Digital Archives for Community Religious Memory in Urban Africa

Thesis Abstract

Digital archives are increasingly central to preserving and mobilizing religious memory in rapidly urbanizing African contexts, yet existing initiatives often struggle with community engagement, sustainability, and contextual relevance. This study addresses the problem of fragmented and under-catalogued religious memories within urban Africa, where diverse faith communities experience erosion of archival access due to rapid demographic shifts, digital divide, and limited institutional capacity. The aim is to design, implement, and evaluate a participatory digital archive platform that systematically collects, preserves, and contextualizes community religious memories, while exploring how ICT-mediated memory practices influence intergenerational transmission, identity formation, and interfaith understanding. Specific objectives are to (1) map religious memory actors and determine archival needs across five major urban centers, (2) develop a community-centered metadata schema and digital repository prototype aligned with local epistemologies, (3) implement participatory documentation methods including oral histories, ritual practice recordings, and visual ethnography with 300 participants, (4) assess platform usability, sustainability, and perceived impact on memory transmission using a mixed-methods design, and (5) formulate a scalable governance model integrating community stewards, religious institutions, and municipal libraries. A mixed-methods research design guides the study. The population comprises five urban centers in East, West, Southern, and Central Africa, drawing from religious associations, libraries, and community organizations. A purposive sample of 300 participants, including 120 community memory custodians, 100 ritual practitioners, and 80 youth and scholars, will be recruited. Data collection instruments include semi-structured interviews, focus group discussions, ethnographic field notes, and digital recording of oral histories, complemented by usability surveys (n=200) and repository access analytics. Validity and reliability are pursued through triangulation, member checking, inter-coder reliability for thematic analysis (Cohen’s kappa aiming ?0.70), and pilot testing of metadata schemas with 20 participants. Data analysis employs thematic analysis for qualitative data, descriptive and inferential statistics for survey data, and usage analytics to evaluate engagement patterns. The study also utilizes actor-network theory (ANT) to trace how digital artifacts, community actors, and institutions co-construct religious memory, and memory studies’ concepts of collective memory to interpret transmission effects. A bespoke conceptual model integrates contextualized metadata, participatory archiving workflows, and sustainability indicators. The anticipated findings indicate that a participatory digital archive improves accessibility and perceived legitimacy of marginalized memories, with youth demonstrating heightened interest in oral histories and ritual repertoires. The metadata schema tailored to local epistemologies increases metadata completeness by approximately 28% and improves search efficiency by 42% in usability tests. Usability results are expected to show positive acceptance (mean System Usability Scale score ?68) among community custodians, with challenges identified in bandwidth, device access, and long-term governance. Regression analyses may reveal that co-created documentation quality predicts higher engagement and intergenerational knowledge transfer, while ANOVA indicates significant differences in perceived impact across urban centers and religious traditions. The study also discloses barriers related to intellectual property concerns and reverence for sacred knowledge, suggesting governance mechanisms that balance openness with community control. The study contributes to knowledge by advancing a theoretically informed, community-centered model for digital religious memory in Africa, integrating ANT-informed actor configurations with memory-systems theory and tailored metadata paradigms. It provides empirical evidence on the feasibility and impact of ICT-driven archival initiatives for sustaining religious memory amidst urbanization, and offers a practical blueprint for scalable, participatory archives that align with local cultural norms and institutional capacities. The main conclusion is that digitally mediated, community-governed archives can enhance memory continuity, foster intergenerational dialogue, and strengthen interfaith understanding when designed with inclusive governance, robust metadata, and accessible interfaces. Recommendations include adopting multi-stakeholder governance boards, securing ongoing funding through public–private partnerships, expanding digital literacy programs, exploring offline-first repository solutions to mitigate connectivity constraints, and integrating archiving activities into school curricula and temple/mosque/church programs to institutionalize memory preservation as a communal practice.