Terms of Use

1. Overview

These Terms of Use govern access to and use of Decolonising Archive. By accessing or using this platform, you agree to these Terms.

Decolonising Archive is an independent digital platform focused on archive discovery, metadata enrichment, editorial contextualisation, and public-facing access to knowledge relating to Africa, the diaspora, and the Global South.

2. Independent ownership of the platform

Unless otherwise stated in writing, the platform’s original software code, interface design, visual identity, editorial structure, metadata architecture, taxonomy design, search architecture, enrichment systems, curated descriptions, record relationships, original text, and other original platform materials are protected and remain the property of Dr Yaw Ofosu-Asare.

No use of this site, and no communication, discussion, meeting, review, presentation, consultation, collaboration enquiry, institutional conversation, or informal feedback process relating to this platform creates any assignment, transfer, licence, joint ownership, institutional ownership, waiver, or other disposition of intellectual property unless expressly agreed in writing.

3. What you may do

You may browse, search, view, cite, and link to public pages of the site for lawful research, teaching, study, reference, and non-commercial scholarly use, subject to these Terms and any rights applicable to third-party materials.

4. What you may not do

You must not scrape, harvest, copy, bulk-download, mirror, republish, redistribute, sell, sublicense, commercially exploit, or systematically extract the platform or its contents without prior written permission.

You must not use bots, crawlers, automated extraction tools, browser automation, machine learning systems, AI training pipelines, data collection scripts, or similar methods to access, copy, analyse, reproduce, or repurpose the platform or its contents without prior written permission.

You must not remove attribution, obscure provenance, misrepresent authorship, or imply endorsement, affiliation, or ownership where none has been granted in writing.

5. Platform structure, ideas, and protected original work

Protection claimed through this site is not limited to isolated lines of text. It extends, where legally available, to original expression embodied in the platform’s code, interface, arrangement, editorial logic, metadata enrichment, taxonomy and category systems, record structuring, curated source pathways, search architecture, and other original features of the platform as a designed knowledge system.

Use of the platform does not grant any right to copy or reproduce the platform’s underlying architecture, workflows, enrichment logic, or curated structural design merely because those features are visible through public use of the site.

6. Third-party records, archives, and linked materials

This platform includes references, metadata, descriptions, citations, and links relating to third-party archives, institutions, objects, manuscripts, images, publications, and cultural materials.

Rights in third-party materials remain with the relevant rights holders, archives, institutions, publishers, communities, or custodians. Inclusion on, reference by, or linkage from this platform does not transfer ownership or custodianship to Decolonising Archive.

7. Accuracy, completeness, and changing records

The platform aims to present material carefully and in good faith, but archive records, metadata, rights positions, provenance details, collection locations, and institutional descriptions may change over time. The platform does not guarantee that all information will always be complete, current, or free from error.

8. Rights, provenance, and takedown matters

If you are a rights holder, custodian, archive, institution, community representative, or authorised agent and believe that material on the platform infringes rights, misstates provenance, causes cultural harm, or requires correction, annotation, restriction, or removal, please use the Rights Contact process provided on the site.

9. Accounts and user features

If account features are enabled, users are responsible for keeping login details secure and for activities conducted through their accounts, except to the extent caused by the platform’s own fault or security failure.

The platform may suspend, restrict, or remove accounts or access where reasonably necessary for security, misuse prevention, rights protection, technical maintenance, or breach of these Terms.

10. No unlawful or abusive use

You must not use the platform in a way that is unlawful, defamatory, deceptive, harmful, abusive, misleading, discriminatory, invasive of privacy, or damaging to the site, its operator, its contributors, or the rights and interests of others.

11. Access and availability

The platform may be updated, modified, restricted, interrupted, or withdrawn at any time where reasonably necessary for maintenance, development, technical stability, legal compliance, rights protection, or other operational reasons.

12. No implied licence or transfer

Except where expressly stated, nothing on this site grants any licence, assignment, permission, or transfer of intellectual property, proprietary rights, dataset rights, or other rights in the platform or its original materials.

13. Changes to these Terms

These Terms may be updated from time to time. The version published on this page is the current version.

14. Contact

For permissions, legal enquiries, or requests relating to use of the platform, contact: [info@yofosuasare.com]