In 2005, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) declared every 27th October to be a commemorative day to raise awareness for the significance of recorded sounds and audio visual documents (films, sound and video recordings, radio and television programmes).
The World Day for Audiovisual Heritage is a key initiative for both UNESCO and the Coordinating Council of Audiovisual Archives Associations (CCAAA) to celebrate and honor audiovisual preservation professionals and institutions that help to safeguard this heritage for future generations despite the many technical, political, social, financial, and other factors that threaten its survival.
This commemorative event is held in many countries organized by several national and regional sound and film archives, broadcasters, museums and libraries.
Particularly, the 2018 World Day for Audiovisual Heritage has the theme “Your Story is Moving”
The theme specifically encourages a wide and variety of activities based on stories and collections preserved in audiovisual archives.
This covers a range of items such as people’s stories and narratives that encourages and promote heritage to be geared to the next generations.
The theme is also a cornerstone that lets both individuals and organizations to invoke emotional connections and meanings that may be appreciated from a collection of audiovisual.
UNESCO’s main objectives of designating the commemorations are; raising public awareness of the need for preservation; providing opportunities to celebrate specific local, national or international aspects of the heritage; highlighting the accessibility of archives; attracting media attention to heritage issues; raising the cultural status of audiovisual heritage; highlighting audiovisual heritage in danger, especially in developing countries.
UNESCO understands that audiovisual heritage is a very significant part of national cultural heritage. Images and sounds, recorded on film, videotape and audiotape, brings the past to life and establishes a collective memory events, scenes and situations that, without these media, would fade from countries’ memories or only subsist in a motionless, disembodied form.
In Kenya, audiovisual collections are of historical significance and managed by the Ministry of Sports, Culture and the arts through a specialized department, Kenya National Archives and Documentation Service (KNADS).
KNADS was established in 1965 by an act of parliament, cap. 19 of the laws of Kenya. Its mandate is to advice public entities on the creation, care, control and use of public records, acquire and preserve public and private records and archives as well as making records and archives available to users.
Today, as we commemorate this day, it’s important to understand that audiovisual documents such as films, radio and television programmes are our common heritage and contain the primary records of the history of the 20th and 21st century.
Unfortunately, in Kenya, this national heritage is now endangered.
Most sounds recordings and moving images of National benefit to the future generations are deliberately destroyed or irretrievably lost due to neglect, decay and technological obsolescence.
World Day for Audiovisual Heritage is an important initiative for governments to encourage the role of preservation professionals so as to improve the range of technical, political, social, financial and other factors that threaten the safeguarding of national audiovisual heritage.
Governmental institutions should use WDAH as a mechanism to raise general awareness of the need to preserve and safeguard important audiovisual materials for future generations.
Measures must be taken to conserve this heritage and ensure it remains accessible to the public now, and to the future generations.
By: Kennedy Sankale
Librarian, Masai Technical Training Institute, Kajiado
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