A two-day workshop on literary archives in Cameroon was held in Yaoundé on 13–14 February 2018, jointly organised by the Diasporic Literary Archives Network, the ICA Section for Archives of Literature and Art, the National Archives of Cameroon, and ESSTIC (the Advanced School of Mass Communication at the University of Yaoundé). The workshop was attended by authors, publishers, academics, archivists and students of archives studies and of publishing. All those present agreed on the desirability of beginning a programme leading to the development of literary archives collections in the National Archives, reflecting the rich and multi-lingual literary traditions and achievements of Cameroon. Participants also stressed the importance of oral literature and history in Cameroon, as well as the country’s strengths in cinematography.

At the close of the workshop, it was agreed to initiate a pilot project on collecting literary archives in Cameroon, and around 70 of the participants volunteered their time to work on the pilot project – a remarkable affirmation of support for this work. It is hoped that progress on the pilot project will be reported at the Annual Meeting of the International Council on Archives, which this year will be held in Yaoundé – from 26–29 November 2018.

The programme was closely based on the two-day workshop held in Windhoek, Namibia, two years earlier, and could be adapted for use in other countries, perhaps especially in Africa.

Program, Literary Archives Writers’ Workshop, Yaoundé [PDF,  136 KB]

The organisation of the two-day workshop at ESSTIC (École Supérieure des Sciences et Techniques de l’Information et de la Communication, Université de Yaoundé-2) benefitted from the support of ICA’s Africa Programme, and from generous financial assistance by ICA’s Programme Commission (PCOM). This support and assistance is gratefully acknowledged. On the work and priorities of PCOM, see the page headed Our Professional Programe on the main ICA website.