Decolonizing Our Library System: The Living Librarians of Dagbon, Northern Ghana

Linden (1991) narrated how 1,600 years ago the wisdom of many centuries went up in flames when the great Alexandria Library burned down. Today, with little notice, vast archives of knowledge and expertise are being lost, leaving humanity in danger of losing its past and perhaps endangering its futur...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Library philosophy and practice 2016-01, p.0_1
Main Authors: Plockey, Florence Dedzoe-Dzokotoe, Ahamed, Baba Alaa-Bany
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Decolonization
Farmers
Fires
Focus groups
Hunters
Knowledge acquisition
Knowledge management
Librarians
Libraries
Library and information science
Midwives
Musicians & conductors
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Summary:Linden (1991) narrated how 1,600 years ago the wisdom of many centuries went up in flames when the great Alexandria Library burned down. Today, with little notice, vast archives of knowledge and expertise are being lost, leaving humanity in danger of losing its past and perhaps endangering its future as well. Linden (1991) was referring to the knowledge stored in the memories of elders, healers, Traditional birth attendance, farmers, fishermen and hunters throughout the world. These knowledge producers such as elders, healers, midwives, farmers, fishermen and hunters etc. are librarians in their own right. This paper describes the baansi of Dagbon, who are also termed the living librarians. It presents and analyses data collected from community-based interactions. Thematic approach has been used in reporting the findings. Main and Sub themes have been generated from the data collected using various instruments namely, in-depth interviews, focus group discussions, observations, storytelling, phased assertion, documents' analysis, field notes, historical profiling, and acoustic appreciation.
ISSN:1522-0222
1522-0222