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Memory of the World: UNESCO launches first book on African Documentary Heritage
The cover on the book features images documentary heritage from Benin, Ethiopia, Madagascar, Mauritius, Mali, Namibia, Nigeria, Senegal and South Africa. Copyright of these images belongs to their custodians and is not for reproduction without permission.
The history of Africa’s colonial relations and trade relationships makes it the only continent with documentary heritage written in so many languages: Dutch, Portuguese, English, German and Arabic, in addition to indigenous languages via scripts of African origin and ‘Ajami’.
The rich and complex history of Africa, entwined with its deep global connections, is vividly reflected in its extensive documentary heritage collections. From yellowing manuscripts to photographs and artistic expressions, these documents offer glimpses into the continent’s past, intricately connected to its present and future.
The publication weaves together informative descriptions and high-quality images presenting the 26 MoW inscriptions from the region to the public. This ranges from the Portuguese archives of Angola’s Ndembu chiefs to the judgment dockets of Zimbabwe’s national heroes.
Memory of the World — Documentary Heritage Treasures of Africa adopts a gender-sensitive approach to elevate the often-overlooked female perspectives in historical archives. It sheds light on the role of women in African history, featuring their lives and labour in the Mauritian Records of Indentured Immigration, the vital role of Dorothea Bleek in recording San people’s vocabularies, genealogies and rock art, as well as the courage of the Zimbabwean spirit medium Nehanda in resisting colonial oppression.
Despite the world significance of this common heritage, documentary heritage from Africa has remained largely invisible, accounting for only five per cent of global inscriptions on the MoW International Register. Challenges faced by memory institutions in the region, from scarce resources to low levels of awareness about the MoW programme, contribute to this visibility gap.
As the first publication of its kind in the region, Memory of the World — Documentary Heritage Treasures of Africa thus aims to increase the visibility of documentary heritage in Africa, promote safeguarding efforts and raise awareness among National MoW Committees, National Commissions for UNESCO and memory institutions about the need to implement the UNESCO 2015 Recommendation on the preservation of, and access to, documentary heritage including in digital form.
The book also celebrates three new items of African documentary heritage added to the Register in 2023. This includes two items from Mauritius, “The Slave Trade and Records of Slavery” and “The Archival Collections on the Bienheureux Père Jacques Désiré Laval - The Apostle of Mauritius” and a joint submission from Burkina Faso and France titled “Archives of the International Movement ATD Fourth World in France and in Burkina Faso, from 1957 to 1992”.
We firmly assert that the preservation of these records is not merely a matter of historical importance but a fundamental right for our present and future generations, so they can embrace our collective memory, learn from history and cultivate their cultural identities with pride.
Efforts to safeguard and promote the documentary heritage of Africa align with UNESCO’s “General History of Africa” project, launched in 1964; contributing to the International Decade for People of African Descent (2015-2024).
Memory of the World is a UNESCO programme created in 1992 to safeguard documentary heritage and ensure its dissemination nationally and internationally. Its Register lists documentary heritage meeting criteria for world significance.
