SORABE NUMÉRIQUES? ENJEUX ET PERSPECTIVES D’ÉTUDE DES MANUSCRITS ARABICO-MALGACHES À TRAVERS LE CAS D’UN FONDS NUMÉRIQUE INÉDIT

This article is an expanded version of a paper delivered at the FHA International Conference in Tunis-Carthage (13t-15t April 2023). The purpose of this contribution is to analyse the impact that the global trend of the digitization of knowledge can produce in a specific research area such as that of African sources. Particular attention will be paid to the South-Eastern coast of Madagascar, where the sorabe tradition has been transmitted by the Antemoro aristocratic clans, preserving, and copying their sacred and secret manuscripts over the centuries. The aim is to consider, from an anthropological and historical perspective, the cultural, ethical, practical, and epistemological challenges, advantages, and disadvantages that the possibility of digitizing the sorabe manuscripts opens up. The topic will be explored through the case study of the SN manuscript series, an unpublished digitized collection of 46 sorabe, the product of my field research in the Antemoro region in 2015.