DIGITAL ARCHIVING OF UNCOLLECTED AFRICAN HISTORICAL SOURCES: AN IMPERATIVE INNOVATION

Abstract

The place for primary sources for historical sciences is sacrosanct. Africa, African History and Historians need to search for the unadulterated primary sources and save them from impending extinction. The current rapid loss of irreplaceable documents among African societies put in limbo the re-writing of authentic African history. By and large, the larger African population is at a crossroads from overreliance on oral historical heritage to written literature. The written documents containing African history are expediently documentable, easily preservable and constantly verifiable. Satirically, the global north, racing miles ahead, is speedily shifting from physical to digital preservation of archival materials to evade the risk of invariable obliteration. African archival practices have experienced deficiencies ranging from poor preservation to privation of historical intuition on the invaluableness of historical documents. Urgent digital intervention is not a choice lest history sinks into oblivion. Digital archiving of uncollected African historical resources is one of the most secure ways to immortalize the sources thus furnishing history with a future. This academic corpus seeks to appraise the purpose, nature, methods and practical approaches for the collection, preservation and rendering of uncollected historical documents available for researchers and educators on a digital platform with universal accessibility.