About CAMA
- "Africa-wide multi-media database for the Arts and Culture. Hosted Brian Eno.
Department of Computer Science, University of Cape Town, PO Box 345, 7725 Newlands, South Africa.
Tel / Fax: 6502828 Email - cama@africacan.org
CAMA (Contemporary African Music & Arts) Archive is a multi-media documentary initiative for African arts and culture, based in the Faculty of Science and Montebello Design Centre at the University of Cape Town, South Africa.
Since its inception in 1995, under directorship of its founder, John Turest-Swartz, CAMA has sought to develop a pan-African mass-accessible arts and culture archive, and through this, the means to acknowledge creativity in the arts in Africa on a continental scale.
CAMA is engaged in the ongoing development of tools and strategies in pursuit of its documentary and archival objectives in the promotion of knowledge about African culture. The CAMA Archive Project focuses on documenting and disseminating audio-visual materials about the lives and work of artists, musicians and others who create culture in Africa. Using ICT in an African context, CAMA also seeks to promote a broader knowledge of African culture through facilitating the documentation and dissemination of the wealth of materials from existing holdings within African cultural institutions.
CAMA developed a computer-based "context" focussing primarily on African music, art and ethnography. This development culminated in our largest initiative to date, the establishment of the Culture Africa Network Project - CAN.
Funded by the Ford Foundation the pilot Culture Africa Network (CAN) Project enabled CAMA to establish documentary centres in seven countries across the African continent: Mali, Ghana, Sudan, Ethiopia, Kenya, Mozambique and South Africa. The project aim is to facilitate the local gathering and sharing of excellent digital documentary resources for education, research and the promotion of Africa's artistic heritage and its `culture-makers`. After initial site visits, these institutions were chosen as CAN project partners on the basis of their interest in participating in a pan-African culture-sharing project of this nature, and their institutional capacity to host and staff a CAN documentary centre.
The digital resources being developed through this initiative, are intended
both for the archival preservation of African cultural artefacts in their host
countries, and to be shared between educational and cultural institutions
throughout Africa. These include the documentation of living artists, musicians
and their work, as well as art, music and ethnographic materials from existing
holdings within several participating African museums and universities. Starting
in September 1998, CAMA undertook the task of establishing CAN Centres -
multi-media and digital video documentation studios and field recording units -
in the following seven African countries:
Mali: The National Museums
of Mali, Bamako
Ghana: The International Centre for African Music
& Dance at the University of Ghana, Accra
Sudan: The Institute of
African and Asian Studies, Traditional Music Archive, University of
Khartoum.
Ethiopia: The Institute of Ethiopian Studies, Addis Ababa
University
Kenya: Kuona Trust at The National Museums of Kenya,
Nairobi
Mozambique: The National Cultural Archives (ARPAC), Maputo and
The National Museum of Art, Maputo The National Company of Song & Dance,
(CNCD) Maputo
South Africa: Contemporary African Music & Arts
(CAMA) Archive, University of Cape Town.
Since the continental scale Culture Africa Network project is far larger in scale than its initiator, it has been agreed between the CAN centres that CAMA will host a separate website for Africa CAN, which will in due course also be linked to the web resources of participating institutions`.
The following are members of the CAN Project steering committee;
Prof J.H. Nketia (Chairman) Director, International Centre for African Music & Dance (ICAMD),University of Ghana, Legon, Ghana
John Turest-Swartz, Director, Contemporary African Music & Arts Archive, (CAMA) University of Cape Town, South Africa
Ali al Daw, Director, Traditional Music Archive, Institute of African and Asian Studies, University of Khartoum, Sudan
Dr Samuel Sidibe Director, National Museums of Mali, Mali