Digital Griots
Preserving Guinea's Heritage Through Community-Controlled Digital Archives
Explore the Journey Browse Archive CollectionLiving Memory Under Threat
The witnesses to Guinea's colonial period, independence, and early nationhood are aging. Their stories and the cultural knowledge they carry face an urgent preservation crisis.
Colonial Period Witnesses
People born during French colonial rule are now 80-100+ years old. They witnessed forced labor, traditional governance systems, and the preservation of oral traditions under colonial pressure.
Independence Generation
Witnesses to Guinea's historic "Non" vote and independence celebration. Now 65-85 years old, they remember the euphoria of freedom and the cultural renaissance that followed.
Sékou Touré Era
Adults during Guinea's radical socialist experiment, including government officials, cultural revolutionaries, and ordinary citizens who navigated dramatic social changes. Ages 55-75 today.
Scholar Archive Loss
Fire destroys Djibril Tamsir Niane's personal library, including irreplaceable manuscripts and documents on Guinea's oral traditions. Living memory becomes even more precious as personal archives disappear.
Preservation Projects
Efforts like the Syliphone Music Archives and community-led documentation initiatives work to preserve what remains of Guinea's cultural heritage.
Guinea Heritage Interactive Map
Explore 18 historical sites across Conakry and Îles de Los. Each location represents a piece of Guinea's cultural heritage that needs urgent preservation.
Click markers to discover stories • Filter by heritage type • Add your own memories
Scholarly Foundation, Method & Roadmap
Argument & Scholarly Engagement
Argument: Guinean cultural memory is at risk of loss; communities must own the description, access, and meaning of their materials. This project builds on the work and legacy of Djibril Tamsir Niane (oral traditions, Manding epic, field recordings) to treat oral history as core archival evidence and to link family archives with national memory.
Scholarly conversation (4+ sources): Caswell (community archives & symbolic annihilation), Drake (liberatory archives & power), Mbembe (archive/power), Hirsch (postmemory), Trouillot (silences in history), and Niane (Manding oral tradition) inform both method (community‑controlled metadata, multilingual description) and design (map‑based exhibit, provenance‑forward item pages).
Call to action: Contribute family materials, partner on digitization, and help train youth “digital griots.”
Theoretical Grounding
We build directly on Djibril Tamsir Niane’s work documenting Guinean oral traditions and cultural history, extending it with community‑controlled digital methods. In dialogue with Michelle Caswell (community archives & symbolic annihilation) and Jarrett M. Drake (archival power), we prioritize community ownership over extractive collecting. Achille Mbembe frames the archive as a site of power; Marianne Hirsch’s postmemory lens guides intergenerational storytelling.
Community‑Controlled Method
Inspired by Archivist in a Backpack and the District Six Museum, we treat families and elders as co‑curators: ownership stays with contributors; description is multilingual (EN/FR/Susu/Pular/Malinké); digitization/training is low‑barrier; youth–elder collaboration is central; cultural protocols guide consent.
Practically, Omeka hosts item‑level metadata and provenance; this page interprets items in conversation via a Conakry & Îles de Loos memory map and a mini‑exhibit. Metadata is used to “make an argument” (context, voice, provenance, rights) rather than only to file and retrieve.
Audience & Impact
Public: Guinean & Diaspora Families
Tools to record oral histories, scan family photos, and describe items in community terms; pathways to contribute to shared memory.
Scholars: DH, African History, Memory Studies
Reproducible, multilingual workflow; provenance‑first metadata; visualization integrated with archival description and ethics.
Further Reading & Resources
A selected, linked guide to scholarship, archives, and community projects informing this initiative.
📚 Core Theory
- Michelle Caswell, “Hannah Arendt’s World: Bureaucracy, Documentation, and Banal Evil,” Archivaria 70 (2010).
- Jarrett M. Drake, “Liberatory Archives: Toward Belonging and Believing” (2016).
- Achille Mbembe, “The Power of the Archive and Its Limits,” in Refiguring the Archive (2002).
- Marianne Hirsch, The Generation of Postmemory (2012).
- Michel‑Rolph Trouillot, Silencing the Past (1995).
🇬🇳 Guinea: History & Archives
- Djibril Tamsir Niane, Soundjata ou l’épopée mandingue (1960).
- Elizabeth Schmidt, Mobilizing the Masses (2005).
- Djibril Tamsir Niane Audiorecordings (Yale Library) — key oral history collection.
- Syliphone Archive Catalogue — 9,000+ recordings from Guinea’s Cultural Revolution.
💻 Models & Community Projects
- District Six Museum — community‑driven memory model.
- Camp Boiro Memorial — documentation of political repression victims.
- Mapping the Haitian Revolution — interactive event/place mapping.
Future Development (Next 12 Months)
1) National Library Digitization Pilot. Partner with the Bibliothèque Nationale de Guinée to classify, scan, and describe a first set of fragile holdings (newspapers, photographs, select private papers). Publish in Omeka with multilingual metadata, clear rights, and provenance; document the process as a repeatable institutional workflow.
2) Community Memory Expansion. Launch a “Digital Griots Toolkit” so families and youth can record oral histories and scan family documents. Accept community submissions and integrate selected items into the archive with community‑controlled rights language.
Milestone by year’s end: a digitized pilot collection from the National Library and a public contribution model ready to scale.
Accessibility
• High‑contrast palette and large headings for readability.
• Descriptive alt text on images and title on iframes (map).
• External links open in new tabs with rel="noopener noreferrer".
• Images and embeds use loading="lazy" for low‑bandwidth contexts.
Call to Action
Join the preservation effort. Contribute a family story, partner on digitization, or help train youth “digital griots.” Every preserved story strengthens Guinea’s collective memory.
Building with Community
Guinea National Library
Institutional partnership for archive integration
Diaspora Communities
Family networks across global communities
UC Berkeley DH
Academic methodology and digital infrastructure
Community Elders
Knowledge keepers and storytelling guides
Explore the Archive
Visit our growing collection of family stories, historical documents, and cultural materials that showcase Guinea's rich heritage across generations and borders. Click on the button below to direct you on the Omeka collection (https://guineaarchive.omeka.net/).