A sense of history

I was in Cape Town over the weekend. Aside from the flight down, which was hell, thanks to being stuck in the back of the plane with a bunch of unruly rugby supporters who, on their way down to watch the Bokke in action at Newlands, were ordering beer by the six-pack and chugging it back to a spectacularly unstirring rendition of "Who let the dogs out?", I had a lovely time.

The friend in whose house I stayed was also putting up an ageing academic hippie who was visiting Cape Town to look at UCT`s Bushmen notes for his thesis on their oral tradition. Over a cup of tea in the kitchen he told me, somewhat ruefully, that he had made this two-month trip to study these notes, but that in another four months time, the university`s massive scanning project would be complete and he would have been able to view the relevant bits of information on the Internet.

He then added that since he didn`t actually know how to use the Internet, this wouldn`t have made too much difference to him anyway. But it did get me thinking. I am a total bibliophile. Very little can compare to the sensation of a heavy book, recently completed, weighing down the hand. "I have read all of those words, turned all those pages," I always muse in a self-satisfied way, feeling as though I have done something particularly clever.

The Robben Island site [...] didn`t give me any of the sense of history that I would have gleaned from actually walking on the grounds of the prison that held Nelson Mandela for 27 years.

Georgina Guedes, journalist, ITWeb

The idea of conducting a piece of research as incredibly specialised as the oral tradition of the Bushmen over the Internet seems somehow like cheating on an exam. Instead of being closed up in a little dusty reading room at the back of a noiseless library pouring over reams of disorganised notes, searching for that one little piece of relevant information, my hippie friend will now be able to log on to the Internet, and in a matter of moments locate all the information pertinent to his thesis topic. How incredibly dull.

At the same time I applaud the university for its decision to make such information so easily available to the public. It is particularly forward thinking to take the opportunities afforded by technology, and to make notes available to those who perhaps couldn`t travel to the tip of Africa for research purposes. I hope this doesn`t supersede the need to ever actually look at the notes, smell the decaying paper, read the handwriting of ancient academics and explorers, and make notes of our own, to pass down in a format other than a Word document.

As part of my trip down to Cape Town, I decided to expand my cultural consciousness with a visit to Robben Island. The tour operator is letting those brave enough to face the Cape Town winter morning make use of the 9am ferry at half price. Unfortunately, due to global warming, the Cape Town winter is glorious this year and I was beaten to the boat by a number of tourists more punctual than I was. And I was expecting to be accompanied only by one hardy German in shorts, sandals and socks.

Disheartened, I logged on to the Internet to read what I could about SA`s only other world heritage site (the first being St Lucia) and while the Robben Island site is up to date and informative, it didn`t give me any of the sense of history that I would have gleaned from actually walking on the grounds of the prison that held Nelson Mandela for 27 years.

What I am getting at is that while the Internet is a great virtual reference tool, there are definitely times when the wealth of information at our fingertips comes up a shoddy second next to the chance to touch and feel history.