Posted on February 8, 2010
Last year Zuma made a call for artists to 'unite and give government an organised structure to work with'. In January a report on the library and archive sector released by DAC commented on the need for 'stronger leadership and advocacy skills - especially among the professionals in the sector'.
How do we do this?
The first step is to join one or more professional organisations. Many of these organisations can play a much larger role in the sector if they are better supported. Support needs to come across the board - from academic, consultants, government employees and professionals serving institutions in the sector. It also needs to become more active.
Second, our professional organisations could collaborate more effectively and more often. If there's anything we have learned from the AP experience, it is that people working in the archive, museum, and heritage sector share many interests and challenges. Some professional organisations have already been discussing collaboration. Let's make 2010 the year that we implement these proposals.
Third, information of relevance to the sector should be made more widely available. Professionals in the sector can join networks and contribute relevant information to them. Some of the professional organisations - notably ICOM-SA and AFRICOM - have good information networks. The Archival Platform is one key network covering the archive and heritage sector, aad SAHO provides resources and networking opportunities for learning SA history, but there also other excellent Africa-wide networks, including the ARTerial Network which focuses particularly strongly on the performing and visual arts, cultural diversity and questions of cultural policy. We will be striving for synergy and collaboration between the various networks and information hubs or archives.
Perhaps what's still missing, except perhaps on the AFRICOM list, is a classified service where people can announce new appointments, signal availability for internships, ask for advice, and advertise professional services. Specifically, we need to have better coordination and information-sharing around available training opportunities in southern Africa for young professionals.
What is the role of the internet and social media in this process?
In spite of the global imbalance in digital information, a significant amount of online data is now available about Africa-relevant archive and heritage issues. Many more people in Africa (and the majority of professionals, academics and government employees) are able to access the internet through computers and mobile phones: Africa is leading in some areas of online activity and it is transforming the continent. At the most basic level, it's now often cheaper to have a discussion online, if you have access, than attend a conference. And most professionals in the sector do have access to computers nowadays, although some institutions restrict their use of them.
More and more organisations in the African archive and heritage sector are therefore using social media to share information, discuss ideas and mobilise people. The Archival Platform is one example of this trend. We'd like to see more initiatives that encourage discussion and debate in the sector through social media, allowing people to discuss issues across institutional barriers and hierarchies in many cases. The ARTerial Network has just announced an exciting program for 2010. Let's participate in more online discussions, where we have access, saving travel funds for those times when we can get together for the most productive networking opportunities.
Social media are also used for specific campaigns. Facebook, for example, is used to get information about clan names and family histories. In February 2008, to take another example, heritage activists were protesting the unauthorised demolition of buildings in Johannesburg, specifically the Rand Steam Laundries building in Richmond, near Auckland Park. An online petition 'Stop demolishing our heritage!', which garnered about 100 signatures, was instituted and a Facebook site was set up. This public and professional outcry complemented opposition by the provincial heritage authorities to the demolition, and may have encouraged them to take action.
On the Facebook site an update was posted in January this year from the Parktown & Westcliffe Heritage Trust Newsletter (No 3) which said:
'the PHRAG eventually gets around to signing an agreement with Imperial that requires them to rebuild our Rand Stream Laundries along Napier Road. IT IS TWO YEARS SINCE THE HEINOUS DEED WAS DONE and we expect the authorities to take action, not sit on the proposed agreement pretending to consider the matter.'
In many similar cases around the country, developers have gotten away with unauthorised demolition or destruction of heritage sites and the heritage authorities have not taken them to court. Legal advice and support to provincial heritage authorities is often poor, and developers can afford to spend a large amount of money challenging them on technicalities, leaving the interests of heritage conservation in tatters. Public pressure can however embarrass developers into taking the value of heritage resources seriously.
We really like some of the networking initiatives proposed by SA History Online (SAHO) and the ARTerial Network; we support calls for inter-professional collaboration. If you have ideas that could improve professional organising and expand relevant use of social media in the archive and heritage sector in southern Africa, let us know and we'll see if we can help.
Photo attribution: File Photo, President Jacob Zuma in 2009, at Davos / World Economic Forum
http://www.flickr.com/photos/worldeconomicforum/4309189472/