From Oral Traditions to Digital Archives

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class="content-area"> <main id="main" class="site-main" role="main"> <article id="post-30873" class="post-30873 post type-post status-publish format-standard has-post-thumbnail hentry category-video-for-change"> <div class="entry-content"> <p><b>Co-authored by Jacquelyne Jasper-Ikpendu and Loui Mainga</b></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The preservation of collective memory in Africa has a rich history that dates back centuries, with Indigenous communities passing down knowledge and history through oral traditions, storytelling, art, and music. A key element of preservation in African culture has been the emphasis on storytelling as a means of capturing and transmitting important information from one generation to the next. Many African societies did not have a tradition of a written language but instead relied on oral storytelling, art and music to preserve their history, cultural practices, and traditions. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">While modern archiving methods are important for documentation and preservation, oral traditions, art, and music continue to play essential roles in ensuring that African heritage is passed down to future generations.</span></p> <p><img data-recalc-dims="1" fetchpriority="high" decoding="async" data-attachment-id="30874" data-permalink="https://blog.witness.org/2024/11/from-oral-traditions-to-digital-archives/pic-1-oral-trad1/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/blog.witness.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/Pic-1-Oral-Trad1.png?fit=810%2C810&ssl=1" data-orig-size="810,810" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}" data-image-title="Pic 1 Oral Trad(1)" data-image-description="<p>Illustration of an oral tradition session in the African setup</p> " data-image-caption="" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/blog.witness.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/Pic-1-Oral-Trad1.png?fit=300%2C300&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/blog.witness.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/Pic-1-Oral-Trad1.png?fit=810%2C810&ssl=1" class="size-medium wp-image-30874 aligncenter" src="https://i0.wp.com/blog.witness.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/Pic-1-Oral-Trad1.png?resize=300%2C300&ssl=1" alt="" width="300" height="300" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/blog.witness.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/Pic-1-Oral-Trad1.png?resize=300%2C300&ssl=1 300w, https://i0.wp.com/blog.witness.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/Pic-1-Oral-Trad1.png?resize=150%2C150&ssl=1 150w, https://i0.wp.com/blog.witness.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/Pic-1-Oral-Trad1.png?resize=768%2C768&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/blog.witness.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/Pic-1-Oral-Trad1.png?resize=500%2C500&ssl=1 500w, https://i0.wp.com/blog.witness.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/Pic-1-Oral-Trad1.png?resize=200%2C200&ssl=1 200w, https://i0.wp.com/blog.witness.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/Pic-1-Oral-Trad1.png?w=810&ssl=1 810w" sizes="(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" /></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The evolution of archiving in African communities has seen a transition from traditional methods of storytelling, art, and music to embrace more formally structured approaches like, memorialisation, transitional justice archiving, cultural heritage archiving and other forms of institutional archiving. This shift reflects the changing needs of communities to record and preserve crucial information, including human rights violations which has been a recurring issue on the African continent, spanning a range of situations, from oppressive authoritarian regimes to civil wars, armed conflicts, revolutions, refugee crises, violent extremism, insurgency, and the spread of misinformation and disinformation.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Archiving for human rights serves as a vital tool for promoting accountability and preserving evidence of abuses. It allows for the </span><a href="https://blog.witness.org/2020/11/tweet-chat-archiving-human-rights/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><span style="font-weight: 400;">identification of patterns of abuses</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">, which can be crucial for understanding the context and scale of human rights violations. Furthermore, archiving enables the future use of evidence for legal proceedings, truth-seeking initiatives, and historical research.</span></p> <h2><b>Role of Community-owned archives</b></h2> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Archiving has become crucial in both preserving the past and empowering the future in many different ways and regions. Video stands as one of the most potent tools for storytelling and documenting human rights violations, as it captures the voices and images of affected communities, vividly telling the story of their pain, struggles, and enduring hopes in the face of injustice. However, without proper archiving and preservation, these videos may be lost forever, along with their messages. Here are some organizations working to preserve human rights content in Africa, ranging from institutional to more grassroots archives. </span></p> <p><img data-recalc-dims="1" decoding="async" data-attachment-id="30875" data-permalink="https://blog.witness.org/2024/11/from-oral-traditions-to-digital-archives/pic-2-rlp-logo/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/blog.witness.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/Pic-2-RLP-logo.png?fit=446%2C334&ssl=1" data-orig-size="446,334" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}" data-image-title="Pic 2 RLP logo" data-image-description="<p>Refugee Law Project Logo</p> " data-image-caption="" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/blog.witness.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/Pic-2-RLP-logo.png?fit=300%2C225&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/blog.witness.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/Pic-2-RLP-logo.png?fit=446%2C334&ssl=1" class="size-medium wp-image-30875 alignright" src="https://i0.wp.com/blog.witness.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/Pic-2-RLP-logo.png?resize=300%2C225&ssl=1" alt="" width="300" height="225" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/blog.witness.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/Pic-2-RLP-logo.png?resize=300%2C225&ssl=1 300w, https://i0.wp.com/blog.witness.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/Pic-2-RLP-logo.png?resize=200%2C150&ssl=1 200w, https://i0.wp.com/blog.witness.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/Pic-2-RLP-logo.png?w=446&ssl=1 446w" sizes="(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" /></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The </span><a href="https://www.refugeelawproject.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Refugee Law Project</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> in Uganda, a community outreach initiative associated with Makerere University, houses a </span><a href="https://archives.refugeelawproject.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><span style="font-weight: 400;">digital archive</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> that serves as a</span> <span style="font-weight: 400;">comprehensive repository dedicated to safeguarding and preserving the voices and experiences of forced migrants, primarily from Uganda. This digital archive encompasses a diverse collection of oral history documentation, research papers and publications, heritage-promoting objects, multimedia resources, and educational materials.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Patrick Otim of the Refugee Law Project cites how archiving has provided support with memorialization to compare and tell stories, social therapy, educational tools, advocacy, conflict resolution in communities and other different justice goals. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The </span><a href="https://genocidearchiverwanda.org.rw/index.php?title=COLLECTIONS" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Genocide Archive</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">, located at the Kigali Memorial Center in Rwanda, is a digital collection of over 8,000 photographs and videos documenting events before, during and after the Rwanda genocide including reconciliation and recovery efforts. </span></p> <p><img data-recalc-dims="1" decoding="async" data-attachment-id="30877" data-permalink="https://blog.witness.org/2024/11/from-oral-traditions-to-digital-archives/pic-3-genocide-archive/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/blog.witness.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/Pic-3-Genocide-Archive.png?fit=977%2C439&ssl=1" data-orig-size="977,439" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}" data-image-title="Pic 3 Genocide Archive" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/blog.witness.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/Pic-3-Genocide-Archive.png?fit=300%2C135&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/blog.witness.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/Pic-3-Genocide-Archive.png?fit=960%2C431&ssl=1" class="aligncenter wp-image-30877" src="https://i0.wp.com/blog.witness.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/Pic-3-Genocide-Archive.png?resize=400%2C180&ssl=1" alt="Homepage Genocide Archive of Rwanda website" width="400" height="180" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/blog.witness.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/Pic-3-Genocide-Archive.png?resize=300%2C135&ssl=1 300w, https://i0.wp.com/blog.witness.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/Pic-3-Genocide-Archive.png?resize=768%2C345&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/blog.witness.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/Pic-3-Genocide-Archive.png?resize=200%2C90&ssl=1 200w, https://i0.wp.com/blog.witness.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/Pic-3-Genocide-Archive.png?w=977&ssl=1 977w" sizes="(max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px" /></p> <p><a href="https://www.instagram.com/hubngr/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Connect HUB Nigeria</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> is a grassroots initiative that collects and shares videos depicting state violence in Nigeria using social media platforms like Instagram and X (formerly known as Twitter). Through the use of video documentation, the platform aims to bring visibility to instances of human rights abuses, shed light on the lived experiences of those affected, and advocate for accountability and change. Further to that, the organization is developing approaches to ensure the long-term preservation of this important documentation. </span></p> <p><img data-recalc-dims="1" decoding="async" data-attachment-id="30878" data-permalink="https://blog.witness.org/2024/11/from-oral-traditions-to-digital-archives/pic-4-connect-hub/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/blog.witness.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/Pic-4-Connect-Hub.png?fit=977%2C320&ssl=1" data-orig-size="977,320" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}" data-image-title="Pic 4 Connect Hub" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/blog.witness.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/Pic-4-Connect-Hub.png?fit=300%2C98&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/blog.witness.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/Pic-4-Connect-Hub.png?fit=960%2C314&ssl=1" class="aligncenter wp-image-30878" src="https://i0.wp.com/blog.witness.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/Pic-4-Connect-Hub.png?resize=400%2C131&ssl=1" alt="" width="400" height="131" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/blog.witness.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/Pic-4-Connect-Hub.png?resize=300%2C98&ssl=1 300w, https://i0.wp.com/blog.witness.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/Pic-4-Connect-Hub.png?resize=768%2C252&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/blog.witness.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/Pic-4-Connect-Hub.png?resize=200%2C66&ssl=1 200w, https://i0.wp.com/blog.witness.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/Pic-4-Connect-Hub.png?w=977&ssl=1 977w" sizes="(max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px" /></p> <h2><b>Challenges faced by archives in Africa</b></h2> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">WITNESS sent out a survey to some of the community-owned archives globally including in Africa and </span><a href="https://library.witness.org/product/findings-from-our-global-survey-of-archiving-needs-and-practices/%E2%80%9D%20with%20%E2%80%9Chttps://blog.witness.org/2024/05/findings-archiving-survey/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><span style="font-weight: 400;">they told us</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> that archiving and preserving videos has not been easy. There is limited funding support for archive projects leading to a variety of negative consequences like insufficient infrastructure that have impeded the progress of the development and implementation of community-owned archiving models. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">While social media platforms are not designed to function as archives, many communities use them to share and preserve evidence of human rights violations. Unfortunately, the increasing practice of content removal by social media platforms in the name of enforcing community standards has led to the erasure of crucial evidence related to human rights abuses. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Other challenges enumerated are around security, safety, privacy and a lack of technical capacity to set up and run formal archives. </span></p> <p><img data-recalc-dims="1" decoding="async" data-attachment-id="30879" data-permalink="https://blog.witness.org/2024/11/from-oral-traditions-to-digital-archives/pic-5-_archives_launchblog2_africa_tw-fb-mc/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/blog.witness.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/Pic-5-_Archives_LaunchBlog2_Africa_TW-FB-MC.png?fit=1500%2C750&ssl=1" data-orig-size="1500,750" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}" data-image-title="Pic 5 _Archives_LaunchBlog2_Africa_TW-FB-MC" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/blog.witness.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/Pic-5-_Archives_LaunchBlog2_Africa_TW-FB-MC.png?fit=300%2C150&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/blog.witness.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/Pic-5-_Archives_LaunchBlog2_Africa_TW-FB-MC.png?fit=960%2C480&ssl=1" class="aligncenter wp-image-30879" src="https://i0.wp.com/blog.witness.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/Pic-5-_Archives_LaunchBlog2_Africa_TW-FB-MC.png?resize=400%2C200&ssl=1" alt="Visual identity of the WITNESS #ArchiveLife campaign" width="400" height="200" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/blog.witness.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/Pic-5-_Archives_LaunchBlog2_Africa_TW-FB-MC.png?resize=300%2C150&ssl=1 300w, https://i0.wp.com/blog.witness.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/Pic-5-_Archives_LaunchBlog2_Africa_TW-FB-MC.png?resize=1024%2C512&ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/blog.witness.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/Pic-5-_Archives_LaunchBlog2_Africa_TW-FB-MC.png?resize=768%2C384&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/blog.witness.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/Pic-5-_Archives_LaunchBlog2_Africa_TW-FB-MC.png?resize=200%2C100&ssl=1 200w, https://i0.wp.com/blog.witness.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/Pic-5-_Archives_LaunchBlog2_Africa_TW-FB-MC.png?w=1500&ssl=1 1500w" sizes="(max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px" /></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Additionally, </span><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vsSulC8vtoo&t=112s" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><span style="font-weight: 400;">watch our huddle</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> on You Tube on Community-based archiving practices</span></p> <p><iframe title="YouTube video player" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/vsSulC8vtoo?si=dPY6Chh0iUCP-ztA" width="560" height="315" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe></p> <h2><b>Resources on Archiving</b></h2> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">WITNESS remains committed to supporting communities with their archiving needs spanning from directly providing assistance to partners on their archiving needs to developing easily shareable resources like our “</span><a href="https://archiving.witness.org/archive-guide/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Activists’ Guide to Archiving Video</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">“. This year we launched a global social media campaign named </span><a href="https://blog.witness.org/2024/05/community-video-archiving/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">Archive Life</span></i></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> that aims to raise awareness of human rights community video archives and similar initiatives of </span><a href="https://blog.witness.org/2016/11/recording-resistance-santa-cruz-25-years/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><span style="font-weight: 400;">recording resistance</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">. Follow the hashtag #ArchiveLife across X, Instagram and Facebook to track the conversation. </span></p> <ul> <li><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2HTIsSeHlPY" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><span style="font-weight: 400;">How To Export Content from WhatsApp</span></a></li> <li><a href="https://library.witness.org/product/cataloging-tools-for-human-rights-video-archiving/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Blogpost on Cataloguing Tools for Human Rights Video</span></a></li> <li><a href="https://library.witness.org/product/quick-guide-to-video-archiving/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Quick Guide to Video Archiving </span></a></li> <li><a href="https://library.witness.org/product/findings-from-our-global-survey-of-archiving-needs-and-practices/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Findings from Our Global Survey of Archiving Needs and Practices</span></a></li> </ul> <div class="sharedaddy sd-sharing-enabled"><div class="robots-nocontent sd-block sd-social sd-social-icon-text sd-sharing"><h3 class="sd-title">Share this:</h3><div class="sd-content"><ul><li class="share-twitter"><a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" data-shared="sharing-twitter-30873" class="share-twitter sd-button share-icon" href="https://blog.witness.org/2024/11/from-oral-traditions-to-digital-archives/?share=twitter" target="_blank" title="Click to share on Twitter" ><span>Twitter</span></a></li><li class="share-facebook"><a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" data-shared="sharing-facebook-30873" class="share-facebook sd-button share-icon" href="https://blog.witness.org/2024/11/from-oral-traditions-to-digital-archives/?share=facebook" target="_blank" title="Click to share on Facebook" ><span>Facebook</span></a></li><li class="share-pinterest"><a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" data-shared="sharing-pinterest-30873" class="share-pinterest sd-button share-icon" href="https://blog.witness.org/2024/11/from-oral-traditions-to-digital-archives/?share=pinterest" target="_blank" title="Click to share on Pinterest" ><span>Pinterest</span></a></li><li class="share-linkedin"><a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" data-shared="sharing-linkedin-30873" class="share-linkedin sd-button share-icon" href="https://blog.witness.org/2024/11/from-oral-traditions-to-digital-archives/?share=linkedin" target="_blank" title="Click to share on LinkedIn" ><span>LinkedIn</span></a></li><li class="share-email"><a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" data-shared="" class="share-email sd-button share-icon" href="mailto:?subject=%5BShared%20Post%5D%20From%20Oral%20Traditions%20to%20Digital%20Archives&body=https%3A%2F%2Fblog.witness.org%2F2024%2F11%2Ffrom-oral-traditions-to-digital-archives%2F&share=email" target="_blank" title="Click to email a link to a friend" data-email-share-error-title="Do you have email set up?" data-email-share-error-text="If you're having problems sharing via email, you might not have email set up for your browser. 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