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24-25 April, Archiving Dis:connected Cultural Heritages in Africa: Prospects, Processes and Challenges

Archives are global sources of information, cultural transmission and identity formation that preserve cultural heritage. They constitute one of the most valuable national assets and, according to Canadian archivist Arthur Doughty, are gifts of one generation to another. Despite their value, many archives and collections, especially in the Global South, are facing destruction by natural or man-made disasters. Many others are poorly stored and need to be conserved, restored or converted into new formats to remain accessible. Even more fragile are what Lowry (2023) refers to as disputed and displaced archives — a term that could broadly encompass contested or disconnected histories and cultural heritage, including indigenous knowledge systems, traditional practices and performative heritage of marginalised cultures, such as those of the Black/African cultural renaissance.

The history of the Black/African cultural renaissance consists largely of pan-African ideas, movements, actors and transnational events related to the struggles of the continent and its diaspora against empire. Cultural festivals such as FESMAN 1966, PANAF 1969, Zaire 1974 and FESTAC 1977 functioned as global arenas for the celebration of African unity, the exhibition of Black/African cultural heritage and collaboration between Black/African artists, scholars, cultural administrators and governments. In addition, they served as sites of protest for geopolitical exclusions, socio-cultural hegemony, politically motivated absence and silencing dissidents, including artists and scholars, and highlighted different paths of development on the continent.

Given the global framing of Black/African heritage in these events and the transnational aims of their conceptualisation, organisation, promotion, participants and remembrance, the workshop aims to explore the often-overlooked tensions, absences and dis:connections in the conceptual, organisational and participatory frameworks of pan-African postcolonial festivals from a broad perspective. It will also examine how these festivals and the collections and narratives they produced both represented and obscured aspects of Africa’s cultural heritage. Most importantly, it will look at the challenges associated with archiving, preserving and digitising the material remains of these festivals and the wider implications for understanding postcolonial African identity, cultural heritage and historiography. The workshop aims to synthesise different perspectives on how dis:connected cultural heritage – fragmented by colonial histories, geopolitical tensions and institutional constraints – are remembered, archived or lost.

 

 

Dates: 24-25 April,2025

Venue: Käte Hamburger Research Centre global dis:connect, Maria-Theresia-Str. 21, 81675 Munich

Organisers: Gideon Morison and Andrea Kifyasi

Please register here by 16 April.