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Digital Repository For African History Culture And Heritage: A Case of Keiyo Community of Kenya

Published onAug 30, 2024
Digital Repository For African History Culture And Heritage: A Case of Keiyo Community of Kenya
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 Abstract - The History, Culture and Heritage of a Community once it is cast in stone constitutes and remains a priceless jewel for posterity. Africa's cultural heritage is rich and diverse, shaped by thousands of years of history, traditions, and customs that have influenced art, music, fashion, and more across the world. The befitting way to celebrate this immense creativity is to showcase it on a digital platform. Kenya is endowed with a rich historical and cultural heritage and is popularly known as the Cradle of Mankind.

The Keiyo people, are part of the Kalenjin Community that reside in the Kenyan highlands of Rift Valley. The Keiyo, as an ethnic group is a people who feel connected by a complex mix of kinship, culture, and history.

Keiyo History Culture and Heritage (KHCH) Centre has embraced the challenge of scanty community historical and cultural records. One of the goals in its work plan is to create a digital platform repository for the uniquely rich history, culture and heritage of the Keiyo Community. With the already thriving partnerships and collaborations with actors in the Global North, Kenya and indeed Africa shall overcome the challenges facing its desire to bridge the gaps in the realization of equity in matters preservation and dissemination of its priceless ages-old indigenous knowledge driven rich history culture and heritage.

Keywords - Africa, History Culture and Heritage, Digitization, Repository, Kenya, Keiyo, KHCH.

This paper was submitted for the iPRES2024 conference on March 17, 2024 and reviewed by Carly Lenz, Kyle R. Rimkus, Dr. Stephen Abrams and 1 anonymous reviewer. The paper was accepted with reviewer suggestions on May 6, 2024 by co-chairs Heather Moulaison-Sandy (University of Missouri), Jean-Yves Le Meur (CERN) and Julie M. Birkholz (Ghent University & KBR) on behalf of the iPRES2024 Program Committee.

I. Introduction

Africa is a vast continent, home to many millions of people. Its current population is 1,5 billion (about 18% Global), based on the latest-2024 United Nations estimates. Its history stretches back millennia and encompasses some of the most ancient civilizations in the world. Modern Africa boasts a cultural heritage: the legacy of many diverse influences from all around the world, reflecting the central role African plays in world history [1].

Indeed, Africa's cultural heritage is rich and diverse, shaped by thousands of years of history, traditions, and customs that have influenced art, music, fashion, and more across the world. This legacy is a testament to the immense and abundant creativity and ingenuity of its people. The befitting way to celebrate these in this present era of the digital revolution, is to showcase more widely by availing them on a digital platform. This will among others inspire Africans and people from around the world to explore, learn, and celebrate this remarkable continent- from its music to art, from storytelling to cultural sites. The platform shall serve as a bridge, connecting cultures and offering a window into the diversity, resilience, vibrancy, and richness of Africa’s traditional indigenous knowledge, deeply embedded into its cultural heritage.

There are gallerias across Africa charting the journey from its colonial roots to vibrant postcolonial modernism, showcasing cultural significance, and historical narratives. The National Museums of African countries keep artifacts and rare artworks. In Kenya for example, the National Museums institution, serves as a national repository, to identify, protect, conserve and transmit the historical, cultural and natural heritage of Kenya [2].

These captivating priceless items weave together the complexity of Africa's history, narrating stories from diverse perspectives and experiences across different periods connecting the vibrant artistry and cultural narratives of Africa. However, these are physical establishments, which require a digital overhaul. In addition, world libraries host books, articles, artifacts and other items on African history. However often times most of them cover predominantly colonial periods and were not written by Africans. 

Efforts to digitize most of these collections are ongoing with the support of various organizations and institutions across the world to bridge the knowledge gap through tailor made projects to resuscitate awareness of modern day African History perspectives [3] [4]. Hopefully in shortest due course these will be available on a digital platform. We take note of the Project “Catalyzing African Community Archives for Social Good”[5]. This project is developing a reciprocal partnership among the University of Illinois Urbana Champaign, African partners (initially in Ghana, Kenya and Botswana) and international digital preservation/knowledge management organizations and networks. The partnership fosters the preservation of modern documentary materials, enabling Africans to tell their stories in their terms.

Another reason to digitize Africa’s rich and complex history and culture is the scanty availability of refined modern indigenous knowledge records [6]. However, through a recent UNESCO supported project, Africans have unveiled their best kept secret: their rich ages-old history [7]. The General History of Africa (GHA), as the project is titled, is a pioneering corpus, unparalleled in its ambition to cover the history of the entire African continent, since the appearance of human beings to contemporary challenges faced by Africans and their Diasporas in the world. 

Therefore, it is now time to share most widely with the world this hidden secret by exploiting digital technology.  In this regard, we shall share the initiatives of the Keiyo History Culture and Heritage (KHCH) Center, to tell the world the uniquely rich history, culture and heritage of the Keiyo Community in Kenya, by exploiting the versatility of the digital age tools.

II. Keiyo community of Kenya

Kenya is endowed with a rich historical, cultural and natural heritage and is popularly known as the Cradle of Mankind. Kenya is also one of the most cosmopolitan countries in Africa – no one single cultural element can be used to describe the people as a whole. You could say that the country’s local population easily represents more diversity than many other African countries. Traditional African beliefs play a significant role in the lives of Kenyans in spite of adapting to modern values. Some communities have retained more of the traditional African lifestyle than others and consequently have gained great respect and curiosity internationally. [8] One of these is the Keiyo Community of Kenya.

The Keiyo Community

The Keiyo were known earlier as El-geyo (“El-gay-o”), which is originally a Maasai word. The Keiyo are part of a larger ethnic grouping of ten culturally and linguistically related ethnic groups known as the Kalenjin [9]. The Keiyo people of Kenya, are part of the Kalenjin Community comprising majorly the Kipsigis, Nandi, Tugen, Marakwet, Pokot and Sabaot. They reside mainly in Elgeiyo Marakwet and Uasin Gishu Counties of Kenya.

The Keiyo as an ethnic group are a people who feel connected by a complex mix of kinship, culture, history and more importantly; geography. It is the shared picturesque Elgeyo-Escarpment that binds them together. They are a people proud of their traditions, clans and their totems, bequeathed by their ancestors and passed on from generation to generation.

This was confirmed by the early European explorers. Their travelers’ accounts in the late nineteenth centuries have provided very vital information on the Keiyo. Joseph Thompson is regarded both in the traditions and the literature as having been the first white man to traverse Keiyo land through Mogoiwa in 1883 [10]. In his book, “Through Masai Land”, Thompson [11], graphically describes his exciting experiences as he traversed through Keiyo territory. The incessant need to document further the Keiyo rich history, culture, traditions and heritage led to the realization of the “KEIYO HISTORY CULTURE AND HERITAGE (KHCH)” initiative in the year 2023.

III. KHCH innitiative and global south perspectives

Dutta (2019)[12], in “Digital preservation of indigenous culture and narratives from the global South”,  a research that seeks to digitally preserve cultural histories and artifacts, which are practiced/produced in the underserved indigenous spaces of rural eastern India writes: There exists “massive structural, communicative, and technological barriers to writing history from the ground up in the marginalized spaces of the global South”  Further, Raju et al. (2020) [13], in “Social justice and inclusivity: Drivers for the dissemination of African scholarship”, wrote: “Africa is desperate to find solutions to the myriad of challenges that have a stranglehold on its development. To fast track a positive development trajectory, Africa needs to generate solutions to local challenges at an exponential rate.”

In reference to these and other global South perspectives, the KEIYO HISTORY CULTURE AND HERITAGE (KHCH) Initiative as a special project, was conceived and launched in 2023 to meet the incessant need to document, preserve and disseminate both on physical and digital formats the rich Keiyo history, traditions  and cultural heritage. 

Justification Action Points

Ten action points were agreed on to guide the concept note, work plan and setting the requisite goals and objectives, strategies, activities and deliverables. With reference to Keiyo History, Culture, Traditions and heritage, as well as borrowing from best practices in other countries of the global South:

  1. Where did we start, where are we currently and where do we want to be in the future?

  2. What are influences, both positive and negative by/from other Kenyan communities?

  3. There exists numerous written and oral documentation about the Keiyo Community to fill the existing knowledge gaps.

  4. Knowledge management professionals should be identified for the requisite tasks.

  5. Identify knowledgeable elders and conduct interviews with them.

  6. Update existing books or write new ones.

  7. Appropriate repositories, physical and digital to be set up.

  8. Special booklets/pamphlets should be created.

  9. A roll of honor be established for Keiyo Heroes and Heroiness

  10. The Keiyo Cultural Day, should be held regularly.

IV. KHCH workplan, goals, objectives, strategies, activities and deliverables

A detailed work plan has been done. It comprises: Setting goals and objectives, strategies, activities and deliverables, establishing team responsibilities, setting project timelines and establishing respective budgets.

Eight goals have been agreed for this project. These goals with their respective activities and budget proposals, will be achieved through the realization of the respective objectives either singly or in combinations. Sixteen objectives have been spelled out, one of which is the subject matter of this paper: To create a Community Knowledge Repository on an electronic/physical platform with ease of accessibility. Deliverables for each of the eight goals have been spelt out. Africa is a continent with a very rich history of traditions, characterized by a wide variety of genres. Its oral traditions convey the various cultures and values, including Africa’s diversity in languages, customs, religions, tribes, and arts [14]. The recording of oral tradition of the Keiyo will forever remain a vital link between the coming generations and the departed forefathers. These form the basic values which must be retained for the cohesion of society and its survival [15]. Therefore, the deliverable of the successful oral interviews of four prominent Keiyo elders in November 2023, was indeed a game changer in this respect. The recorded interviews shall be stored and made available on the KHCH repository.

Realizing the Keiyo Knowledge Repository on a Digital platform is one other deliverable which is currently work in progress.

V. The Keiyo knowledge repository on digital a platform

Balogan & Kalusopa (2021), [16]  in “A framework for digital preservation of indigenous knowledge systems (IKS) in repositories in South Africa,” wrote:

“The purpose of this study is to assess the digital preservation policies and plans for long-term digital preservation in selected repositories in South Africa, with a view to develop a digital preservation framework for the preservation of Indigenous knowledge system (IKS) in South Africa”. The findings of this study, revealed that there are no digital preservation policies in place in the institutions, especially long-term digital preservation for IKS.

In Kenya, the situation is similar. Two other studies on the situation in Bangladesh and India, revealed similar if not worse situations on the ground with reference to the state of preservation of indigenous knowledge on a digital platform.

Frings-Hessami & Oliver (2022) [17], “Accessing and preserving information: Combining ICT4D and archival science to empower marginalized communities” wrote: “Information and communication technology for development (ICT4D) is a field of research concerned with studying how information and communication technologies (ICTs) can be used to improve the socio-economic situation of marginalized communities in developing countries. Archival science, has assisted knowledge preservation projects in Bangladesh to be more sustainable”

Panda & Kaur (2023) [18], “Harnessing traditional tribal knowledge treasure in India by unlocking the potential of digital platform,” wrote: “This study explores the transformative impact of the Traditional Knowledge Digital Library (TKDL) in safeguarding India's Traditional Tribal Knowledge (TTK). Focusing on bridging traditional wisdom and modern innovation, TKDL serves as a vital repository, meticulously documenting indigenous practices and protecting them from cultural erosion and biopiracy. By integrating digital technologies, prevents unauthorized patenting.”

Borrowing best practices from these and other studies, KHCH has embarked on a process to set up a digital repository for the Keiyo Community of Kenya. This constitutes a transformational move for Kenya which can be emulated by other communities in Kenya and indeed on the African Continent and why not beyond into the other global South endangered communities..

KHCH digital repository

The Digital Repository implementation team has already tabled the requisite flow of actions/considerations to realize the KHCH Digital Repository. The main considerations are briefly described.

a) The kind of content to host: The KHCH team members will have to establish, through expert consultation and co-creation, the kind of cultural artifacts and content to preserve within the digital repository. The data collection will be done through interviews, document & literature reviews as well as focus group discussions.

b) The server space and domain name choices: As a community initiative, there is need to identify an appropriate domain name and extension. Examples of the extensions are Keiyoculture.org [/com/net/co.ke], KHCH.org [/com/net/co.ke]. As is now, the most appropriate extension is “.org”. However, the actual domain name to be adopted will need to be identified by the team, with the help of an expert, subject to its availability. The server space required will be determined by the scope of the cultural content which will be at play.

c) Hosting options: There are two options to host the repository, private or public (state organization). In the case of private, a community based organization shall be registered. On the other hand, the public hosting could be done through the relevant state department. Consultations are underway to determine the best approach.

d) The digitizers/ database developers: Content digitization and digitalization is a science and an art at the same time. It is therefore prudent that the team selects experienced content creators and curators.

e) Strategy of Funding this work: It goes without saying that all the stages of creating and managing a knowledge repository are not cheap. It requires various resources including financing. Options on the table are donations in cash and in kind, government funding or subscription-based membership. Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) and Development Partners will also be approached with specific requests for support in this endeavour.

Process of creating a digital database for KHCH

Creating a cultural database involves several steps to ensure that it accurately captures and organizes cultural information. As soon as the requisite funding is obtained, there shall be a roll out of the KHCH digital repository through the following general outline of the process:

i. Define the Scope and Purpose: This entails determining the reasons why a cultural repository for the Keiyo people is necessary. Once a decision has been made on the reasons, the scope based on the different types of artifacts and knowledge items, will be determined.

ii. Gather Cultural Information: The activity here will be to collect the actual content which will make up the repository. It will include raw data, facts, documentaries, text, audio and video among other forms of cultural knowledge.

iii. Data cleaning and Organization: Data collection, sources and storage methods usually infuse noise into the information. To ensure that the required information is kept, a process to clean up and organize the collected information will be determined and applied 

iv. Choose a Database Management System (DBMS): There are different types of DMS available, some of which are proprietary while others are open source software. Through a consultative forum and expert involvement, the team will make a decision on the DBMS to use.

v. Design the Database Schema: This will require the services of a database designer who will design (mostly through modeling) the database schemas to represent the physical database.

vi. Create the Database: The database developer will implement the database schema using a chosen DBMS. The work will involve setting up tables, defining the data types, and establishing relationships between tables/schemas as needed. In the Keiyo culture, this is akin to building a store in readiness for harvesting.

vii. Input Cultural Data: At this point, the actual data entry exercise will be done. The analogy is storing maize (food) harvested in the store.

viii. Index and Search Functionality: To allow for effective and efficient usage, the user interface and database optimization may be done once enough cultural information has been stored. 

ix. Conduct Quality Assurance: To ensure that the correct information/knowledge has been stored and correctly organized, a quality assurance process, which might require an external independent expert will have to be performed.

The proposed digital repository content

The proposed KHNCH repository will categorize its content into artifacts, cultures, repositories, cultural events, locations, sub-tribes, and uses for each artifact. Additionally, it will highlight the significance of each culture and artifact beyond just their use and location. Below is a brief description of these categories as implemented in a digital database:

Artifacts: Are the physical tangible objects that have cultural, historical, or archaeological significance. They provide insight into the way of life, customs, technology, and artistic expressions of past and present cultures. To capture the Keiyo Artifacts in a digital database, a schema, containing important attributes such as ID, the name, description, origin age, material and current location will be captured.

Cultures: These are described as shared beliefs, practices, languages, customs, and social behaviors of particular groups of people. The organization of cultures will be intended to give context to the artifacts and events, among other important cultural items. To be able to store culture digitally, KHCH will keep a unique ID, the name, the region and the subtribe of the culture under consideration. Other items such as significance of the culture may be considered too.

Repositories: These are museums, archives, libraries, and other types of cultural heritage physical buildings, within or outside institutions or locations where cultural artifacts, documents, and other items of historical importance are stored and preserved. In a digital database, repositories will be described by an ID, a name, location/address and the associated culture.

Cultural Events:  These will include significant occurrences or activities that hold importance among the Keiyo People. Examples include festivals, ceremonies, historical milestones, and other notable events that are celebrated or remembered by the community. Event identification, name, description, dates/or seasons, related culture among other attributes will be captured in the database.

Locations: The Keiyo culture usually place significant on the location of the cultural events. Such places include sacred places, regions, historical sites, and other places of interest. To be able to accurately capture the locations in a database, attributes such as the Country, County/district, location name and ID will be modeled in the database.

Sub Tribes: The Keiyo community has several sub tribes, usually differentiated by accent. The subtribes often have their own distinct, but closely related customs, traditions, and social structures, while still sharing a common heritage with the large Keiyo subtribe of the Kalenjins.

Figure 1., Shows Entity Relationship Diagram for the Proposed Digital repository for Keiyo Culture and Heritage

 

Figure 1: A proposed Entity Relationship Diagram showing the schema for KHCH Digital repository

The general entity relationships in a Cultural Database will include:

  • Artifacts and Culture are linked in that an artifact has got to be related to the culture in which they were created for or used.

  • The repository entity stores Artifacts and the artifacts are associated with the Cultures they represent.

  • Cultural Events relate to both Locations where they occurred and the Cultures associated with them.

  • Sub Tribes are associated with the specific Culture in which members of the particular subtribe practice.

VI. Implementation timelines and mitigating challenges

The implementation timelines are set out in the KHCH work plan for individual goals and the respective objectives. They vary between one three months to 2 years. The digital repository is projected to be ready after a maximum of one year, after work on it starts. Thereafter data will be uploaded in stages as soon as it is available.

Challenges and Mitigation Approaches

KHCH is not immune to common challenges listed by Sucheth [19], for setting up and running an institutional repository. The suggested mitigation approaches shall be considered for adoption as part of consolidating our future milestones.

a) Resource Constrains: The main challenge in the implementation of activities for realizing the KHCH digital repository as well as all the various activities set out in the KHCH work plan, is having adequate resources to meet the proposed budgetary requirements. To address this challenge the following potential partners have been identified:

  • Keiyo Professionals and partners individually/collectively within Kenya and in the Diaspora

  • NGOs based in Kenya and Abroad whose key focus is community socio-         cultural Heritages across the world

  • Any other institution wishing to support the work under this initiative.

For the digital repository, cloud-hosted repository solutions will be considered. 

b) Lack of technical expertise: The lack of technical expertise could pose a massive challenge to the initiative's success. To overcome this challenge, we will consider opting for proprietary software, which come with installation support, educational resources, an ecosystem of integrations and plugins, and 24/7 customer support.

c) Low adoption rates: To overcome this challenge we will look for a platform with advantages such as, seamless approval/rejection workflow, ability to manage Open Access workflows effectively and with Automated data harvesting from citation databases.

d) Possible copyright violations: To overcome this challenge we will consider implementing a repository solution that has inbuilt Copyright Detection technology that allows our staff to determine which version of a manuscript (post-print, pre-print, and published) can be made freely available. This way, they can open up full-text PDFs without worrying about copyright violations.

Tripartite Collaboration

A tripartite collaboration initiative to fastrack implementation of the KHCH digital repository has been tabled and will be inked as soon as possible. It brings together the Kenya Government, Moi University in Eldoret Kenya and Community Cultural Heritage initiatives-KHCH playing the leading role. The Kenya Government has a State Department dedicated to Cultural Heritage and will assign it its role. Moi University is the key partner for the project “Catalyzing African Community Archives for Social Good” [4]. In addition, its School of Information Sciences has a dedicated Department of Archives. Therefore, this proposed tripartite collaboration when it is fully operational, will play a critical role in the realization of the Keiyo Community Digital Repository and also assist in the mitigation of the attendant challenges..

VII. Conclusion

The History, Culture and Heritage of a Community once it is cast in stone constitutes and remains a priceless jewel for posterity. When this work plan for the Keiyo History, Culture and Heritage is realized, the present generation will have made its contribution. In our view the most important goal is the realization of the Keiyo Digital knowledge Repository. Other communities in Kenya and in the African continent shall be able to take a leaf from our successes and replicate them in their communities.

The digital age we are living in provides the tools not available in yester years. The best way to debunk any notion that Africa does not have a rich history, culture and heritage is to digitize the same and make it available across the world. The task is not easy, however as the wise saying states: where there is a will there is a way. With the already thriving partnerships and collaborations with willing actors in the global North, Africa shall indeed overcome the numerous challenges facing its desire to bridge the gaps in the realization of equity in matters preservation and dissemination of priceless ages-old indigenous knowledge driven rich history culture and heritage.

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