About
Dr. Temi Odumosu wrote the initial outline of the reasoning and decision to form a group that will work in the upcoming project phase on accessibility formats for over 900 photographs from institutions worldwide. One outcome of her text was to review the photographs and to form the working group 'Approaching Colonial Photographs with Care'.
Dr. Temi Odumosu is an interdisciplinary scholar and curator at University of Washington Information School in Seattle. She is author of the book Africans in English Caricature 1769-1819: Black Jokes White Humour (2017). Her current teaching is in the field of critical information studies, and her research and curatorial interests include archives and African Diasporic memory, digitization of cultural heritage, image ethics, and information justice. Overall, she is focused on the ways art can mediate social transformation and healing.
Digital Benin collates digital material from institutions, and some of this material is inherently colonial and contains words, terms and phrases that are inaccurate, derogatory and harmful towards African and African diasporic communities. Catalogue transcriptions, book titles, exhibition titles and museum titles may contain harmful terms. We recognise the potential for the material to cause physical and mental distress as well as evoke strong emotions. Owing to the scale of the collection’s data, a process to implement sensitive-content warnings in the displayed data is still incomplete. The material within the catalogue does not represent Digital Benin’s views. Digital Benin maintains a strong anti-colonial, anti-racist position and affirms its support for centring the humanity of historically marginalised and disenfranchised communities. Read more about the background of this statement here