Studying National Commemoration and Political Celebrations in Africa: The Online Archive African Independence Days
- 1 January 2020
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Cambridge University Press (CUP) in Africa Bibliography
Abstract
The Department of Anthropology and African Studies (ifeas) at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz hosts a comprehensive archive on African Independence Day celebrations. Created in 2010, the archive is one of the outcomes of a large comparative research project on African national days directed by Carola Lentz. It offers unique insights into practices of as well as debates on national commemoration and political celebrations in Africa. The archive holds more than 28,000 images, including photographs, newspaper articles, documents, and objects from twelve African countries: Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Côte d'Ivoire, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Gabon, Ghana, Madagascar, Mali, Namibia, Nigeria, and Tanzania. It primarily consists of an online photo and newspaper archive (https://bildarchiv.uni-mainz.de/AUJ/; https://www.blogs.uni-mainz.de/fb07-ifeas-eng/departmental-archives/online-archive-african-independence-days/); some of the material is also stored in the physical archive on African Independence Days at ifeas as well as in the department's ethnographic collection (https://www.blogs.uni-mainz.de/fb07-ifeas-eng/ethnographic-collection/). Most of the material concerns recent celebrations, but the collection has been complemented by some documentation of earlier festivities. Archives hold many stories while they also have a story to tell in their own right. This article discusses both aspects. It first traces the history of the Online Archive African Independence Days at ifeas. It then provides an overview of the different categories of material stored in the archive and tells a few of the many stories that the photos, texts and objects contain. We hope to demonstrate that the archive holds a wealth of sources that can be mined for studies on national commemoration and political celebrations in Africa, and, more generally, on practices and processes of nation-building and state-making.Keywords
This publication has 17 references indexed in Scilit:
- Performing the national territory: The geography of national-day celebrationsNations and Nationalism, 2017
- „Jeder hat seinen Platz“. Differenzpolitik und Raumordnung in afrikanischen NationalfeiernSociologus, 2016
- Studying the Dynamics of African Bureaucracies. An Introduction to States at WorkPublished by Brill ,2014
- Madagascar's independence jubilee: a nation's holiday in times of crisisNations and Nationalism, 2013
- Celebrating independence jubilees and the millennium: national days in AfricaNations and Nationalism, 2013
- The 2010 independence jubilees: the politics and aesthetics of national commemoration in AfricaNations and Nationalism, 2013
- The politics and aesthetics of commemoration: national days in southern AfricaAnthropology Southern Africa, 2013
- Beyond BeliefPublished by Duke University Press ,2007
- Banal NationalismForeign Affairs, 1996
- Célébrations officielles et pouvoirs africains: symbolique et construction de l'ÉtatCanadian Journal of African Studies / Revue Canadienne des Études Africaines, 1978