Ash Libraries 2025 Collection

We have been sitting with a question-thought that asks what do we want memory to do rather than what do we want it to mean. There are memories that mold nostalgia. These memories chant sentimental longing. We find ourselves glued to the edges of stories that become histories we know through embodied inheritance. These histories anchor memory.

Stories of the past land on numb transient fingers. We cannot quite touch them but residual feelings linger like ash in the present. Burnt but persisting. Memory is not simply about memorialising the past or pushing against forgetfulness. It is about who we need to become given everything that we know and feel about the persisting past in our lifeworlds.

This capsule collection is the embodiment of what we want memory to. We want memory to remind us to hold a posture of suspicion, continuity and openness in our interpretation of heritage. We want memory to function as a weapon against traditions that seek to disappear orature as a vital foundation in the making of an African library. The pieces in this collection are produced alongside practices of orature in Kenya and South Africa that taught us precious lessons about materiality and making.

This heirloom capsule is an ode to human libraries that prompt our gaze towards the altar of transcendental knowledge through memory, practice and conversation as study. It is a reminder of the Johannesburg City Library – a place that ephemerally shaped what Professor Bhekizizwe Peterson called the Black Public Humanities.