The National Digital Repository is organised into four sections:
ART | CULTURES | INDIGENOUS KNOWLEDGE | MUSIC
Vision
National Digital Repository serves to collect, preserve, promote and disseminate South Africa’s cultural heritage. It is also meant to reinforce the national imperatives of fostering national identity and social cohesion.
By its nature it encourages South Africans to appreciate and understand who they are, where they come from and this could charter a way towards common objectives of the country
Background
In South Africa’s context it was important that historical legacies where African cultural heritage was developed to a limited extent or was distorted be addressed.
There was also a realisation that cultural heritage information must be recorded as soon as possible as some of the sources will not be available in future as some of them are the elderly and traditional leaders.
The most appropriate approach in the context of information society is to keep this information in a digital format as this will ensure easy access for present and future generations.