The Sinomlando Centre for Oral History and Memory Work in Africa runs a variety of research and community development projects which aim to assist orphans and vulnerable children to take ownership of their history. Sinomlando is an isiZulu word meaning “we have a history.” Adapting the skills and methods of oral history, one of the programmes run by Sinomlando is the memory box project which helps families affected by HIV&AIDS and, to a lesser extent, other fatal diseases or crime, to record their family history by way of life stories, family trees and bereavement narratives. The aim is to enhance resilience in the children and assist caregivers. The facilitators must manage competing ethical demands: respect for the child as an individual and respect for cultural norms and values which assign subordinate roles to children and deny them the right to be informed about adult matters; conformity to ontologies, epistemologies and ethical principles which arise from Western research practices while honouring indigenous African knowledge systems. In this paper I focus on the ethical implications of the memory box project.

中文翻译：

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记忆盒项目：南非艾滋病孤儿记忆工作的伦理考虑

Sinomlando 非洲口述历史和记忆工作中心开展了各种研究和社区发展项目，旨在帮助孤儿和弱势儿童掌握自己的历史。Sinomlando 是一个伊西祖鲁语，意思是“我们有一段历史”。适应口述历史的技巧和方法，Sinomlando 开展的项目之一是记忆盒项目，帮助受艾滋病毒和艾滋病影响的家庭，以及在较小程度上，其他致命疾病或犯罪，以生活故事的方式记录他们的家族历史，家谱和丧亲之痛。目的是增强儿童的适应能力并协助照顾者。协调人必须管理相互竞争的道德要求：尊重儿童作为个体，尊重文化规范和价值观，这些规范和价值观赋予儿童从属角色，剥夺他们了解成人事务的权利；符合西方研究实践中产生的本体论、认识论和伦理原则，同时尊重非洲本土知识体系。在本文中，我将重点讨论内存盒项目的伦理意义。