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As we celebrate Heritage Day 2024, we honour the profound impact of our cultural heritage in shaping South Africa’s unique identity. Our heritage stands as a cornerstone of the nation's cultural diversity, social cohesion, and even economic development. In this light, Africa Commons emerges as an important digital gateway to a veritable goldmine of knowledge and cultural expression, offering unparalleled access to South Africa’s—and the continent’s—rich heritage.

Africa Commons is a digital platform that aims to enable Africa to control, digitise, and disseminate its archival riches—both those housed within the continent and items residing internationally. Sabinet has a distribution agreement with Coherent Digital to make Africa Commons available in South Africa and across the rest of Africa. The voices of Africa telling their own stories have in the past been accessible in local collections, but often not published using formal channels. Now these voices and stories are being amplified through Africa Commons.

A digital gateway to South Africa's rich cultural content

Africa Commons steps up to preserve and disseminate African content, ensuring that stories and voices from the past and present are accessible to a global audience. Integrated on a single platform, the repository offers a unique opportunity to explore the continent's rich cultural content. Users can discover rare historical magazines, iconic films, and a vast collection of cultural artefacts.

Gain insights into South Africa's past through digitised, full-text searchable versions of iconic magazines. Access more than a century of Southern African history, politics, and culture in streaming video. Explore an exclusive collection of magazines, newspapers, and films from Hilary Ng'weno, the legendary Kenyan journalist. Access historical and cultural books, newspapers, government documents, letters, diaries, posters, and manuscripts, as well as oral history, photographs, art, music, and videos from 600 contributing organisations.

By digitising and preserving such content, African scholars and students can easily find and access expressions of their heritage, including in Western collections. Making these collections available digitally not only enables access for scholars, but also gives a global voice to the writers and filmmakers telling these stories. Africa Commons is more than a digital archive—it is a platform for empowering communities to reclaim, restore, and preserve their heritage. By offering access to these invaluable cultural resources, the platform aligns with South Africa’s goal of fostering cultural diversity, promoting social cohesion, and contributing to economic development.

Heritage is dynamic, evolving over time as it adapts to social, environmental, and historical shifts. It plays a vital role in fostering a sense of identity, belonging, and continuity in communities. More importantly, it ensures that South Africa's diverse cultural expressions are preserved for future generations.

This Heritage Day, let us embrace the spirit of our shared heritage and explore the rich cultural landscape that defines South Africa and the continent. This is a reminder that Africa Commons serves as a vital resource for discovering, preserving, and celebrating our nation’s heritage. It provides an essential bridge between the past and the future, ensuring that the cultural legacies of South Africa, and the rest of the continent, continue to inspire and educate generations to come.