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AEGIS European Conference on African Studies
11 - 14 July 2007
African Studies Centre, Leiden, The Netherlands
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Ephemera, Protest Culture and Historiography
| Panel |
46. Shaping collections, producing alternative histories: The example of Namibia as a contested research entity
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| Paper ID | 628 |
| Author(s) |
Henrichsen, Dag
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| Paper |
No paper submitted
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| Abstract | Existing archival collections on Namibia feature larger amounts of socalled ephemera without much recognition of their research value. Often, ephemera collections (flyers, posters, brochures, short-lived periodicals, the accidental interview, to mention only a few of a whole range of ephemeral items) are generated in the private sphere, are the last to find a more permanent archival home and often are the last to get catalogued and hence made accessible. Ephemera collections are often 'alternative' collections and offer the possibility of counter-narratives. Their research value is increasingly valued whilst archivists are often overwhelmed by the challenges such collections (which often need to be pieced together) beg.
In this paper, I shall, firstly, look more theoretically at ephemera before, secondly, taking examples from the Namibian protest culture of the 1980s in order to show, how the production of ephemera not only produced 'voices', but influenced research agendas and constructed history. Yet, as 'an archive', this ephemeral material, being largely incomplete, has been forgotten as has been the historiographic importance of it.
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