World Day for Audiovisual Heritage: Kenya’s tapes face extinction
By Faith Lagat, October 27, 2025As the world marks World Day for Audiovisual Heritage, on October 27, 2025, there’s a quiet crisis unfolding in Kenya that deserves attention.
It’s a story about fragile tapes and fading memories, precious recordings that hold the heartbeat of the nation’s past.
These are not just old reels gathering dust; they are the voices of grandparents, the laughter of independence celebrations, the rhythms of coastal dances, and the echoes of rural storytelling. Yet, without urgent action, these treasures risk disappearing forever, leaving future generations with a silent void where history once lived.
Imagine a collection of tapes tucked away in a dimly lit room, filled with crackling audio of freedom songs sung during the struggle for independence or grainy films capturing the vibrant markets of Nairobi in the 1960s.
These audiovisual archives are windows into who Kenyans are as a people, cultures, languages, and shared struggles. They tell stories of unity across the highlands and the coast, of resilience through droughts and triumphs in sports. But many of these recordings are deteriorating. The magnetic tape degrades over time, and without proper care, the voices and images trapped within will vanish, taking with them a piece of Kenya’s identity.
A global warning, a local urgency
This day, observed globally since 2007, reminds the world that over 90 percent of audiovisual heritage is at risk of being lost due to neglect and technological obsolescence.
In Kenya, the challenge is even more pressing.
Unlike paper records, which can last for centuries if stored well, these tapes require special conditions, cool temperatures, low humidity, and modern equipment to play or copy them.
Many are stored in places where the heat and dust of the climate are slowly eating away at their quality. Worse still, the machines needed to access them are becoming rare as technology moves forward, leaving behind a growing pile of unreadable history.
The good news is that there’s a way to save these treasures: digitisation. Turning these tapes into digital files means they can be preserved for centuries and shared with everyone, from schoolchildren in rural villages to city dwellers scrolling online. It’s a chance to hear a grandfather’s tale in a forgotten dialect or watch a black-and-white dance performance that inspired a generation.
But this isn’t happening fast enough. The process is costly, requiring scanners, computers, and skilled hands to handle the fragile materials. Without more effort, time will win, erasing stories that could teach about roots and inspire a stronger, more connected future.
A call to preserve Kenya’s living memory
This is where everyone comes in. World Day for Audiovisual Heritage isn’t just for experts, it’s a call to every Kenyan to care about the past.
Imagine walking into a community center where children can watch old footage of their village’s first school opening or listen to songs that once brought people together during hard times. These archives could become a source of pride, a bridge between generations, and even a boost for tourism as visitors seek out Kenya’s rich cultural heritage.
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) emphasises that audiovisual archives tell stories about people’s lives and cultures from all over the world.
“They represent a priceless heritage which is an affirmation of our collective memory and a valuable source of knowledge since they reflect the cultural, social and linguistic diversity of our communities,” UNESCO notes. “They help us grow and comprehend the world we all share.”
Conserving this heritage and ensuring it remains accessible to the public and future generations is a vital goal for all memory institutions as well as the public at large.
The UNESCO Archives launched the project Digitising Our Shared UNESCO History with this goal in mind, to protect and make accessible valuable audiovisual materials that document global heritage.
The World Day for Audiovisual Heritage also commemorates the 1980 adoption of the Recommendation for the Safeguarding and Preservation of Moving Images. It provides an occasion to raise awareness of the need for urgent measures and to acknowledge the importance of audiovisual documents.
As the world reflects on this day, Kenya must confront its own gaps in preserving audiovisual heritage. Without immediate investment in digitisation and preservation, thousands of hours of national history could fade beyond recovery. Each day that passes without action means more tapes degrade beyond repair.
This World Day, Kenya has a choice: to let its stories fade into silence or to safeguard them for generations yet to come. Preserving the nation’s audiovisual heritage is not just about nostalgia; it is about ensuring the future knows where it came from, one digitised memory at a time.