Who owns the memory of struggle?
An exhibition in Ibadan recovers Nigeria’s buried history of activism, raising urgent questions about access, erasure, and whether archives can inspire new political action.
archives
Struggle and archive
The formerly exiled ANC activist and later judge Albie Sachs is archiving his life, including a new film that forms part of a larger project of legacy-making.
The memory keepers
A new documentary follows two women’s mission to decolonize Nairobi’s libraries, revealing how good intentions collide with bureaucracy, donor politics, and the ghosts of colonialism.
For the archive yet to come
Colonial archives hold the violence of the past, but they also carry the potential for anti-colonial futures — if radically reimagined for justice and accessibility.
The committed cameraman
New films from Mila Turajlić salvages footage from the Yugoslavian news archives to tell a story of non-aligned internationalism against Cold War bipolarity.
Archiving pan-Africanism
A project - helmed by historians Benjamin Talton and Jean Allman - to archive post-independence African revolutions, including Kwame Nkrumah's personal and professional papers.
The cemetery of cinema
Thierno Souleymane Diallo’s latest film traces his search for what is likely the first film made by a Guinean, in the process asking: how is a film culture possible when the infrastructure and institutions are lacking?
Paulo Lara and Angola’s anticolonial war archive
The death of Paulo Lara warrants an appreciation of his and his family’s contribution to preserving the documented history of Angola’s liberation struggle.
Restaging global history
The performative documentary 'Sun of the Soil' restores the historical record of the 'great king' of Mali, Mansa Musa.
The unseen archive of Idi Amin
A trove of unprinted photographs and other media from the Idi Amin years in Uganda is now available for public view giving us insight to the concerns of the regime and realities of living under his rule.
Capitalizing On a Violent Heritage
The politics of selling African art mostly collected during colonial era to private collectors.
