April 18 marked two years since the Jagger Library at UCT devastatingly burned down. The iconic library housed invaluable collections, galleries and, most importantly, the African Studies collection that had been built over decades, beginning in 1953.
In the blink of an eye, all of this pertinent history was eradicated. In the digital age, the loss of a library means more than just losing books, but the loss of immeasurable discoveries and community histories, with a wealth of information, cultures, knowledge and histories. The archival and published print collections that were also consumed by the flames are irretrievable and priceless, and will never again be returned.
What is truly lost in this instance is a piece of our identity as African people. Human history has proved that the