about

Without identity, we are just a mere object of history, a prop in the play of globalization, an instrument to be used by others. —Joseph Ki-Zerbo, Senegalese historian

Art, design, curatorship and writing have led us to create both educational programs for art shows and workshops for design and architecture. Over time, we realized that our audiences — creatives, students, academics — continuously complained about the lack of access to knowledge about their own cultural and historical roots, raising the question: why do we lack knowledge about African art, design, history, philosophy or orality?

The process of knowledge building as we know it today in Angola, and in many contemporary African societies, is largely based on inherited colonial structures (assimilation) that imposed the extinction of African identities, suppressing, denigrating or eliminating significant sources of ancestral knowledge transmitted through oral, ritual, technical and technological practices.

Our lengthy civil war and subsequent neglect of our education system contributed to maintaining a learning paradigm based on the absence of this knowledge.

That’s why we created The Living Archive, a free digital archive and research and publishing platform focused on exploring, producing and sharing knowledge on our ancestral and contemporary arts, languages, philosophies, beliefs and customs, as well as multimedia publishing of meaningful works that reflect and nourish the peoples in the sites, centers and peripheries of our urban and rural realities.

In Angola, in Africa and in other latitudes, decolonization liberated the territories, but not the bodies and minds. The process of decolonizing thinking and unlearning the complexes of our colonial and modern legacies is challenging, but knowing our roots is the first step to live conscious realities that can generate truly independent works and beings. We want to contribute to building futures where we not only peacefully coexist with our differences, but are also inspired by the presence, potential and diversity of our cultural wealth.

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The Living Archive is the digital platform of Lugânzi’s activities, projects and publications. It supports the project’s Programs and the publication platforms Living Libraries and Think Tank. All published material is available for free download.