Khumo Molobye Building a new home of our history - the Bafokeng Digital Archive Khumo Molobye Royal Bafokeng Nation [email protected] Abstract our identity as a nation. Using the new to preserve the old, the Bafokeng Digital Archives is a The Royal Bafokeng Nation values its history and collaborative effort to document and make accessible, heritage. It believes in the Setswana proverb that the community's rich history. says 'Maropeng go a boelwa, go sa boelweng ke teng'; meaning that mankind will always refer back This paper aims to highlight some of the processes to is origins in order to forge ahead and progress. In followed, challenges met and lessons learned from the light of the above, an initiative, known as the project. Some of the achievements of the projects Bafokeng Digital Archive was birthed in 2011, include: archival storage and digital infrastructure, with the aim to collect and disseminate information material acquisition and metadata creation, web about events that shaped the Bafokeng's past and presentation and marketing. development that benefit the entire Key words: digital archives, oral history, population of the Nation. Royal Bafokeng Nation, preservation 1. Introduction The RBN base their development on the nine key areas, namely Education & Skills The Royal Bafokeng Nation, later to be Development, Health & Social referred to as the RBN, is a community of Development, Economic Development, approximately 150 000 Setswana-speaking Food Security, Safety & Security, Public & people living in the Rustenburg valley, in the Community utilities, Environmental North West province in South Africa, Management, Sport Development, and according to the study, Population and Use History & Heritage. This clearly shows the of Land Audit (PULA) that was conducted in high regard that the history and heritage 2011. The Bafokeng are under the traditional aspect is given by RBN. RBN, through the leadership of Kgosi (King) Leruo Tshekedi Research and Knowledge Management Molotlegi. Their capital city is Phokeng. The department saw a need to design and Bafokeng own over 1500 square kilometres implement a project to collect and preserve of land which is rich in platinum and other its history and heritage-related information. minerals, Mbenga and Manson, 2010. They have used the wealth from these mines to build social structures and support social The ancestors of the Bafokeng people did not leave much written records, although Journal of the South African Society of Archivists, Vol. 47, 2014 | SASA © 50 Khumo Molobye there are few sources that can be consulted the information about its past for posterity. for traced of the RBN's past, for example The Bafokeng Digital Archives (BDA) was Native Commissioner's records. Elderly then conceived, with its aim being to act as a community members who can orate the tool to retain the stories that shaped the memories are some of the sources that can Nation’s achievements for future be consulted for more information on what generations. BDA is a repository for all the nation’s ancestors lived for. historical material which comes in different forms, including digital scans of photos, letters, maps, newspapers and journal articles, In 2008, the idea of a digital hub that would books, posters and art works, virtual be the central point of the RBN’s history and representations of heritage sites, audio and heritage was envisaged by the Research video recordings. Oral history interviews are Department. There has always been an available as text, audio files and in some appetite for historical records, where the cases as video files. community needed to acknowledge its past and be made aware of issues that contributed to the position in which it finds themselves The Bafokeng people believe that it is every to date. Historical events that took place in Mofokeng’s right to know about their past the RBN also pushed for the idea to be a because it is their heritage and part of their realizable one; for example: the national identity (Bergh 2005, Niezen 2003, enthronement of the current King, Kgosi Bozzolli 1991). BDA is intended to bridge Leruo Molotlegi, is one historical and cultural the gap and become a modern society’s event that all the Bafokeng people regard cultural institution, a source of meaning and highly (Smith 2003, Cook and Hardin 2006, reassurance that some pieces of the past will Graham 2003). This is one of the events that be preserved (Foster and Dillon, 1999). BDA propelled the RBN Governance to take a is to serve that purpose of collecting leap and implement this project. As the knowledge from the elder generations, who community was preparing to host still have historical accounts in their international visitors, opportunities to start memories; and presenting it in online user- collecting and organizing its history arose. friendly platform, accessible for future The making of the documentary ‘Playing the generations. Game the Bafokeng way’, as well the history book entitled ‘People of the dew’, showed that there was an enormous amount of 2. Building BDA - the methodology historical information for the Bafokeng Different aspects that contributed to the people in many parts of the world, like the successful implementation and use of the Hermannsburg Mission Centre in Germany. BDA were thoroughly looked into and are as The records at this Centre are not easily follows: accessible to the local community. - Community participation The plan to implement a digital home was - Material acquisition and soliciting therefore an ideal worthy to be pursued. The - Infrastructural Development Bafokeng people needed to protect most of - Interoperability Journal of the South African Society of Archivists, Vol. 47, 2014 | SASA © 51 Khumo Molobye - Legal framework - Marketing 2.2 Material acquisition and soliciting 2.1 Community participation Community participation has proven that The Oxford Dictionary defines a community members develop a sense of responsibility as "a group of people who are linked by towards the project. They want to see their social ties and share common perspectives project succeeding and being implemented and interests; many also share a geographical fully and correctly. Gow and Vansant (1983: location". The RBN as a community believes 427) mentioned that voluntary provision of that for them to know where they are going, time and material to a project is a necessary they need to know where they come from. It condition for breaking patterns of is our responsibility as information workers dependency and passivity. This has been the and research department to design case at the RBN. The more community interventions that are culturally appropriate. members are informed, the more they want It is of utmost importance to include and to volunteer to assist. They understand that work together with the community on this there are benefits that lay the project as they project. The active collection, recording and contribute positively to it. Educating them preservation of heritage, history and on the importance of preserving and sharing indigenous knowledge through community- their heritage is therefore very key. based processes is central to BDA. Workshops with the community members were conducted, with regular communiqué through the local newsletter. The RBN already has organized governance structures that helped to get the community buy-in on this project. Community wards, The BDA collection is made up of materials called lekgotla in Setswana, led by the that were solicited from provincial, national Headman comprises of clans or families. and international official archives as well as There are seventy two wards in the twenty personal collections such as family albums. nine villages of the RBN and they are divided Different libraries and archives were into five regions. About twenty-six out of consulted to solicit for all the material of seventy-two clans were randomly approached heritage- relevance to the community of and were in constant consultation with the Mafokeng. These include the National BDA Project leader regarding this project. Library of South Africa, Brenthurst Library, They are the owners and users of the and the Hermannsburg Mission Centre in collections in BDA, and therefore there Germany. Most of the information would be would be no BDA without their in paper-formats. The material get scanned participation. “Communities are no longer through the assistance of the libraries and seen as recipients of development programs later uploaded onto the BDA. It is important but are critical stakeholders that have an to establish good working relationships with important role in projects and programmes libraries and archives to help in this regard. in their areas”(White, Williams and Spenceley Bafokeng community members have also 2001: 12). contributed the majority of the items housed Journal of the South African Society of Archivists, Vol. 47, 2014 | SASA © 52 Khumo Molobye in BDA. All these different stakeholders plans such as newsletters and displays at were consulted so as to achieve a community gatherings; people's comprehensive collection as possible. understanding of the project gets clarified and the problem of hoarding gets minimised. One other way to extract information is through oral histories collection (Hurford and Read 2007, Swain 2003). Every year a Collection oral evidence also has its theme that covers an aspect of Bafokeng challenges. So far, most of the knowledge history is selected, on which oral evidence is about our past has been transferred orally. sought after. Community members with The fact that most of the Bafokeng historical knowledge on the particular theme are evidence is mostly tacit and held by the invited to come forth and share their elderly generation poses a big threat to knowledge. Audio and video recording achieving comprehensive collection of as devices are used for this exercise. Themes much information as possible. There is a that range from the origins of Bafokeng, to saying that once an old man with knowledge heroes and heroines of Bafokeng people are dies, the whole library is burnt down.