Listening to History – Archives and Sound Recordings, Curating and Repatriation
National Archives of Namibia Marais Street, Windhoek, NamibiaSound archives and acoustic collections comprise of recorded voices, narratives, performances and soundscapes of events and places. Their curation poses many challenges, their usage requires 'close listening'. We invite archivists, curators and scholars for conversations and brief inputs in order to raise awareness on and promote these collections and their particular technical, curatorial, repatriation and translation requirements. Anette Hoffmann's latest book Listening to Colonial History (BAB 2023) with reference to recordings of Naro speakers in the Kalahari (1908) serves as an entry point for discussions on decolonial approaches on archives and research.