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Summary
Visual analysis of photographs reveals how maintenance and repair sustained Nigeria's telegraph network. This approach highlights African technical labor and expertise, often overlooked in traditional historical records.
Area of Science:
- History of Science and Technology
- African Studies
- Media and Visual Culture
Background:
- Traditional historical accounts of communications technology in Africa often rely on textual archives.
- These archives can obscure the practical labor, expertise, and material conditions involved in maintaining infrastructure.
- Visual sources, such as photographs, offer a complementary perspective.
Purpose of the Study:
- To demonstrate how visual analysis of photographs can reshape the history of communications technology in Africa.
- To examine the role of maintenance and repair in sustaining Nigeria's telegraph network.
- To highlight the value of visual evidence in understanding technology-in-use and African histories of technology.
Main Methods:
- Analysis of photographs from archival and digital collections.
- Interpreting images as historical evidence of material and social conditions.
- Focusing on visual elements depicting workshops, linemen, storms, and repair crews.
Main Results:
- Photographs reveal the critical role of African technical labor, improvisation, and embodied knowledge in maintaining unstable telegraph infrastructures.
- Visuals expose the uneven visibility of colonial expertise, with African workers often depicted collectively.
- Maintenance and repair practices are shown to be central to the operation of the telegraph network.
Conclusions:
- Visual analysis provides crucial insights into the material realities and social dynamics of communications technology in Africa.
- Photographs serve as vital historical evidence, complementing textual sources.
- This study contributes to emerging scholarship on infrastructure, materiality, and technology-in-use in African contexts.
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