Welcome to the Dambudzo Marechera Archive of the Humboldt University in Berlin!!

 

This site represents a digital storeroom (media repository) of a large selection of documents, photographs, as well as audio and video files relating to the life and work of the legendary Zimbabwean writer Dambudzo Marechera (1952-1987). The digital archive is built on paper-based material held at the departmental library of Asian and African Studies and can be searched for under “Dambudzo Marechera Archive” through the university library’s electronic catalogue. Researchers can request access to the physical material in the Rara collection. The library also houses a complete collection of all editions of Marechera’s published works, including translations, which are on open access (for a list of these, see resource ID 652 of the Repository).

History of the Archive:

During the years 1989 to 1992, Flora Veit-Wild, literary executor of the Marechera estate, collected, edited and published manuscripts as well as biographical sources of the late writer. This research and publication project was commissioned by the Dambudzo Marechera Trust and funded by the German Embassy in Harare with means from the fund for the preservation of cultural heritage of the German Foreign Office. In 1992 Veit-Wild handed over all the original copies of the material she had collected to the National Archives of Zimbabwe (see resource ID). Photocopies of all the documents, sorted into 20 pink file folders (see resource ID 666), as well as a microfilm of all the original Marechera manuscripts remained in Veit-Wild’s possession when she left Zimbabwe in 1993. In 1994 she was appointed Professor of African Literatures and Cultures at Humboldt University. The folders, together with some additional material accumulated over the following years, including digitalised versions of all existing video and audio files, constitute the “Dambudzo Marechera Archive” deposited at Humboldt University library in 2016.

Digital Collections:

The resources in the media repository have been grouped into collections according to generic or thematic similarities. You can find all corresponding resources in all collections using the search function. In the case of large files (audio and video), the preview is limited to four minutes; in order to access the entire file, you need to download it. There are currently no restrictions on viewing or downloading resources stored in the repository. However, if you wish to use material for public viewing or publication, you will need to obtain permission from the copyright owner mentioned in the resource information.

Feedback and Contact:

The project team has tried to be as accurate as possible. However, if you find any errors in the resource descriptions or would like to add any information, please do not hesitate to contact us at h1446b1c@rz.hu-berlin.de.

Please note: All texts are in English. If you find the search and sort instructions in German, you can switch to English once you have entered the site (at the bottom of the page).