126 participants gathered for the first Imagining Futures workshop was held on 11th December 2020 at Tumaini University Dar Es Salaam College. Participants discussed their own approaches to memory and archiving.
As the participants gathered in the Tumaini University lecture hall for the one day workshop, documents, art, cloth, flowers, medicine and oral narratives were brought forth as diverse examples of methods of archiving and expressing powerful narratives. Organized by the Imagining Futures Tanzania Lab, led by Dr. Nancy Rushohora and Dr. Valence Meriki, the workshop included 5 presenters from the Network grant team and two external presenters. The workshop was ignited with an interactive session that allowed everyone to introduce themselves and knowing a little bit about the attendees understanding of an archive and projects that connected us thematically to question the archive and archiving systems.
The workshop was engaging and though provoking, with an aim of developing projects for the future. Each attendee came up with a different perspective and/or a project, a few with comparable and related ideas which were later advised to formulate one strong project. The curious attendees asked several provocative questions about archiving history, laws and regulations in Tanzania and how the digital applications could be regulated. This was an area new to most attendees and was presented by Dr. Gwamaka Gwakisa—who represented the Director of the National Museum in Tanzania.
At the end of the workshop, the attendees were grouped in working discussion dedicated to listening to each individual participant presenting his /her research idea. About 3 hours were set aside for breakout sessions to discuss projects further.
The Imagining Futures team would like to thank our senior scholars Doctors E. Ichumbaki, P. Makarius, P. Bushozi, F. Wachawaseme, F. Swai, A. Mshumbusi, J. Tweve and Prof. Innocent Pikirayi for dedicating their time to listening and advising our prospective commission applicants on the basics of a good anthropological proposal write up. After a length but very health discussion in the breakout session, participants reconvened, and each group was given about 10 minutes to present findings and deliberations from their respective groups.
The attendees, as well as interested individuals who were not in attendance, will be invited to submit applications through the Imagining Futures website to fund their projects. [Link to application]
Lean more about Imagining Futures and our activities on the homepage.
Imagining Futures is an AHRC GCRF Network Plus Grant.