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Before Western colonial intervention, the culture and bureaucracy of sub-Saharan Africa was predominantly transmitted orally through ritual, storytelling, music, etc. For many years, the literate western colonial bureaucracy laboured to transform Africa and the evidence of the interaction between these two cultures is documented and preserved in the national archives of almost all African countries. But this is an incomplete record of bureaucratic process and ownership; the voices of Africans are largely silent in this official record.
A free two-day symposium, Literacy in oral cultures: conflicts, compromises and complications, is hosted by the Humanities Advanced Technology and Information Institute (HATII) of the University of Glasgow. This symposium will provide a forum for renowned academics in African history both from the UK and Africa, surviving British former administrators in colonial Africa, UK scholars who have experience in using the archives in Africa, archivists, post-graduate students, researchers and many others, to discuss a range of critical issues surrounding media and memory in pre-colonial, colonial and post-colonial Africa. The symposium keynote speakers will be Ivan Murambiwa, Director of the National Archives of Zimbabwe, and Professor Kings Phiri of the University of Malawi.
Current postgraduate students and recent postdoctoral researchers are invited to submit abstracts of papers and presentations for one of the three student panel discussions whose suggested themes are outlined below. Abstracts of no more than 200 words should be emailed to locsymposium@hatii.arts.gla.ac.uk by 14th August 2010. Applicants should include their names, details of their institution and phase of study, and indicate for which panel they consider their paper most relevant. We aim to advise applicants of outcomes by 1st September 2010.
Panel 1: Media and memory in oral cultures (pre-colonial era):
- What can we learn from the culture which existed before colonialism?
- What are the dynamics of oral, aural, visual and material practices in oral cultures?
- How does this differ from literate cultures?
Panel 2: Literacy in oral cultures (colonial era):
- When oral cultures encounter literacy, how do they co-exist and to what extent do they cross-pollinate?
- Is postcolonial African culture necessarily a hybrid culture?
- How is this encounter reflected in the archives of colonial bureaucracy and tribal memory?
- Whose voices remain silent in either place?
Panel 3: Compromises and complications (post-colonial era):
- How do we include the voices of the people (oral history, internet fora, etc.)?
- What ethical, legal, political and economic issues surround such an aim?
- Whose responsibility is it?
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