Women’s History Museum of Zambia and the National Museums of World Culture in Sweden awarded funding for a digital heritage platform collaboration

The Women’s History Museum of Zambia (WHMZ) and The National Museums of
World Culture in Sweden (NMWC) has been awarded a grant of ZMW2,000,000
from the Creative Force program of the Swedish Institute for a project to develop a
digital and interactive platform for sharing historical collections and women’s history
between Sweden and Zambia. The Museum of Ethnography in Stockholm cares for
more than 600 artefacts from Zambia as well as some three hundred historical
photographs. Through digital tools and collaborative methods, the purpose is to learn
more about these collections and making them available for the public and for
researchers in both countries.
“We are excited to embark on this opportunity to create digital paths for Zambians
to access cultural objects and knowledge which has previously been out of reach. It
is also a way for indigenous, historical and contemporary knowledge to be correctly
documented by Zambians with original content and metadata that may have been
lost. We will work with “knowledge keepers” in our communities to support the
process of restoring this knowledge here in Zambia”, says Mulenga Kapwepwe – Co
Founder of the Women’s History Museum.
Entitled Empowering Women’s Histories: Sharing Digital Heritage between
Zambia and Sweden the project will use the collections from the Museum of
Ethnography to portray the lives and conditions of women now and in the past.
WHMZ is an independent museum based in Lusaka which focuses on women’s
history and cultural heritage as tools to strengthen women’s rights and participation
in civil society. The organization gained global attention by their much-celebrated
animated podcast Leading Ladies, using innovative digital storytelling to make
Zambian women’s history accessible to a wider audience.
“More and more the museum space is changing, the walls are being dismantled and
are rapidly being replaced with digital spaces. The museum will be one of the first to
launch a digital platform that will not only allow access but will bring in wider
populations to interact and functionalise the shared objects. We are looking forward
to collaborating with educators, artists, entrepreneurs and many others to find a
way to leverage use and practical application of the digital objects”, Co-Founder
Women’s History Museum, Samba Yonga.
The collaboration is part of Ongoing Africa – a project at the NMWC which combines
exploration and method development with the purpose of generating new
perspectives on the African continent and its history. A primary concern is to make
the collections from the African continent in the museum’s care relevant for more
visitors. Says Michael Barrett, curator for the African collections at the NMWC:
“We are so happy to continue our collaboration with the Women’s History Museum
of Zambia. I think how we care for historical collections from the African continent,
especially those connected to the colonial period, needs to evolve in a more ethical
direction. The project will improve our digital tools and methods to start addressing
this.”