Repairing (With) The Archive? Re-Collecting Dispersed Somali Photographs. Issue 2 (4th May 2018)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Nur Goni, Marian
• Is Part Of: Critical interventions. Volume 12:Issue 2(2018)
• Page Start: 158
• Page End: 183
• Publication Date: 2018-05-04
• Subjects: Art, African -- Periodicals; Art, African -- 20th century -- History -- Periodicals; Art, African -- 21st century -- History -- Periodicals; 709.6
• DOI: 10.1080/19301944.2018.1492267
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1930-1944

Abstract

Abstract : This article traces the trajectories of a selection of images first taken of, and then by, Somali men and women from the Horn of Africa from the late 19th century to the present. The study of the contemporary circulation and reappropriation of these historical, anthropological images via the Internet then leads to an analysis of how, in the digital era, an Internet-savvy generation from the Somali diaspora is now reclaiming its voice through new projects, which attempt to establish an alternative Somali photographic archive. These projects both question the image of Somalia in the international media and offer new ways of restoring and sharing other, often buried, memories of this country and its pre-1991 past in the context of a certain "destruction of history." An analysis of the blog Vintage Somalia will particularly provide the vantage point through which to observe these dynamics.