Save and savour your audiovisual heritage now!

South Africa celebrates World Audiovisual Heritage Day 2010

The SABC Media Libraries and the SABC TV News Archives have joined forces to exhibit their audio and visual collections of traditional music and culture. In addition, the Drum Café, the African Heritage Trust, as well as SABA (Southern African Broadcasting Association) will join the SABC in its awareness campaign this year to showcase a fascinating collection of musical instruments and old recording formats will be on display to view.

Special highlights:

-  A short video about the 1976 riots from the TV News Archives

-  27 October:- the exhibition will feature legendary South African musician Lemme “Special” Mabusa. Lemmy started playing pennywhistle on the streets at age 10. He was discovered by talent scouts and in 1961 he performed in South Africa’s first international hit musical “King Kong” at London’s West End Princes Theatre for an entire year.

-  28 October:- The Drum Cafe will give a lunch hour performance in the SABC Ground Floor Auditorium. “Voices Only” will feature Basabi Le Meropa, a group of young South African women, who tell the stories of their lives through marimba, song, drums, dance and the spoken word. Basadi Le Meropa has toured Netherlands for the Festival Mundial as well as Belgium. Basadi Le Meropa ladies recently performed on stage with Shakira and K’naan at the FIFA World Cup Kick Off Concert

Message from the Convenor of the Coordinating Council on Audiovisual Archives Associations - “Save and Savour your Audiovisual Heritage - Now!”

Dear colleagues and friends of the audiovisual heritage,

On October 27 we will once again celebrate the World Day for Audiovisual Heritage. With this initiative, CCAAA would like to raise awareness for the fragility but also the great wealth of images and sounds in countless collections. Our slogan “Save and Savour” is a colourful variation of the main goal of all our institutions: “preservation and access”.

The World Day does not intend to isolate the audiovisual documents from the other parts of the cultural heritage. On the contrary: it is designed to contribute to the integration of films and sound recordings into the totality of objects which form our collective memory. In this spirit CCAAA is working together with the other non-governmental organisations in charge of the world heritage and of course with UNESCO and its Memory of the World Programme which is of outstanding importance for our work.

Kurt Deggeller
Convenor, CCAAA

See World Day for Audiovisual Heritage Archives 2010 website.

About World Audiovisual Heritage Day

Audiovisual documents, such as films, radio and television programmes, audio and video recordings, contain the primary records of the 20th and 21st centuries.
Transcending language and cultural boundaries, appealing immediately to the eye and the ear, to the literate and illiterate, audiovisual documents have transformed society by becoming a permanent complement to the traditional written record.

However, they are extremely vulnerable and it is estimated that we have no more than 10 to 15 years to transfer audiovisual records to digital to prevent their loss. Much of the world’s audiovisual heritage has already been irrevocably lost through neglect, destruction, decay and the lack of resources, skills, and structures, thus impoverishing the memory of mankind. Much more will be lost if stronger and concerted international action is not taken.

It was in this context, that the General Conference in 2005 approved the commemoration of a World Day for Audiovisual Heritage as a mechanism to raise general awareness of the need for urgent measures to be taken and to acknowledge the importance of audiovisual documents as an integral part of national identity

For further information see the archives portal on the UNESCO website

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