2023
The Lecture–Encounter Series is a public programme developed by SAVVY Kwata – Library of Lost and Found as a platform for intellectual exchange, critical reflection, and the circulation of diverse knowledge systems. Positioned at the intersection of research, cultural practice, heritage, art, ecology, and community engagement, the series creates opportunities for encounters between scholars, artists, practitioners, activists, elders, students, and local communities.
The programme is grounded in the understanding that knowledge is not produced exclusively within universities, museums, or formal institutions, but also emerges through lived experiences, oral traditions, craft practices, collective memory, and everyday acts of cultural transmission. Through lectures, conversations, presentations, storytelling sessions, screenings, and public discussions, Lecture–Encounter Series seeks to bridge academic forms of knowledge and community-based ways of knowing.
Inspired by the philosophy of the Library of Lost and Found, the series explores what is remembered, forgotten, marginalised, recovered, and reimagined within contemporary societies. It provides a platform for participants to engage critically with questions of heritage, identity, migration, ecology, decolonisation, indigenous knowledge, artistic practice, archives, and the future of cultural institutions in Africa and beyond.
The programme draws inspiration from African intellectual traditions that view knowledge as a communal process. As the Cameroonian Bernard Nsokika Fonlon emphasised, the importance of intellectual engagement that remains connected to social realities and collective transformation.
The Lecture–Encounter Series, therefore functions not only as a space for learning but also as a site of dialogue, listening, questioning, and collective imagination. It encourages participants to reflect on how knowledge travels across generations and geographies while fostering meaningful connections between local experiences and global conversations.
Objectives
The programme aims to:
- Facilitate encounters between researchers, artists, practitioners, and communities;
- Promote critical discussions on heritage, culture, memory, and contemporary social issues;
- Highlight indigenous and community-based knowledge systems;
- Encourage interdisciplinary learning and collaborative thinking;
- Document and archive conversations for future research and public access;
- Strengthen public engagement with cultural and intellectual production;
- Foster intergenerational dialogue and knowledge transmission.
Programme Format
Activities may include:
- Public lectures
- Artist talks
- Curatorial presentations
- Book discussions and reading encounters
- Heritage and archival conversations
- Film screenings and discussions
- Practitioner-led workshops
- Community dialogues
- Research presentations
- Oral history encounters
Curatorial Statement
“Knowledge becomes meaningful when it is shared, questioned, and transformed through encounter. The Lecture–Encounter Series invites participants to gather around ideas, experiences, and stories that connect past, present, and future. By creating spaces where different forms of knowledge meet, the programme contributes to the ongoing work of remembering, learning, and imagining together.”
