African verbal arts on the Internet: 'Somalia Holland Online' and 'Sankofa.nl'

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Book chapter

Title:	African verbal arts on the Internet: 'Somalia Holland Online' and 'Sankofa.nl'
Author:	Merolla, Daniela
Book title:	At the crossroads: readings of the postcolonial and the global in African literature and visual art
Year:	2014
Pages:	161-178
Language:	English
Geographic terms:	Netherlands Africa
Subjects:	diasporas Ghanaians Somali Internet websites oral traditions
Abstract:	This article analyses a specific aspect of the way in which individuals and organizations of the African diasporas in the Netherlands have exploited the Internet, which offers innumerable opportunities to local and transnational contacts. It looks at the interconnections of orality, literacy and new media in the specific case of the websites 'Somalia Holland Online', a multilingual site in English, Dutch and Somali, and of 'Sankofa', a multicultural organization located in the Netherlands whose board members hail from Ghana, Surinam and the Netherlands. The article shows the role played by the oral heritage in the self-construction and presentation of African 'migrant' websites and investigates how technology and orality interact to give form to what has been called 'technologized auriture' of 'technauriture'. [ASC Leiden abstract]