ABSTRACT

Until recently the International Library of African Music (ILAM) was at the receiving end of widespread criticisms because most of its collections were acquired through the colonial privilege of its founder, Hugh Tracey. Tracey recorded music and collected musical instruments in many countries of sub-Sahara Africa without following the rigorous ethical practices which are a necessary requirement for collectors these days. Since its establishment in 1954 until the early 2000s, moreover, ILAM had largely been inaccessible to black South Africans who comprise the majority of the population. Its presence, therefore, is complicated by a racist past associated with apartheid and a colonial past characterised by the misappropriation of the colonised's resources. In view of this history, ILAM had to shape a new reality which fell in line with calls and demands for decolonised practices such that the archive became an agent for transformation on numerous fronts. This series of articles describes the efforts undertaken by ILAM so that it could develop and implement policies which would place it at the vanguard of ethical archival practices on the continent. It is argued that the decolonial could be realised only through collaboration with entities which shared our interests in participatory and transformed archival practices.

摘要

直到最近，国际非洲音乐图书馆 (ILAM) 才受到广泛批评，因为其大部分藏品都是通过其创始人休·特雷西 (Hugh Tracey) 的殖民特权获得的。特蕾西在撒哈拉以南非洲的许多国家录制音乐和收集乐器，但没有遵循严格的道德规范，这是当今收藏家的必要要求。此外，自 1954 年成立以来，直到 2000 年代初，占人口大多数的南非黑人在很大程度上无法访问 ILAM。因此，它的存在因与种族隔离相关的种族主义过去和以侵占被殖民者资源为特征的殖民历史而变得复杂。鉴于这段历史，ILAM 必须塑造一个符合非殖民化实践的呼吁和要求的新现实，以便档案馆成为众多领域变革的推动者。这一系列文章描述了 ILAM 所做的努力，以便它可以制定和实施政策，使其成为非洲大陆道德档案实践的先锋。有人认为，只有通过与在参与性和转变档案实践中分享我们利益的实体合作，才能实现去殖民化。