Personifying conceptions of Africa-centred restitution processes
The Open Restitution Africa (ORA) team leads this interactive workshop that explores the theme, ‘African Storytelling: Supporting unique pan-African stories in digital form’. As a project that merges storytelling, cultural heritage, data and technology, this workshop aims to foreground the ways in which digital infrastructures can support African restitution narratives.
This workshop invites participants to primarily engage in two thought-provoking activities in a collaborative and participatory way. The first half of the session features a storytelling activity to highlight insights that have emerged from case studies collated by a community of practice across various regions on the African continent. During the second half of the session ORA will present a demonstration of the data platform currently in development.
The ORA team hopes the workshop sparks more radical ways through which pan-African stories can emerge and develop in digital forms. We look forward to you joining us!
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Open Restitution Africa (ORA) is an Africa-centered restitution project founded by Molemo Moiloa of Andani.Africa (RSA) and Chao Tayiana Maina of African Digital Heritage (Kenya). Other team members include Karen Ijumba, Syokau Mutonga,Camille Shaiyen and Phumzile Nombuso Twala. Our point of origin as ORA is mainly in response to scant data available on how restitution is happening in Africa from an African perspective. Our objectives are to: ● Build knowledge ● Aggregate and share knowledge ● Translate and articulate knowledge in a way that promotes dialogue, advocacy and education on restitution
The open data platform by ORA is designed to capture moments in a past or ongoing restitution case, as comparable event data. By conducting case studies across the continent, and juxtaposing and reading across the events that occur in these cases, we seek to develop a holistic understanding of the activities, soft and hard infrastructure, and visible.