Pictured, the staff of Radio Freedom in Luanda prepare for a broadcast by SWAPO president Sam Nujoma, 1989. University of Cape Town, source History Today.
With much delight, we are immersed in the actualisation of our Historians in Residence program! It is a dimension of our work we’ve had the deepest desire and yearning to bring to life. As we are in the midst of truly enjoying and learning from all that has been unfolding during this residency, we thought it would only be apt to share what birthed this desire to run the program as well as the elements that guided its unfolding.
At the heart of our work lies the call to collectively strengthen and enhance our cultural heritage sector. In the course of working to identify what this would entail, we noticed that there was minimal available support – be it financial or in capacity enhancement – for young practitioners starting off in the heritage space and who are working towards realising and growing projects that center African histories. We also noticed that there was a need to build a community around this work- a space for peer-to-peer support that would help navigate the dynamic and ever-evolving nature of the culture heritage world.
To remedy this, our Historians in Residence program emerged! The goal was to have this work of collective capacity building and strengthening take place across different countries on the continent. This stemmed from knowing that we share similar challenges, but also similar ways of transcending these challenges across borderlines. We also wanted to create a contemporary redefinition of memory collection and collectors.
“Hi-sto-ra-tive (adjective used by ADH to mean): of, relating to, or providing restoration specifically to aspects of existing or reimagined history. Through the Historians In Residence Program, we aspire to create the beginnings of a foundation for contemporary artistic endeavours that are based in, expand, and help restore African histories, cultural heritage, and evolving identities.”– ADH
Who is a ‘Historian’?
Developing the ethos of what the residency would look like, feel like, and reflect, provided us an opportunity to sit with the word ‘historian’. The word framed within a Western construct often connotes a person who academically and professionally has studied history. Moving away from this singular understanding of what a historian is, we approach the term historian as, firstly, someone who is curious and enthusiastic about how our pasts are reflected in our present and what this means for our futures. It is dancing between and through time- tapping into African traditions of memory being held and passed on through stories, music, and performance.
We also define the term historian as a person whose creative and artistic mediums and practices touch on some aspect of history be it directly or in a more abstract and fluid way. We understand that there is a formality to research that goes hand in hand with being a historian, but we also know that being in conversation with our families or even taking a walk in and around our neighbourhoods and or communities and observing the daily rhythms of life are valid spaces that a historian uses as a method of research. Community memory gathering and not seeing oneself as being separate from the way history exists in our collective way of being in the here and now- is another key part of how historians approach their work.
“A ‘Historian’ is any individual who engages with and examines an aspect or several aspects of the past with the understanding that history is a verb. This brought us to our second anchoring definition. To us ‘History’ is living, is felt in our present, and holds the immense power to shape our futures. Therefore, the type of ‘Historians’ we hoped to find were individuals who were not only memory collectors, but creators, dreamers, and space makers.” – ADH
Guided Selection
When putting out the call for the residency, we saw the various ways in which our understanding of what a historian is, was reflected in the brilliantly diverse and incredible projects that people submitted. With applications coming in from Ethiopia, South Africa, Ghana, Nigeria, Uganda, and Rwanda, it was astounding to see the range of cultural workers creating meaningful things. The projects ranged from language apps to children’s books, from music albums to short films. Faced with this wide range of applications, the selection of just three residents proved quite the challenge.
Three main things that guided the selection process for us were: projects centered in community engagement, projects that moved with a sense of care and deep regard, and projects that were aligned to the ethos of our work at African Digital Heritage. Our three current residents Banji Chona and Akanyijuka Evans, whose projects interact with African histories as expressed through adornment, collage, and photography, shone through due to the distinctive voice of their projects and the expansive questions that emerge from their work.
While celebrating the process of learning alongside our residents through this program, our hopes and desires for this residency and for its iterations to come is for it to provide needed support for young cultural heritage enthusiasts and practitioners. That in the act of placing their work and their projects in conversation with each other and in spaces that are visible to those they would most impact, we would tap into the beauty that comes with collectivity.
We believe this would strengthen our practices as cultural workers and further cement the importance of all-embracing community building, and varied contributions to a blooming and thriving history and heritage sector across the African continent.
