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The pre-death bequest of Gerd Spittler

Emeritus Professor Dr. Gerd Spittler is a member of the Africa Multiple Cluster of Excellence and runs a project entitled: "The Pre-Death Bequest of Gerd Spittler". This pioneering project is dedicated to processing research material collected by the Professor of Ethnology from 1967 onwards.The material comprises audio material in Hausa and Tamaschek and more than 6,000 photos taken between 1967 and 2006 in Niger and Nigeria. In this interview, Prof. Spittler talks about the details of his project and his motivation to tackle this enormous task.

Prof. Spittler, as part of your Cluster project entitled “The pre-death bequest of Gerd Spittler” you process, document and store your collection of research material that you have accumulated in your impressive career spanning more than five decades. What made you decide to undertake this extensive project?

My field research in Africa began in 1967, i.e. shortly after the independence of most African states. My research accompanies this historical development and examines it. At the beginning of my research, I interviewed old people who had still experienced the pre-colonial period and could talk about it. It seems important to me to store this research material. Through this project, the Cluster generously offered me the opportunity to recruit collaborators to edit the material and to travel to African and German institutions to discuss the archiving.

The research material will also be accessible in Africa. Another way to make research results accessible in Africa is teaching. I therefore regularly teach students in Niamey (Niger) and Sousse (Tunisia). Students from Niger helped to organize a Tuareg exhibition in Hersbruck’s Deutsches Hirtenmuseum. Others are enrolled in BIGSAS. Three of my students from Niamey and one student from Sousse are currently writing their thesis. Two have already completed their doctorates.

What kind of research material does this project entail? Does every last data make it into the collections or how do you make the decision of what to keep and what to toss?

My research material consists of three types: First, there is written material. This material comprises field notes of research in Niger and Nigeria from 1967 onwards and excerpts and copies from colonial archives in Niger. The texts will be digitised and stored on the collections website of the University of Bayreuth. The original analogue inventory will be stored at the University archive. The excerpts and copies from the colonial archives of the former Chef-lieus de cercle and Postes Administratives are largely material that is no longer available in the original.

Secondly, there is the video material consisting of about 6,000 photos taken between 1967 and 2006 in Hausa und Tuareg Regions in Niger and Nigeria. They document everyday life, work, material culture and the research on it. Like the written material they are digitised in collections@UBT. The original analogue inventory will be stored in the University archive.
A book with 300 Photos has just been finished: Gerd Spittler Leben mit wenigen Dingen. Der Umgang der Kel Ewey mit ihren Requisiten. Tübingen: Mohr und Siebeck 2023.

And last but not least there is the audio material. Most of the audio material (tapes and cassettes) are recordings in Hausa and Tamacheck. They also document everyday life and work. A special temporal depth, however, is achieved by the fact that interviews could be conducted with old people among Hausa in Gobir and Tuareg in Aïr who had still personally experienced the pre-colonial period before 1900. These oral testimonies can be confronted with written archival material.

All this material should not only become part of an European archive, but also of African institutions. My main focus is on institutions in Niger, where most of the research material was collected: IRSH (Institut de Recherches en Sciences Humaines, University of Niamey Niger) and the community of Timia (Agadez region) which is planning to build a museum on the history and culture of the region. The extent to which and the form in which Spittlers research material should be included will be discussed with IRSH and leaders of the community of Timia.

The text-, video- and audiomaterial will be digitised, stored and made accessible on the collections website at UBT.There will be a selection of the material. Many of the field notes which have been processed and used in publications (books and essays) will not be part of the collection. Photographs and audiomaterial that do not contain much information will not be considered.

I insist that the original research material be stored at the archive of the University of Bayreuth. From my experience, digitisation is necessary for reasons we all know, but it alone is not sufficient for final storage. Digitization systems change frequently. To give an example: within ten years, my photo material has already experienced three digitization systems at Bayreuth university: first Lidos, then Faust and now easydb. The conversions were always labor-intensive and did not only bring gains, but were also associated with losses. I had similar experiences with my audiomaterial: from tapes and cassettes to minidisc to MP3 to the wave format.

Since starting your project in 2021 have you encountered problems that you had not anticipated?

I did not anticipate how much sophisticated work would be necessary to organise, edit, digitise and store the research material. This requires a lot of time and a lot of work. It also requires expertise, some of which had to be painstakingly acquired by me and my collaborators. The project will therefore take longer than the originally planned two years. I was encouraged in the necessity of this elaborate processing after looking at various predeath and posthumous estates in Bayreuth (Iwalewahaus) and Frankfurt. Often they consist of folders, slides and notes that are not very well organized making it easy to predicted that few will find the courage to work on them.

How will the material be stored and who “inherits” the data after the Cluster’s life-span has come to an end?

The University of Bayreuth and its archive will be owner of the material.

In your opinion why should research material be documented and kept, although it might have already served its purpose as data for various publications?

I have published several monographs based on my research material (Spittler 1978, 1981, 1993, 1998, 2016, 2023). However, there are several reasons to store the research material, even if it has already been used for publication purposes. First, storing makes it possible for outside researchers to at least partially check the research process. Secondly, good research material can be interpreted from various points of view that go beyond the interest of the researcher who collected the material. Photos can be viewed and analyzed from different perspectives. The same applies to interviews. This is especially true if they are not based on closed questions, which above all reflect the interest of the interviewer. A narrative interview recorded on tape, that gives the narrator time and space to present his point of view in detail is open to various interpretations which go beyond the perspective of the field researcher.

It is not common practice for researchers to give other scholars access to their research data. What is the reaction of the academic community to you doing so. Would you like to encourage others to follow your example?

In general, our research is financed by public funds. Therefore, not only the results, but also the research process should be made accessible to an interested public. I would like to encourage others to follow my example. On the other hand, I understand young researchers who are anxious that they will first analyse their own research before others benefit from it. Such worries do not plague me as a retired professor. I feel free to provide my research material.

Monographs of Gerd Spittler, based on the research material

1978. Herrschaft über Bauern. Die Ausbreitung staalicher Herrschaft und einer islamisch-urbanen Kultur in Gobir (Niger). Frankfurt: Campus.

1981. Verwaltung in einem afrikanischen Bauernstaat. Das koloniale Französisch Westafrika 1919-1939. Wiesbaden: Franz Steiner.

1993. Les Touaregs face aux sécheresses et aux famines. Les Kel Ewey de l’Aïr. Paris: Karthala.

1998. Hirtenarbeit. Die Welt der Kamelhirten und Ziegenhirtinnen von Timia.Köln: Rüdiger Köppe.

2016. Anthropologie der Arbeit. Ein ethnographischer Vergleich. Wiesbaden: Springer VS.

2023. Leben mit wenigen Dingen. Der Umgang der Kel Ewey mit ihren Requisiten. Tübingen: Mohr und Siebeck.