National archives gets digital boost
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) has donated digital equipment to the South Sudan National Archive.
The equipment will help the Ministry of Culture, Museums, and National Heritage in the preservation of documents and the history of South Sudan.
Speaking at the ceremony yesterday, the Undersecretary in the Ministry of Culture, Museum, and National Heritage, Kuac Wek, said the equipment is an opportunity that would help the directorate of archives protects the country’s national archives.
“The preservation of history has always been a valuable program, and I would like to appreciate all those who have brought the equipment,” he said.
He revealed that the government has provided land to the Ministry of Culture near Freedom Hall, west of Dr John Garang’s museum.
“Very soon we are going to demarcate it, and we are going to start our work. That will give us hope. The national archive project will have a land and we will see the project being constructed,” Wek said.
“In the next two to three years, the archive will not be renting a building with a lot of challenges,” he said.
He encouraged the younger generation to make use of the national museums.
National programme officer for culture at UNESCO, Beachy Thomas Alex, said the equipment donated by UNESCO to the National Archives has five HP scanners, which are much faster.
“It scans over 30 pages in a minute, and it is quite faster compared to the previous scanners. They can also be connected to the internet, and then the documents can be scanned directly to the server, “Alex said.
Alex said the printer is three in one and that it would help to facilitate the work of the national archive in the country.
He revealed that the equipment cost $30,000.
The acting Director-General for records and archives, Youssef Fulgensio Onyalla, said the national archives started the project with only three scanners in 2010.
He said in all these years, they have been using old scanners, which he said have been overused.
“We are happy to have the new scanners today and to make our work faster than before, I hope these scanners will complete our documents and the remaining documents will be finished maybe in the few years to come,” Onyalla said
United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO)’s Country Representative to South Sudan, Julius Banda, expressed happiness for handing over the equipment, saying it will permit the archives to achieve their transformational goal.
He encouraged the South Sudanese and other nationals to visit the archives and look up the old history of where South Sudan came from.
“Here in the archives, you get to learn where South Sudan is coming from, and the work to digitalise [equipment] is important because it preserves them (document) for the future but at the same time makes them available when they are put online,” he said.
Some documents seen by The City Review from the archives date way back to 1939.
The South Sudan National Archives is supported by UNESCO in collaboration with Rift Valley Institute (RVI). The project has been funded by the Norwegian Embassy in South Sudan to improve a record management system for easy access to the history of South Sudanese by the public.
