LOCATION
Mgao Village, Naumbu Ward—Mtwara Region, Tanzania
OUR TEAM
Mkuta Majuto Swedi, Main Researcher
Fred Gwakisa, Research Assistant
Fatuma H. Mbeha, Headmaster – Kisiwa Secondary School
Rukia Ally Nandonde, Headteacher — Mgao Secondary School
Students from Mgao Primary School (standard four their age is about 9-10, and standard six their age is about 11-12 years old)
Students from Kisiwa Secondary School (form one their age is about 14-16 and form three their age is about 16-18 years old) respectively
SYNOPSIS AND POSITION
Memories of colonialism outlasted the colonial period and have remained at home as tales narrated by the old to the young generations, taught in schools, observed on monuments and archived by individuals as colonial tax payment certificates, money, weapons and photographs. Through survival and legacy of colonialism in Mgao – an Imagining Futures funded project, the young generation in school were used to understand transgenerational memories of colonialism. A similar research was conducted between 1964 and 1973 by the University of Dar es Salaam history students which intended to document the Majimaji story. Tape recorders and field notes were used as research tools. These were deposited at the University of Dar es Salaam library-East Africana section in 1970’s, but tape recorders used in the 1960’s have evolved as the result the current devices are unable to read through the old tape. Technological obsoleteness is the problem that this project intends to deal with through digitization of the old to new version to insure longevity of data and online preservation.
OBJECTIVES AND METHODS
The main objective of this project was to digitise oral interviews collected by the University of Dar es Salaam history students between 1960’s and 1970’s about the Majimaji War in order to preserve them for the future, to compare the 2020 interviews data of Mgao that documents memories of colonialism with those of the 1960’s-1970’s, to digitise field notes of the early history students of Tanzania in order to use them in areas where these archived oral traditions have disappeared, and finally is to analyse the recorded ways used to transfer memory of colonialism from one generation to another in order to establish the survival mechanism and legacy.
WORKSHOPS AND EVENTS
Archaeological Tourism Festival, Ruins, Clean Beaches and Fishing at Mgao Village, Mtwara, Tanzania: 19th September 2021
The purpose of this festival was to demonstrate results of different archaeological researches conducted at Mgao village under Imagining Futures Tanzanian Lab.
ACTIVITIES
This research applied Interviews and digitisation. Interviews have already been collected between September 2020 and February 2021. Other interviews were collected by the University of Dar es Salaam students between 1964 and 1973. During this project analysis of voice records and field notes is undertaken. Interviews collected in 1960’s and 1970’s were not digitised; this project intends to deal with through digitization of the old to new version to insure longevity of data and online preservation for future research and public uses. Hosted at the University of Dar es Salaam. The project will connect an ODA library of the University of Dar es Salaam with the global network of scholars who could use the same audio archive online and access globally.
Images show: Focus group discussions in Kisiwa secondary school, including students carefully listening to their fellow students explain about trans-generational memories; focus group discussions in Mgao primary school and retrieving broken and undocumented recordings of Mgao’s past
All images copyright Swedi Majuto Mkutu