NOMVUYISO BATYI | Heritage at a click: documenting indigenous oral history in the digital era

Oral history and its preservation are instrumental for a country as culturally and linguistically rich as South Africa. With 11 major cultural groups and 12 official languages (including sign language), South Africa, dubbed the “rainbow nation”, is regarded as one of the most diverse countries in the world.

For communities whose histories have not always been recorded in written form, oral tradition remains a primary archive of identity, memory, values and knowledge.

Technology has the potential to play a transformative role in preserving these traditions, particularly for indigenous groups such as the Khoi and the San. In the digital era, new tools and platforms provide opportunities to safeguard, share and respect these histories for generations to come.

South Africa’s indigenous groups include the San (Bushmen), Khoi (hunter-gatherers), Nama, Griqua and Korana, among other Khoisan descendant communities. Though they account for just 1% of the South African population, they represent some of the oldest living cultures in the world.

During colonialism and apartheid, these groups endured forced removals, land dispossession, loss of language and cultural practices, systemic exclusion from formal historical narratives, and non-recognition by the state – until the passing of the Traditional and Khoi-San Leadership Act 3 of 2019. The preservation of indigenous languages and cultures is therefore essential to prevent the erosion of identity and the extinction of linguistic heritage.

Language is a fundamental component of cultural identity, and its loss can be equated to the collapse of an entire culture. This reality is poignantly illustrated by the case of Xuu (Chief) Katrina Esau, affectionately known as Ouma Katrina. She is the last fluent speaker of the critically endangered N|uu language, an ancient San language from the Tuu family.

Determined to prevent its disappearance, Ouma Katrina has dedicated herself to teaching N|uu to children in her community. She has also co-authored a children’s book with her daughter and contributed to the curation of the N|uu dictionary. Her work highlights the importance of documenting oral history to prevent the erasure of communities that represent the earliest roots of South African identity.

The archive of indigenous oral history is key to humanising South African history. Yet these narratives remain at risk of extinction as many Indigenous elders and knowledge-holders age, languages disappear and practices fade. Without proactive recording, valuable parts of oral history may be lost forever. Preservation efforts help to correct the gaps left by colonialism and apartheid, while also affirming cultural authenticity and ensuring continuity for younger generations.

In many indigenous communities, storytelling is more than entertainment, it is a living educational system.

In many indigenous communities, storytelling is more than entertainment, it is a living educational system. Folktales carry moral instruction, praise poetry encodes clan histories, and songs serve as repositories of environmental knowledge, migration patterns and spiritual beliefs.

When these vessels of knowledge vanish, it is not only the words that disappear, but the wisdom embedded within rhythm, tone, gesture and performance. Unlike written history, which often reduces narratives to dates and facts, oral history allows for nuance, humour, emotion and reinterpretation across time. Preserving it means preserving not just information, but worldview.

However, Indigenous oral histories now have greater potential than ever to be preserved, accessed and celebrated in the digital era. This must be approached with respect and collaboration. South Africa’s diverse Indigenous communities, shaped by both resilience and the traumas of colonial and apartheid histories, require urgent and sustained efforts in oral history preservation.

In addition to language preservation, there are growing opportunities for digital mapping of sacred sites, archiving of Indigenous music through open-source recording platforms and the use of augmented reality to recreate historical landscapes.

Universities and heritage institutions can play a bigger role by offering equipment and digital training directly to communities rather than merely studying them. Likewise, platforms such as YouTube, TikTok and community radio podcasts can be used to amplify indigenous knowledge-bearers, provided that ownership of the content remains with the communities themselves. Respectful technology is not extractive; it is collaborative.

The ICT sector can play a critical role in overcoming barriers such as limited resources, digital illiteracy and unreliable connectivity. Digital preservation can be advanced through the localisation of everyday technologies, the creation of digital literacy tools, translation via crowdsourcing, machine translation and the development of online dictionaries. These efforts, exemplified by Ouma Katrina’s work, demonstrate that preservation is possible even with minimal infrastructure when community will meets accessible tools.

The future of this work depends on effective community‐centred, ethically grounded, technologically informed and sustainable documentation. Government policy, academic support, private-sector partnerships and community-led initiatives must converge rather than operate in isolation.

Archiving should not be something done “to” indigenous people, but “with” them and shaped according to their consent, protocols and cultural rhythms. By embracing this approach, we ensure that stories long told around fires, through song and in dance will continue to live, evolve and inspire generations to come.

Nomvuyiso Batyi, CEO of Association of Comms and Technology (ACT)

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