Catalyzing African Community Archives for Social Good

The Catalyzing African Community Archives for Social Good project is developing a reciprocal partnership among the University of Illinois Urbana Champaign, African partners, and international digital preservation/knowledge management organizations and networks. The partnership fosters the preservation of modern documentary materials, enabling Africans to tell their stories in their terms. Within a project governance model that centers African voices, the team will first co-develop training materials. It will also provide ‘train the trainers’ sessions in Botswana, Ghana, and Kenya, supporting community champions, Indigenous knowledge holders, and other African partners. Accordingly, the project supports these groups so that they can digitally preserve and provide access to Indigenous knowledge on topics like food production, ecosystem preservation, climate change mitigation, peace building, and reconciliation. In this initial contribution, we describe the project genesis and structure, inviting collaboration and contributions from others in the digital preservation community.