We need to archive our history
Greetings,
The last couple of weeks have been a blur with the challenges of being a one-person operation really coming to the fore. Took my first international trip last week for workshop with Gavi, The Alliance in Switzerland. I have been working with them since early 2021 sourcing, editing and submitting writing, initially, from across the African continent, and now also Asia.
The project #VaccinesWork feeds into my views around how there’s a real need to archive our histories, our stories and our cultures, as Africans by ensuring that we have access to spaces. It was also a recurring theme on my radio show Life With Kojo Baffoe on the South African radio station Kaya FM (they have now gone in a different direction so, ironically, I don’t think my show would have a space there now.)
Anyway, here are some things I thought would be useful to share. Warning. For some reason, it is a lot of my stuff :-)
Some years ago, I had created a site - Africartistry - to aggregate and curate African creativity, starting with music videos with the intention of expanding. After about two years I shut it down purely because I really didn’t have the time to maintain it. I am biased, because the person behind the site is my niece but I am enthused by Afrorama, which “is a collaborative and digital general encyclopaedia of Africa which ambitions to democratise knowledge, encourage knowledge production and promote learning related to Africa.”
My site went down about a month ago, which had me pondering what I would do if I wouldn’t be able to retrieve all the blog posts, and I wrote about it: what would happen if …?
I have worked in places, in South Africa, where attempting to access archives on just about anything is impossible for reasons detailed in Importance of preserving the archive.
I had the opportunity to host an episode of the #LiveBeyondSeries podcast for OPPO South Africa with Digitally Legal CEO Zanyiwe Nthatisi Asare and OPPO SA’s Head of Marketing Avashnee Moodley. The theme was future-proofing your career as the digital age matures and evolves.
The lens through which we view history comes with judgement and prejudice. Blackness in antiquity - '‘To truly see black people in ancient art we need to look beyond the historically recent trope of ‘Blackness = inferiority’”
Key Africans Unlocked is a conversational podcast hosted by two friends, Zubz The Last Letta and Chilu Lemba. I was fortunate to be featured on an episode of their Evolution Series. Essentially, we talked as we normally do and they recorded and edited it into something coherent.
Finally, another friend Lebo Madiba has started the podcast Influence which is positioned to “deliver a wide range of insights on how the world is changing through its ability to house deep analysis and transformative learning. This in turn offers an opportunity to help you navigate future uncertainty.” I chatted to her about the podcast, why she started it, who she’s interviewed and everything in between. I am looking forward to both engaging with who she’s interviewed as well as following its growth.
That’s it for today. If you enjoy receiving the Zebra Culture By Kojo Baffoe newsletter but are not subscribed, please do subscribe.
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Easy
Kojo