Groundbreaking study of the world's largest archive of field
recordings of African music
This book is an ethnographic study of sound archives and the processes
of creative decolonization that form alternative modes of archiving and
curating in the 21st century. It explores the histories and afterlives
of sound collections and practices at the International Library of
African Music. Sound Fragments follows what happens when a colonial
sound archive is repurposed and reimagined by local artists in
post-apartheid South Africa. The narrative speaks to larger issues in
sound studies, curatorial practices, and the reciprocity and ethics of
listening to and reclaiming culture. Sound Fragments interrogates how
Xhosa arts activism contributes to an expanding notion of what a sound
or cultural archive could be, and where it may resonate now and in
future.