At the upcoming conference of ESARBICA (the Eastern and Southern Africa Regional Branch of the International Council on Archives), Lilongwe, Malawi, 7-11 August 2017, SLA President David Sutton will give a keynote speech on methodologies for collecting literary manuscripts in African countries.

Drawing upon the work done by Diasporic Literary Archives Network and SLA colleagues with partners in Namibia (see the earlier post on Namibia here), he will cover topics including the relevance of personal papers to national heritage; collecting strategies; working with literary authors and their heirs; international comparisons; copyright issues; and institutional co-operation; and will offer the partnership of the Diasporic Literary Archives Network and SLA to any other African country which wishes to follow the Namibian example.