Introduction
By Melanie Boehi
Echoes of Southern African liberation struggles is a podcast that explores sounds, interviews, music, and even noises recorded during the Southern African independence era in Swiss journalism archives. Over five episodes, journalists, artists, and researchers present mixtapes that reconsider archival recordings and reflect on their meanings in the present moment.
In each episode of the podcast "Echoes of Southern African liberation struggles," an invited collaborator presents a mixtape made with archival recordings from Swiss journalism archives, as well as recordings from personal collections or newly created ones, to reflect on the southern African liberation struggle and the meanings of these recordings in the present moment. Each mixtape is followed by a conversation in which collaborators reflect on their practice, their experiences of listening to the archival recordings and how sound features in their work, and share their thoughts about the challenges and responsibilities resulting from the fact that important sound archives concerned with the Southern African independence era located far away from the region, in Switzerland.
In the first episode, Melanie Boehi provides an overview of the collaborative research project "Echoes of the Southern African independence era in Swiss journalism archives" of which this podcast is a part. She talks about audio recordings made during the Southern African liberation period kept in Swiss journalism archives, in particular the Ruth Weiss Sound Archives at the Basler Afrika Bibliographien, and presents the southern African collaborators who created mixtapes for the following episodes.
Echoes of Southern African liberation struggles is a podcast that explores sounds, interviews, music, and even noises recorded during the Southern African independence era in Swiss journalism archives. Over five episodes, journalists, artists, and researchers present mixtapes that reconsider archival recordings and reflect on their meanings in the present moment.
In each episode of the podcast "Echoes of Southern African liberation struggles," an invited collaborator presents a mixtape made with archival recordings from Swiss journalism archives, as well as recordings from personal collections or newly created ones, to reflect on the southern African liberation struggle and the meanings of these recordings in the present moment. Each mixtape is followed by a conversation in which collaborators reflect on their practice, their experiences of listening to the archival recordings and how sound features in their work, and share their thoughts about the challenges and responsibilities resulting from the fact that important sound archives concerned with the Southern African independence era located far away from the region, in Switzerland.
In the first episode, Melanie Boehi provides an overview of the collaborative research project "Echoes of the Southern African independence era in Swiss journalism archives" of which this podcast is a part. She talks about audio recordings made during the Southern African liberation period kept in Swiss journalism archives, in particular the Ruth Weiss Sound Archives at the Basler Afrika Bibliographien, and presents the southern African collaborators who created mixtapes for the following episodes.
- history
- archives
- sound archives
- Southern Africa
- South Africa
- Zimbabwe
- Ruth Weiss
- collaborative research
- artistic research
- University of Lausanne
- Swiss National Science Foundation
- global history
- Melanie Boehi
- Andrei van Wyk
- African history
- journalism
- journalism history
- Lynsey Chutel
- Talya Lubinsky
- Belinda Zhawi
- Percy Zvomuya
- Niren Tolsi
The Echoes of Southern African liberation struggles podcast was developed by Melanie Boehi, in collaboration with Andrei van Wyk, Lynsey Chutel, Talya Lubinsky, Niren Tolsi, Belinda Zhawi and Percy Zvomuya. Sound design, editing and production is by Andrei van Wyk. Original archival recordings used in the mixtapes are subject to the regulations of the Basler Afrika Bibliographien Archives. The project “Echoes of the Southern African independence era in Swiss journalism archives” was funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation with a Spark grant. Thanks go to Ruth Weiss, Maggie Caroline Katsande, the Basler Afrika Bibliographien, Radio Télévision Suisse, the University of Lausanne, the Swiss National Science Foundation and all contributors. For more information on the project, please check out our website: independence-echoes.org.
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