About EMANDULO

EMANDULO [Testing Phase] is an experimental digital platform for engaging with resources pertinent the last five hundred years of southern African history in eSwatini, KwaZulu-Natal, Eastern Cape and Lesotho. It offers

• Archival Curations of early source materials
• Presentations on various topics concerning the deep past
• Depots of further resources uploaded by the EMANDULO team and by the community of users

EMANDULO is developed by the Five Hundred Year Archive (FHYA) research initiative, a project of Archive and Public Culture (APC), based at the University of Cape Town.

It aims to

• support historical research into southern African history before colonialism
• promote archival, curatorial and digital experimentation
• encourage digitisation and the sharing of resources
• build a public community of users who are passionate about early southern African history and who are  interested in how that history was shaped over time.

The Archival Curations convene diverse selections of materials online including, amongst other things, texts, images, sound recordings, excavated items and botanical material. The materials are drawn from local and international institutions and from personal collections.

The site also provides records pertinent to the collection and custodial histories of the material. In this way it foregrounds processes across time that have shaped the archival material.

The material has been organised and presented in ways that make it readily searchable. This creates opportunities for researchers to step beyond long established institutional categories and disciplinary conventions and to ask new kinds of questions of, and to make new connections between, diverse materials.

The Presentations are curatorial interventions commissioned by the FHYA, ranging from creative musical compositions to bibliographic projects. Covering a wide range of topics, they are all related in one or another way to the archival items on EMANDULO and contain links back to those items in the Archival Curations.

The Depots comprise a wide range of further materials. They include early vernacular texts, out of print publications, theses, maps, images, and translations. Items of all descriptions are suitable for uploading. This is done by the FHYA and by the community of users. 

Users are encouraged to participate in growing the EMANDULO knowledge base by sharing their findings and by adding additional information and resources to the site. You can do this by creating a profile, adding commentary, annotations, translations and information, and you can upload any items you consider useful to share with this community.

EMANDULO is one of two experimental platforms developed by the FHYA that use different kinds of software to present similar material. EMANDULO was preceded by the 500 Year Archive. The 500 Year Archive uses a customised version of AtoM (Access to Memory) open source archival software. To overcome in-built AtoM limits, the FHYA used locally developed open source software, Simple DL, to develop EMANDULO as its second platform. 

The current version of EMANDULO was launched on an experimental basis in 2021 and is currently undergoing testing, review and improvement. Any comments, details of errors, and information about user experience is welcomed. In addition, anyone or institution wishing to propose a collection, small or large, for inclusion on this site should contact Rifqah Kahn apc-admin@uct.ac.za.