NsubugaEdrine/UBUNTU-GEN-CULTURE-CONNECT

NTANDA is a digital cultural heritage platform designed to preserve, document, and promote the rich cultural diversity of Africa. The platform serves as a centralized repository for African cultural regalia, traditions, customs, languages, ceremonies, historical artifacts, folklore, and indigenous knowledge. # UBUNTU-GEN Cultural Connect — African Cultural Heritage Platform **UBUNTU-GEN Cultural Connect** is a digital cultural heritage platform for preserving, documenting and showcasing African regalia, artifacts, ethnic communities, traditions and oral history. It combines a public heritage "museum" experience (browse, search, bookmark) with a contributor **Studio** (posts, blogs, vlogs, personal pages) and an **Admin Console** for managing all site content and users. --- ## Table of Contents - Overview - Feature Summary - Technology Stack - Prerequisites - Environment Variables - Installation - Running the App - Development - Production build & preview - Type checking / linting - Project Structure - How the App Works - Routing & access control - Authentication - Public heritage site (5 tabs) - Bookmarks (My Saved Archives) - Contributor Studio - Admin Console - Data layer - Database Schema (Supabase) - Storage Buckets - Deployment - Troubleshooting - License --- ## Overview The platform targets students, researchers, cultural institutions, tourists and local communities. Visitors can explore royal regalia, browse digital artifact records (some with audio soundscapes), and learn about ethnic communities, their clans, totems and traditions. Registered contributors share their own cultural stories; administrators curate the archive and manage users. --- ## Feature Summary **Public site (no sign-in required)** - Home: hero, featured regalia, ethnic spotlights, latest artifacts - Regalia Gallery: category filter + search, detail modal - Ethnic Communities: region filter + search, lineage & totem modal - Digital Artifact Archive: search + sort, load-more, significance modal - My Saved Archives: localStorage-backed bookmark collection - Community Stories feed and public member profiles - Audio soundscapes (Web Audio API synthesizer), notifications and an Ethical Preservation Charter **Contributor Studio (sign-in required)** - Profile editing (avatar upload, userna …