Digitisation is not Decolonisation – Seminar

The Department of Knowledge and Information Stewardship on 12 March 2025 successfully hosted a seminar titled, Digitisation is not Decolonization: Precarious heritage, colonial legacies, and digital futures presented by Dr Laura Gibson (King’s College London), Thulani Thusi (Luthuli Museum & Amagugu Ethu) and Boyzie Myeni (Amagugu Ethu).

The seminar invited participants to critically explore the intersections of digitisation, decolonisation, and archival/curation politics in an era of political, economic, and environmental uncertainty. It explored questions like: Can digital technologies create counter-archives—or even anarchival alternatives? What motivates efforts to challenge dominant archival and curatorial practices, and why does it matter who controls historical narratives? Join us as we navigate these questions through a collection of “ethnographic” museum items, the South African not-for-profit organisation Amagugu Ethu, and a digital Museum-in-a-Box.

Seminar recording - can be requested by emailing dkis@uct.ac.za

Brief: In 2023, the South African Cabinet approved the National Policy on the Digitisation of Arts, Culture, and Heritage. By positioning digital technologies as key to accessing and preserving the country’s heritage, it is part of a broader trend conflating digitization of Africa's cultural heritage collections with decolonization. But does digitisation truly decolonise, or does it risk reinforcing colonial knowledge systems and power dynamics?

For more information on the seminar or related seminars, you can contact Dr Andiswa Mfengu (andiswa.mfengu@uct.ac.za).

Speaker bios:

Dr Laura Gibson is a Lecturer in the Department of Digital Humanities at King’s College London, UK. She worked previously as the Digitisation and Collections Officer at the Luthuli Museum. She graduated from UCT in 2006 with an MPhil in Public Culture from the Centre for African Studies.

Thulani Thusi is based in KZN where he has been the Luthuli Museum National Legacy Project Heritage Educator for more than fifteen years. He is also secretary for the Amagugu Ethu organisation, a Not-For-Profit with the mission to “preserve and promote Zulu culture and spirituality through decolonization of cultural heritage in the digital age.”

Boyzie Myeni is a founding member of Amagugu Ethu as well as a writer and community organiser in the Mvoti area of KZN.