By Ifeoma Ben, LLM, MBA
In Nigeria’s fast-evolving media landscape dominated by streaming platforms, viral short-form content, and digital-first publishing, a significant cultural risk is emerging: the erosion of Nigeria’s rich audio-visual and documentary heritage. Without deliberate preservation efforts, films, oral histories, music, and archival records may vanish, leaving future generations disconnected from their past. This article examines the risks of cultural erasure, the current state of Nigeria’s archival infrastructure, and the urgent need for legal and institutional frameworks to safeguard the nation’s digital legacy.
Risks in the Digital Age: Loss, Obsolescence, and Cultural Erasure
As Nollywood continues to produce content at lightning speed, systematic archiving remains largely unaddressed. Many filmmakers prioritize distribution and marketing but neglect the preservation phase. A recent study reveals that major works, including iconic titles, lack long-term archival plans, risking irreparable loss of Nigeria’s cinematic heritage. Similarly, Nigeria’s national archives face structural decay, frequent flooding, and an absence of robust digitization policies, leaving countless historical documents vulnerable to permanent damage.
Digital Preservation Efforts and Institutional Gaps
Efforts to digitize files remain underfunded and fragmented. The National Archives Act (1992) mandates preservation of public records, but poorly funded archives and inadequate infrastructure undermine compliance. While digitization projects have commenced, they lack clear selection standards, metadata frameworks, and disaster resilience strategies. Nonetheless, recent digital preservation initiatives such as the restoration of the 1976 film Shaihu Umar using global best practice standards, demonstrate the cultural power of archival restoration when given priority.
Benefits of Digitization and Cultural Repatriation
Digital databases offer secure, accessible platforms to preserve both tangible and intangible heritage ranging from manuscripts to folklore, music, and oral testimony. These platforms help mitigate physical risks and enable digital repatriation, returning cultural materials virtually to dispersed communities, and empowering them to control their own heritage narratives. Blockchain-enabled preservation systems like ARCHANGEL show how cryptographic integrity models can anchor tamper‑proof archival records over time.
Legal and Institutional Framework Needs
Preserving Nigeria’s digital heritage requires more than technological capability; it demands legal backing. Key reforms include:
• Updating the National Archives Act to mandate digital preservation frameworks, metadata standards, and open access where culturally appropriate.
• Strengthening copyright exceptions and archival licensing, enabling libraries, museums, and archives to legally preserve, digitize, and make legacy audiovisual works accessible.
• Enshrining digital heritage protection into data protection and cyber laws, including safeguarding culturally sensitive digital materials and regulating access to community archives.
Legal Industry Implications
The legal profession has a pivotal role in driving historic preservation policy and culture:
• Drafting heritage legislation that mandates digitization, defines permissible use, and outlines liability regarding public archives and private collections.
• Advising production houses and content creators on contracts that include preservation clauses, rights assignment, and deposit obligations.
• Supporting institutions such as the National Film, Video and Sound Archive (NFVSA) in establishing digital policy, technical cooperation, and international partnerships for funding and training.
• Managing intellectual property concerns when archiving content, including negotiating permissions, fair use exceptions, and licensing archival clips for educational use.
Conclusion
Nigeria’s digital transformation may be reshaping media, but it also endangers the nation’s cultural memory unless deliberate archival action is taken. Preservation of audio-visual and documentary heritage is necessary not only for historical integrity but for future innovation and identity continuity. Legal frameworks, institutional capacity, and funding must align to ensure that Nigeria’s stories endure, not vanish in the stream. The path forward lies in marrying technology with law, and archiving with activism, so that Nigeria’s cultural legacy thrives in the digital age.
