Developing a Digital Heritage Model for Preserving Religious and Cultural Knowledge across Generations of the African Diaspora

Abstract

The African diaspora constitutes a complex transnational space in which second- and third-generation Africans often face challenges in maintaining cultural memory, religious identity and connections with their ancestral heritageIndigenous spiritualities, religious beliefs and community traditions constitute important foundations of diasporic identity, providing mechanisms through which historical memory, values and cultural practices are transmitted across generations. But as indigenous people become part of a variety of societies throughout the world, traditional mechanisms of intergenerational knowledge transmission are increasingly disrupted by migration, geographical separation, social change and technological transformation.. Cultural erosion is also associated with limitations in conventional Eurocentric archival practices, which may marginalize, misrepresent or overlook living, non-Western traditions and community-defined forms of heritage, non-Western traditions, and a persistent digital divide and the limited interactivity of conventional museums may further reduce the accessibility and relevance of heritage resources to younger transnational generations. This paper therefore, proposes a conceptual holistic digital heritage model to protect and preserve religious and cultural knowledge among the African diaspora generations. Taking this idea of data storage one step further, the proposed model would involve three layers  an Ingestion and Curation Layer, a Transmission and Intergenerational Layer and an Engagement and Interaction Layer. The model consists of three interconnected layers: an Ingestion and Curation Layer through which communities document and govern their heritage data; a Transmission and Intergenerational Layer that facilitates structured knowledge exchange between elders and younger generations; and an Engagement and Interaction Layer that employs immersive technologies such as virtual reality and augmented reality to enhance participation.. Through the application of this model, generational and digital gaps can be overcome and a decentralized sustainable solution for the conservation of the living heritage of the African diaspora can be established while critical points of ethics referring to data sovereignty, consent and digital re-repatriation can be addressed.