National Digital Archive of The Gambia
Synopsis
Collecting material culture, traditional manufacturing, or other material data for the preservation and tradition of knowledge is a fundamental practice in European societies. Since the Renaissance, building up collections is practised in the complete scientific spectrum by preserving artefacts of knowledge from humanities to natural science, and of culture itself in fine arts (Museum of the Vatikan, Louvre, Eremitage, British Museum, Musée de l'Homme). Though artefacts from Africa are desired objects and well represented in ethnographic collections throughout the western world, the situation in Africa is much different. Collections are most exceptionally found on the continent for several reasons.
Historically, collections in Africa appeared mostly in the context of Koranic schools and scholars orthodox monasteries. Secular collections are only exceptional. There were until present only few African collectors, who engaged in the preservation of tradition and culture by building up archives. Consequently, the collection at NCAC/RDD of The Gambia is to be seen as an exceptional case. In laying a focus on oral traditions this archive documents recordings of West African history, the collection contains approximately 5,000 audio recordings of spoken art and oral traditions, but as well 1,200 written documents on the history of Senegambia, Guinee and Mali.
There were several dangers, threatening the preservation of this extraordinary collection. The destruction of manuscript collections and historical buildings in Timbuktu (Mali) are example that archives and collections are threatened latently by unforeseen political events. Furthermore, harsh storing conditions and lack of financial support by foundations threaten the preservation of materials. Legal conditions and ownership conflicts add to these too.
Digital archives allow us today to solve at least some of the mentioned problems. Moreover, digital documents are widely accessible while artefacts, text and audio documents remain at their local repositories. This enables researchers but as well local scholars and further generations to preserve knowledge resources. Digital documents ease the access to collections and enlarge the number of potential users, including teachers who have educational purposes.
Access
The collections of the digital archive can be accessed at the UHH Research Data Repository (RDR): NCAC-NDA @ FDR