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African Studies libraries have become sites of critical interrogations into knowledge production practices. Digital technological possibilities, on the one hand, and colonial legacies in acquisition, cataloguing and knowledge validation, on the other hand, provide challenges to academic library practices. Student demands, in turn, envisage wide-ranging and simple access possibilities. In this Round Table, Jakobina Mwiiyale, Head of the University of Namibia Library User Services, Nora Schmidt from the network for decolonising academic libraries in German-speaking countries reflect on the - often - hidden skills of librarian’s knowledge curation, decolonial policy and student demands.

Jakobina Mwiiyale is Head of the University of Namibia (UNAM) Library User Services, Windhoek.

Nora Schmidt is a library and information studies researcher, decolonisation activist and open access advocate, currently working for the University Press at the University of Music and Performing Arts (UDW), Vienna.

Moderation: Dag Henrichsen, Basler Afrika Bibliographien, and Maria Randy Mwatondange, Centre for African Studies, University of Basel, Switzerland.

Zoom-Link: https://unibas.zoom.us/j/64922090450?pwd=ekF2NVFwZmNRbTNoZ25NOElxdUNGZz09

 

The series "Decolonising knowledge? Africa collections in focus" is organised by the Basler Afrika Bibliographien (BAB), the Swiss Society for African Studies (SSAS) and the Centre for African Studies (CAS) of the University of Basel as part of the series “Wissensorte – Lieux de Savoir” of the Swiss Academy of Humanities and Social Sciences (SAHS). It consists of three conversations:

22.11.2021 Vitjitua Ndjiharine and Fiona Siegenthaler: Unsettling (Y)our Gaze and Decolonizing the Archive

02.12.2021 Decolonising Africa Collections? Library Legacies and African Studies Futures. A round table with Jakobina Mwiiyale (Windhoek) and Nora Schmidt (Vienna)

06.12.2021) Cinematic work and colonial history. Film talk with Perivi Katjavivi (Windhoek)