Preservation of Cultural Heritage

Kano, Nigeria

A programme was launched in July 2009 in Kano, Nigeria to preserve centuries-old manuscripts. The Sahel is full of outstanding treasures in the form of written testimonies of the region’s history, philosophy and religion. In the north of Nigeria these are primarily old editions of the Quran and documents from the archives of the Emir’s Palace and colonial times. However, a lack of expertise in the field of restoration, improper storage and unavailable funding threaten the existence of this priceless cultural heritage. Therefore, the Kano Heritage Society and the Kano State History and Culture Bureau turned to the Goethe-Institut with a request for support.

In an initial step in July 2009, in cooperation with the Kano Heritage Society the liaison office of the Goethe-Institut Nigeria initiated an advanced training course for restorers in Kano. The project was financed from funds of the Cultural Preservation Programme of the German Foreign Office. During the ten-day workshop, Renate van Issem and Winfried Feuerstein, experts from the renovation workshop of the Göttingen State and University Library, taught methods of conservation and restoration. The focus here was on practical exercises using simple materials and tools most of which can be procured on the local market.

Specialized staff possessing a few years of professional experience working with historical documents and employed by museums, libraries and archives in northern Nigeria participated in the workshop. The Kano Heritage Society and the Kano State History and Culture Bureau were involved as well as Gidan Makama Museum, Aminu Kano Museum and the Alhaji Uba Ibrahim Ringim Islamic Research Centre, all based in Kano. In addition, the Department of History of the Ahmadu Bello University Zaria, Arewa House (national archives) Kaduna and the Katsina State History and Culture Bureau took part.

The idea of a training-of-trainers workshop was a success: As early as November 2009 the participants from Gidan Mikama Museum in Kano organized their own training course for conservation techniques, thus acting as disseminators of the expertise they had acquired.

Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina

The Goethe-Institut is also active in Sarajevo in the field of cultural preservation with the project “Preserving Cinematic Heritage – Promoting Film Culture: Kinoteka Bosnia and Herzegovina”. The importance of the Kinoteka for preserving and spreading the cinematic legacy is undisputed. The films collected and preserved there not only represent multi-ethnic Yugoslavia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, which many today consider the lost past, but also examine rebuilding and new beginnings following the destruction of the Second World War. The historical film documents also possess international status and significance for film production in Europe in the 1960s and 1970s in particular. The Kinoteka stores the works of the filmmakers of the Sarajevo Documentary School, for example, which made an impact through its European reception. For this reason, the Oberhausen Short Film Festival has made this European film heritage a continuous programming focus – also due to its importance for German film.

Yet, the film archive is presently in financial difficulties since the status of the Kinoteka is as yet undecided after the Dayton Peace Accord of 1995. The aim is to bring the nearly forgotten cultural institution back to the country’s public awareness and safeguard and make available to the public the film archives with financial support of the Foreign Office from the so-called Stability Pact Funds and Cultural Preservation Programme funds.

The Goethe-Institut Sarajevo is involved in defining measures for preserving and safeguarding the inventory of the Kinoteka, presenting them publicly and getting them started. The specialized basis for this work is an expert report on the condition of the archive and the inventory stored there and a strategy to secure the inventory presented at the forum “How can the cinematic heritage of Bosnia and Herzegovina be saved?” scheduled for January 2010. Other measures planned for 2010 include viewing the film material together with German experts and cataloguing it in an electronic database, cleaning it and, if necessary, treating it for conservation purposes. To present the “new” Kinoteka to the public and make it better known, a film programme will be compiled from the archives as a coproduction of Kinoteka and the Frankfurt Film Archive. This will then be shown in Germany as well as in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia

Work was begun setting up the liaison office of the Goethe-Institut in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia in January 2008 and it was opened on 5 October 2009. As early as September 2008 an advanced training course in Library Management was held for librarians from the capital city and other provinces.

Two participants from this advanced training course approached the Goethe-Institut with a request for help in preserving precious book inventories. This jump-started another project focused on the preservation of pre-“Cultural Revolution” religious writings. During the “Cultural Revolution” of the late 1930s, tens of thousands of religious dignitaries were executed. With the exception of the Gandan Monastery in Ulaanbaatar, which was kept as a sort of “showpiece,” all of the country’s monasteries were destroyed and uncounted art treasures and ritual objects were obliterated. Only a few writings could be saved through the acts of personal courage. Following the legalization of religious activities in the course of democratization of the nation since 1989-1990, books and manuscripts appeared that nomads had preserved under the most difficult of circumstances. Rebuilt monasteries began collecting these. The books in the written languages Tibetan, Sanskrit, Manchurian and Uyghur-Mongolian, many of which were hidden in caves or underground, urgently need proper storage facilities.

Although initial sorting has been carried out over the past approximately 20 years, there is no outline of the number and condition of the works. Therefore, in September 2009, the liaison office of the Goethe-Institut conducted a workshop with an expert from the Münster University Library. There, a working group was formed consisting of the staff of the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science, the Academy of Sciences, the National Library, the Cultural Heritage Society, Gandan and Erdene-Zuu monasteries as well as the Danzan Ravjaa Museum. In addition, the group is in contact with the Max-Planck-Gesellschaft für Wissenschaftsgeschichte Berlin and its competence centre for the digitalization of Mongolia’s cultural heritage. The advanced training course for librarians concentrates on recording the inventory and damage assessment. A temporary model workshop at Erdene-Zuu Monastery will offer more hands-on experience. Another advanced training course for library staff and a study trip to German libraries are planned for 2010.