Abstract:
Digital public history has emerged as a powerful tool for addressing difficult pasts with concerned communities in an ethical way. This paper focuses on the ethical issues at stake in co-producing digital historical knowledge about resistance to slavery in a web documentary that involved identifying and naming marginalised populations in Mali , increasingly at risk of violence. The web documentary aims to bridge the gap between endogenous historical resistance to slavery and modern anti-slavery activism, while also addressing issues of funding, authority tensions, and asymmetrical relations, in which the digital gap presented specific challenges. In the process, we report on a case of dialogue among researchers, practitioners, and village participants, and we expose the ethical implications of digital research and citizen intervention related to past and present slavery in Africa .
Authors: Marie Rodet (SOAS, University of London), Mamadou Séne (Association Donkosira, Mali)
Publication: Digital Humanities Quarterly, Vol. 19, No. 1 (2025)