental Organisation(NGO) dedicated to the preservation, management and promotion of cultural heritage in Africa through a programme of training and development support services. Its core value is in the preservation of Immovable, Movable and intangible Cultural Heritage in Africa.

Various programmes have been undertaken throughout the life of CHDA. These programmes include:

* Training in Conservation of Movable Heritage, Training in Conservation of Immovable Heritage, and fund raising
* Training in Public Programming and Education
* Training in the development of nomination dossiers for World Heritage List
* Training in Heritage Impact Assessment
* Training in Exhibitions Design
* Training in Collections Management & Storage
* Training in Stakeholder participation"
» http://www.heritageinafrica.org