Radiodiffusion Télévision de Guinée

Bio

Guinea's orchestras were famous throughout all of Africa during the Sékou Touré era, and at the Radiodiffusion Télévision de Guinée are located more than 600 reels of audio material which features Guinea's 50+ orchestras over a period spanning more than 25 years.

In 2004 the headquarters of the Radiodiffusion Télévision de Guinée were moved to a state-of-the-art building next to the American Embassy in the outer suburb of Koloma, some 20 kilometers from Conakry. RTG 1, as it is called, is now the administrative center of Guinea's national broadcaster. The old premises in Conakry's Boulbinet quarter still remain and are known as RTG 2, and it is here that the archives are located. The RTG archives must surely be one of West Africa's treasure troves, containing an abundance of rare and unique material.

Through a British Library Endangered Archives Programme grant, Graeme Counsel assisted technicians in digitizing this collection to compact disc format from August to November 2008, although hundreds of reels remain in their current state. The material is generally well kept, as the building is air-conditioned, though it lacks its own generator.

A complete catalog of the audio reels also appears to be lacking, though an electronic catalog is being constructed. Several reel-to reel machines are available for use.

The RTG 2 archives also extend to video material, which chiefly consists of recorded television broadcasts. This material is not cataloged and there and many hundreds, perhaps thousands, of video cassettes on all topics. The video collection is also currently being digitized.

Source:
Counsel, Graeme. 2009. “Archival and Research Resources in Conakry, Guinea”. From: History in Africa, Volume 36, pp. 439-445.

GNConakry, Guinea

Contact

Yayé Haby Barry
Profile ajoutée par Teclaire Dina EKEDI le 02 sep 2015
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