preserving nairobi heritage through audio visual archiving the unh project
TRANSCRIPT
Susan Kibaara, Head of County Records
Nairobi City County
Introduction• Archives exist for the preservation and continuation of the cultural heritage of a
place. Audiovisual media contribute to culture, especially of the nineteenthcentury, and even more so of the twentieth and therefore archives for audiovisualmaterials are being developed world over. The collections are available in variousformats and range from a variety of cultures, past and current civilizations,artefacts, manuscripts and printed materials.
• Human effort in the field of Audio Visual Archiving has long been transmitted byimages and the oral traditions and then came the written records. The inventionof printing has made collections more widely available, providing the recipientwith ability to access written collections. More recently the materials could berecorded on to a visual or audio format for widespread transmission anddistribution leading to what we now call audiovisual materials.
• All these elements of Audio Visual collections are part of the record of theheritage of the County and if they are to continue existing they require saving,gathering, preserving and/or conserving and they also need to be accessible toencourage the spread of knowledge.
• The County Archives should bear the responsibility safeguarding these materials.
Background of the Nairobi Audio Visual
Archive
• The Nairobi County Records Management Divisionwas awakened to the Audio visual collections of theCounty during the transition from City Council toCounty Government were collections were strewn allover without much care rendering them to great risk.
• The records management unit embarked on a pilotproject and collected the photographs of the defunctCouncil former mayors and began a restorationprogram which saw the first items being lined upoutside H.E the Governors lounge. The Pictures werescanned and copies printed for display.
Gallery of Former Mayors Photos
Sample of Photo recovered
Henderson H. Edgar was the first white mayor
of Nairobi City Council between 1923-1924
Charles Wanyoike was the first African mayor for Nairobi
City Council between 1962-1967
Objectives of UNH Project
i. To bring Nairobi closer home to its residents, to help them have avisual impression of what they know, what they don’t know andwhat they already know about Nairobi.
ii. To provide greater ease of information access and sharing ofNairobi heritage.
iii. To enhance long term preservation of Audio Visual Collections byreducing wear and tear of through careful handling of theoriginals for reference and reproduction only.
iv. To create possible revenue streams for the County’s collections tocapture a world audience.
v. To reduce the need of physical space while promoting strategiesfor protection of audio visual collections in the long term.
i. Almost everyone who works in other audiovisual archives has received copious thanks from people who discovered recordings they never imagined existed of their relatives or their community. In some cases, these recordings have made it possible for communities to renew traditions that were long abandoned and nearly forgotten. This could come true for Nairobi residents.
ii. In other cases the benefits have been more material. Audio recordings from archives were used in court cases in both Australia and South Africa to reclaim property and land titles. What can Nairobi gain from such case studies?
iii. Audiovisual recordings are far more than entertainment; they may, in fact, allow Nairobi residents tore cover rights and individuals to recover livelihoods.
iv. Changes in format, deterioration of the media themselves and probable loss will mean that the recordings in archives will take on a far greater significance as time passes.
v. Nairobi County will be the first County to gather audio visual collections that if agreed on will be dubbed “The Governors collections”. This will be a great honour to serving and future Governors of the County.
• The UNH project will encourage and guide themanagement of other collections (motion picturefilms, still photographs, filmstrips, sound andvideo recordings, posters and other graphicworks, and multimedia productions with relatedfinding aids and production files for the Countyof Nairobi) that are currently domiciled in othersectors.
• The collections are available in various formatsand are approaching obsolescence e.g.photographs, films and documentaries.
Structure of how the Archive will look on the County
Website
Unlocking
Nairobi
Heritage
Project Implementers
The project is currently being overseen and implemented by the following County
of Nairobi Officers in collaboration with the Kenya National Archives and
Documentation Services:
Susan Kibaara ,Head of County Records
email: [email protected]
Diffence A. Machocho, Officer in Charge Records, Central Registry
Email: [email protected]
Villy A. Magero, Officer in Charge- Records, County Secretary’s Office
Email: [email protected]
NAIROBI AT A GLANCE
