Supporting the Participation of African Curators and Calligraphers in a Workshop on “Working with African Arabic Script Manuscripts”

Participation in the workshop will enlarge the professional networks of African curators while building their capacity to train others. As a result, more curators in Africa will have access to technical training relevant to the contexts in which they work. Knowledge of the holdings of African manuscript collections across the continent will improve, as more African curators upload their collections’ data to the AMMS. The project thus addresses the possible threat to Africa’s cultural heritage by the pre-emptive move of documenting and more widely distributing information about manuscript collections before crises arise. An expanded AMMS also makes research advances possible, by linking the holdings of widely dispersed collections and reuniting intellectual traditions dissected by colonial and national frontiers. These project outcomes are consistent with the Gerda Henkel Foundation’s mission, through its Patrimonies Initiative, to support the preservation of historical cultural heritage, augment scientific infrastructure, and educate young scientists and establish networks in Africa, one of the regions targeted by the Initiative.