Summer, sun and SCOLMA: the youth and African collections

It's a warm day in Oxford and the sun sits high while people are bustling about in hurried footsteps savoring the spell of the summer heat that has fallen on the UK. Among the jovial summer sounds rises a chatter of librarians who have congregated at the Weston Library for the annual UK Library & Archives Group on Africa (SCOLMA) conference that was held in Oxford on 30 June 2025.

The theme of the conference this year was “Through the generations, youth, ageing and African Studies collections”. Focusing on youth and African collections, the conference brought together librarians, artists and researchers from across the UK and further afield to question and contemplate the role of the youth in the future of African collections. In this spirit, the conference was kicked off by key-note speaker Dr Buhle Mbambo-Thata, University Librarian of the National University of Lesotho, who highlighted that the youth hold the future of the past. She emphasised the importance of and the need for intergenerational collaboration to encourage knowledge sharing and exchange, and enable the youth to take over the curation, preservation and digitisation of African knowledge, particularly in Africa. Her talk concluded with a call to action to liberate the youthful energy of Africa.

Overall, there was a great focus on the preservation of oral history, with many speakers echoing the importance of intergenerational collaboration and co-creation. Mariam de Haan and Nicola Pomery spoke on the British Library’s Story Explorers exhibition, and the importance of engaging their communities and co-creating their exhibition with local families. Abdul Mohamud and Robin Whitburn discussed their research on new approaches to teaching African history in schools to fight misconceptions that still exist about Africa. In many ways the language used to describe Africa says a lot about our conception of the continent. 

Gareth Bish from Coherent Digital presented on their work with Hilary Ng’weno’s family and the creation of his digital archive, in collaboration with Digital Divide Data. Kenneth Atuma discussed the fragility of preserving oral tradition, emphasising the preservation of stories and of people  when an elder dies, a library burns. The conference had a youthful energy, with many young librarians and researchers in attendance. This was extremely evident in the presentation of Sana Ginwalla and Misha Maseka, who presented their collaboration on the documentary All the beautiful people are gone. Sana, a researcher and creator of the Zambia Belonging project emphasised the importance of the archive - it is alive and out in the world, not only in a locked room. Archives often become exclusive spaces and need to be democratised. Misha in turn spoke of her enthusiasm for working with Sana and creating a well-researched documentary, highlighting their fruitful collaboration. Artists are eager to work with librarians, archivists and researchers to create well researched work.

The day concluded with an inspiring panel discussion focusing on the theme of youth and African collections, leaving us all with the final reflection that the youth are innovative, energetic and ready to preserve and protect the future of the past.

Pepler Head