News

“Work in Progress” – SCOLMA’s 2026 Online Seminar Series

We’re pleased to launch the first seminar in SCOLMA’s 2026 Online Seminar Series “Work in Progress” – ‘African Literary Accessibility through Linked Open Metadata’.

This presentation will illustrate how the ALMEDA project is addressing the problem of insufficient visibility of African expressive cultures in catalogues, primarily because of the informal ways in which African print, audio, video, and digital works have been circulated, read, viewed, and collected.

When: Wednesday June 10th – 13:00-14:00 BST, online.

Please find the Eventbrite registration link here do share with your networks where appropriate. Space is limited so get your ticket today!

This is also posted on our LinkedIn and BlueSky if you want to re-share it or send it to colleagues.

The broader series of 3 FREE and ONLINE seminars focuses on decolonial projects that are ongoing in library and archive collections on Africa. Doing collaborative and engaged work can be difficult and slow. The processes often raise useful but challenging conversations between collections holders and stakeholders, between different forms of expertise, across international borders and structural disadvantage, and sometimes even within institutions where practices and expectations need to re-align.

Seminars are on Wednesdays from 13:00-14:00 BST (also called GMT+1):

• June 10th: ALMEDA project: ‘African Literary Accessibility through Linked Open Metadata’ – Ashleigh Harris (Uppsala University) and Ursula Oberst (Africa Studies Centre, Leiden)
• June 24th: Archives in Action project – exploring obstacles to accessing African-related archives in the UK, and archives in West Africa – Jarad Zimbler (King’s College, London) and colleagues.
• July 8th: Authors Mary Poole and Meitamei Olol Dapash on the collaborative work involved in bridging Maasai oral tradition and colonial archives to interrogate and build new foundations for Maasai heritage.

Looking forward to seeing you at some or all of the seminars!

Ben Carson, on behalf of the SCOLMA Committee

SCOLMA Conference, 30 June 2025 – Registration now open!

Through the Generations: Youth, Ageing and African Studies Collections

What impact does Africa’s growing youth population have on the role of archives & libraries that document the continent’s past?

30th June 2025 at Weston Library, Lecture Theatre, University of Oxford

Registrations are now open!

Please see ticket options and how to book via the SCOLMA Eventbrite registration page.

We are pleased to welcome you to the 2025 SCOLMA Conference: Through the Generations: Youth, Ageing & African Studies Collections.

The conference will be in person on Monday June 30th 2025 in Oxord, UK.

Become a SCOLMA member today and get a discounted conference registration price.

• For SCOLMA membership information, please visit our membership webpage
• Please contact us at sales@scolma.org if you would like to register to be a member.
• Keep an eye on our SCOLMA LinkedIn page for more Chair and speaker spotlights!

Conference Overview

This year the annual conference of SCOLMA (the UK Libraries and Archives Group on Africa) focuses on the future.

It is well known that the African continent has the youngest population in the world, and is sometimes described as the ‘continent of the future’. What impact does this have on the role of archives and libraries that document the continent’s past?

This conference will explore the role of library and archive materials in African Studies in understanding generational change and in meeting the opportunities and challenges that it brings. How have generational change and the experiences of different generations been understood and recorded in the past? How do shifts in technological expectations shape how different generations expect to ‘access’ the past? How do digital technologies change the balances between written records and oral tradition and how can collecting practices adjust accordingly? How can archive or library materials be mobilised to be useful in schools and education for different age groups?

If you have any questions, concerns, or accessibility requirements, please visit our FAQ section or get in touch with us at enquiries@scolma.org. Refunds are not normally provided.

PROGRAMME

09.30-09.50 Registration

09.50–10.00 Welcome

10.00–10.40 Keynote

• “The youth hold the future of the past: creating an infrastructure for engagement between youth, libraries, archives and museums in the digital preservation of African knowledge”
  Dr Buhle Mbambo-Thata, University Librarian, National University of Lesotho

10.40–11.00 Break

11.00–12.15 Panel 1: ‘Engaging young people with African history’

CHAIR: Sana Ginwalla

• ‘Story Explorers: creating an exhibition for children and families using the British Library collections’
  Mariam de Haan, British Library, and Nicola Pomery, British Library
• ‘Teaching transatlantic slavery (Balliol project)
  Aishah Olubaji, Magdalene College, University of Cambridge and Naomi Tiley, Balliol College, University of Oxford
• ‘Justice2History: an overview of changing practice and agendas in teaching African history in UK schools’
  Abdul Mohamed & Robin Whitburn, University College London

12.15–13.00 Lunch break

13.00–13.45 SCOLMA AGM

14.00–15.30 Panel 2: ‘Digital technology: preservation across the generations’

CHAIR : Tirivashe Jele

• ‘Engaging Generations in African Archival Preservation and Access’
  Gareth Bish, Coherent Digital
• ‘From Oral Tradition to Digital Preservation: Transforming African Knowledge Systems for Future Generations’
  Kenneth Atuma, Manchester University
• ‘Village Girls x Zambia Belonging: All The Beautiful People Are Gone’
  Misha Maseka, Royal College of Art & Sana Ginwalla, Open Window University Zambia, Everyday Lusaka Gallery

15.00–15.30 Break

15.30–16.30 Panel 3: ‘Generations in the archives’

CHAIR: Misha Maseka

• ‘Reconstructing Generations of Enslaved People: Age and Sex in the Liberation Registers of Colonial Senegal, 1857–1903’
  Wallace Teska, Trinity College, University of Cambridge
• ‘Africa in the Library and Archives of the United Grand Lodge of England’
  Susan Snell, & Rob Hammond, Open University

16.30-17.15 Discussion (panel chairs): ‘Generational change, archives and libraries: priorities and next steps’

17.15 Conference close

This programme is subject to change.
Please note that all speakers will be giving their papers in person.

(Other enquiries can be sent to Sarah Rhodes, SCOLMA Secretary,
sarah.rhodes@bodleian.ox.ac.uk.)

Call for Papers – “Through the generations: youth, ageing and African Studies collections” – (SCOLMA Conference 2025)

CfP: Through the generations: youth, ageing and African Studies collections

30th June 2025

A one-day conference at the University of  Oxford

Keynote speaker: Dr Buhle Mbambo-Thata, University of Lesotho

It is well known that the African continent has the youngest population in the world, and is sometimes described as the ‘continent of the future’. What impact does this have on the role of archives and libraries that document the continent’s past?

This conference will explore the role of library and archive materials in African Studies in understanding generational change and in meeting the opportunities and challenges that it brings. How have generational change and the experiences of different generations been understood and recorded in the past? How do shifts in technological expectations shape how different generations expect to ‘access’ the past? How do digital technologies change the balances between written records and oral tradition and how can collecting practices adjust accordingly? How can archive or library materials be mobilised to be useful in schools and education for different age groups?

We welcome papers from librarians, archivists and researchers in a number of disciplines, including African Studies, Youth and Ageing Studies, History, Geography, Education, Heritage, and Refugee and Migration Studies. Papers may address a range of media including documents and manuscripts, photographs, newspapers, historical printed collections, audio-visual material and born-digital material. Equally they may describe projects that explore new methods or technologies focused on engaging different generations with archival and library collections.

Subjects may include, but are not limited to:

• Activities or projects that have sought to engage younger or older people with archival records and collections in/about the African continent
• Research or collections that have sought to capture particular generational perspectives or experiences
• Research or collections that have sought to document campaigns for rights by particular generations: youth/student movements, children’s organisations, or protests by older generations
• The creation of educational materials from archive and library collections for younger or older people
• Studies or reflections on use-patterns in archives and libraries by younger or older generations

The conference will be in-person.

With agreement from the speakers the papers will be recorded and made available online after the event.

Please submit abstracts of up to 350 words and a one-paragraph biography to Sarah Rhodes: sarah.rhodes@bodleian.ox.ac.uk by Friday 17th January, 2025.