Name: Esther OLEMBE

Title: /

Job title: Senior Lecturer, Director of National Archives of Cameroon

Organisation (if ICA Institutional membership): /

Country or Territory: Cameroon

Region represented: Africa and the Arab Countries

Candidate Statement:    

“I got in touch with the International Council on Archives in 2015. Newly promoted to head of library science and archives department at the Higher School of Information and Communication Sciences and Techniques (ESSTIC) of the University of Yaoundé II in May 2014, I organized an international symposium on the theme: training-research-development support: documentary information sciences facing the challenge of Africa’s emergence (December 3 to 4, 2015 in Yaoundé). This event was attended by the main leaders of the PCOM (James Lowry, Jama Baida, Margaret Crockett and Normand Charbonneau) who on occasion led several workshops on the ICA’s strategy for Africa. This was followed by the organization of the ICA annual conference (ICA YAOUNDE 2018) for the very first time in Africa, in Yaoundé, Cameroon from 24 to 28 November 2018 on the theme Archives: Governance, Memory and Heritage.

These main events and my personal involvement at the PCOM meetings, the cumulative experience of almost twenty years as a teacher-researcher in archival science, Director of the National Archives of Cameroon and consultant, will allow me to participate effectively in the development of the ICA Programme for the next four years.”

How can you make the voice of ICA regions underrepresented in PCOM heard?

“Having participated directly or indirectly in the development and implementation of the ICA programme for Africa as an advisor, I have been able to observe the progress, but above all the challenges that the ICA faces in animating its African sections. I have also, based on the Cameroonian experience, identified the main bottlenecks that can hinder the development of archiving in Africa and the main levers that can allow its emergence. The consolidation of achievements, and my participation in the development of new strategic orientations, will undoubtedly be mobilized to make the ICA’s actions for Africa more visible.”

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