Course:ARST573/Postcolonial Archives

Map of colonial territories in the 1910s

Postcolonial Archives are the archives of independent states that were previously colonies, imperial subjects, or otherwise under the authority of an external power. Postcolonial states can either be nations that were formally a part of an empire as a colony, or those which have a significant population of marginalized people who now have a voice in the archives (such as North American or Oceanic nations with indigenous populations). As a result of their particular political histories, these nations have archives that embody two different states: the archives of the colonial power, and the archives of the previously marginalized people. The contrasting record types, societal values, administrative structures, and histories of the two sides of postcolonial archives result in certain challenges that are specific to these nations.

Archives Under Imperial Government

The records created under imperial rule were primarily related to the tasks of the colonial government, but also included cartographic materials, ethnographies of indigenous populations, and scientific reports. The archival systems in place under colonial rule depended greatly on the values and recordkeeping traditions of the parent government. Consequently, archival systems under the colonial administrations varied widely, ranging from a complete lack of recordkeeping systems to meticulous documentation. These systems underwent changes through the course of colonial rule due to external changes such as the outbreak of war (whether in the metropole or in the colonies), or the changing of colonial ownership.

Challenges in Colonial Archives

Early problems encountered by European colonial administrators involved the preservation issues of tropical environments. The humidity, heat, and lack of adequate storage facilities in newly established colonies in Africa, South Asia, and the Caribbean all posed significant challenges to officials from Europe. Due to these preservation and storage concerns, many records pertaining to colonial governing were not kept in the colonial territory, but sent back to Europe or even destroyed when they were no longer in current use.

Another difficulty in nineteenth century colonial archives was that there simply were not trained archivists being sent to the colonies. Archival science was still in development in Europe itself, and colonial administrators tended to be mid- to low- level civil servants who did not necessarily have experience with record-keeping practices.

Lack of funding for archival programs was a lasting issue throughout colonial rule. Although awareness of the issues with colonial records increased by the 1910s, domestic concerns in Europe such as the outbreak of World War I meant that policy-makers were generally unwilling to substantially support archival reforms.

Archives as Defence of Imperialism

An increasingly accepted interpretation of imperial archives is that the archives of the government were created in such a way that their records justified the institution of colonial rule. Thomas Richard in The Imperial Archive posits that the nineteenth century British concept of power was strongly associated with the control of information. This concept centres around the idea that “the archive functioned both to imagine territory as representation and realize it as a social construction.” In other words, by representing a colonial territory a certain way in the archives (whether by defining territorial boundaries, or through paternalistic or racial representations of indigenous peoples), the administration could make that representation the reality for their colonial authority.

A significant way in which colonial archives acted as a social construction for imperial power is in the cartographic materials in the archives. European explorers often drew maps in their expeditions, which were then kept in the archives as a definition of the territory. The maps then were a symbol of what the nation owned in the colonies, regardless of whether the people in the area thought of themselves as one nation or even had a defined national territory at all. An example of this is in the British India Survey of the territory of Tibet undertaken in the mid-nineteenth century. Although Tibet existed before the survey (as the area in which the nomadic indigenous people existed), it was the forces of imperialism which motivated British surveyors to define the area under their "domain of...official state knowledge." The India Survey used the scientific methods of the time to detail the territory, and in doing so, was "taking possession of the entire country, stopping just at its borders." The British Empire therefore strengthened its claim over the area by being the first to define it accurately in mathematical and scientific terms, thereby establishing ownership through knowledge creation.

The Belgian Royal Museum for Central Africa today

The use of archives as a way of defending imperial power was especially apparent in repressive and controlling regimes. Leopold II of Belgium gained control as a private owner over the colony of the Congo, with the intention to strengthen the status of his kingdom during the "Scramble for Africa" in the nineteenth century. His subsequent exploitative, violent rule of the colony and enslavement of the indigenous population appalled even his European and American contemporaries, who eventually forced him to cede the colony's ownership to the Belgian state. Before the end of his rule, however, Leopold II made significant efforts to showcase the value of the colony to the people of Belgium and the "work of development and civilization" taking place in the Congo, and one of these efforts was in the creation of the Congo Museum (later renamed the Royal Museum for Central Africa), which included archival records relating to the colony. These records consisted of the journals of the explorer Henry M. Stanley, natural science collections, and examples of the valuable products of Africa. In short, Leopold II's use of archival material emphasized the European accomplishments in Africa and showcased the value of the colony to the metropole, thus strengthening his claim to the territory in the eyes of the Belgian people.

Representations of Indigenous Groups

Archival sources under colonial regimes in general have a conspicuous lack of documentation of the indigenous peoples, instead acting as "products of state machines" which documented the colonial office's actions and knowledge, while silencing the voice of the colonized. In many ways, this was due to the role of archives in the imperial system; archives acted as a practical way to conduct the business between the colonial office in the metropole and the administration in the colonies themselves. It is also an example of archives being used as "institutions that fashioned history...and reproduced the power of the state" by omitting any humanizing representation of the colonized. Although treaties and agreements were often made between indigenous groups and Europeans, these are rarely found in the colonial archives, perhaps because of the rights they would grant to the native peoples in disputes.

Sketches of Polynesian artifacts by 18th century scientific explorer, John Webber

In spite of the disparity in documentation between the colonial government and the indigenous population at this time, there are certain records which indicate some effort to represent the colonized in imperial archives. This representation was primarily in the form of ethnographies, anthropological studies of indigenous cultures, or sketches and notes about those groups from the European perspective. These tended to be highly racialized and paternalistic accounts of indigenous peoples and were used to justify colonialism. In keeping with the "scientific racism" of the nineteenth century, ethnographies would include evidence that native people were of different origins than Europeans and were therefore "unassimilable" or had "lesser capabilities." The inclusion of these records in colonial archives exemplify the way in which archives were used to "develop...racial thought and imperial power," by relegating the colonized to a "scientifically" lesser status and therefore unable to govern themselves in the eyes of the colonizers.

Africa

Depictions of African peoples in European archives are commonly in the form of travel writings of explorers in the nineteenth century. These works were intended to document the findings of scientific expeditions through notes, journals, photographs, and drawings, rather than to study the culture of the indigenous people, but explorers still included some representations of those groups. In many cases, depictions of indigenous peoples were disseminated in Europe, due to the popular interest in African "adventures" at a time when the continent was not well known or understood. The messages found in these explorer accounts tended to be in support of imperialist ideals, whether by emphasizing the "unclaimed" wealth of Africa, or by portraying indigenous culture as "ignorant and savage" and in need of civilization. Mostly, explorers emphasize the material culture of native people, through pictures of artifacts, rather than the people themselves, possibly due their unwillingness to consider the human nature of Africans.

Similarly, missionaries in Africa tended to keep journals that were published in Western periodicals in the nineteenth century. Missionaries travelled to Africa with the intention of spreading Christianity to the native people, which required that they also establish schools and instruct Africans in languages of Europe. While these were more focused on the people of Africa than exploration accounts, they still wrote of them from a highly paternalistic perspective, describing native people as violent and ignorant. One missionary's account specifically bemoaned the "superstition which binds down the minds of the natives," in describing the resistance of Africans to his efforts in teaching Christianity.

South Asia and Oceania

A notable example of scientific archives as a representation of colonized people is in the New Zealand National Library's Polynesian Society Collection. These include the records of a group of scholars concerned with the culture of "oceanic races," such as the Māori people. In particular though, they include the records of a British ethnographer in India, Samuel Peal, who wrote ethnographies on both the Māori of Polynesia and the Naga people of Northeastern India in the late nineteenth century, specifically studying their languages and religious traditions. Although his extensive studies showed a desire to document these indigenous groups and their culture, they also carried with them the racially-charged values of the imperial era. The ethnographies in his collection exemplify "imperial knowledge production," in the sense that it connected two different British colonies by comparing the Māori culture to that of the "non-Aryan" Naga, thereby justifying the subjugation of both groups in the imperial system.

Caribbean

Similarly, folklorist studies in the Caribbean during the early twentieth century created documentation of the songs, dances, and stories of those populations. A specific example is one study of Jamaican cultural practices which attempted to identify "Africanisms" in the culture of black Jamaicans. With this perspective, European and American anthropologists were expressing Caribbean culture in terms of its "cultural past," that is, focusing on how it was derived from the people's ethnic roots as opposed to being a "modernized" culture. Through these types of studies, indigenous and black populations in the Caribbean were viewed as being anachronistically traditional, implying that they were less developed than Western cultures.

Later studies of Caribbean colonies also contributed to the imperial idea that indigenous peoples could not effectively govern. The Moyne Report of the British West Indies in the 1930s criticized the familial trends of West Indian people because of their high birth rates and frequency of illegitimate births. In response to this observation, the writers of the report argued that the "dysfunctional" family organization of the West Indies people made it difficult for them to participate effectively in government and economic development.

Decolonization and Archive-Building

With the rise in nationalism and subsequent flurry of decolonization movements after World War II, former colonies were faced with not only the establishment of new governmental systems, but also the need to define their collective and cultural identities as independent states. Archives were one way to create a new identity. Postcolonial archivists tended to take two approaches to archival development directly following decolonization: emphasize promoting the economic and political progress of the nation, or look to pre-colonial traditions and practices in an attempt to recapture their identity. With either approach, however, archivists needed to adopt a strategy of "archives-building," in order to identify what was meaningful from the archives of the colonial legacy, represent the voices of those who were powerless under colonial rule, and to recreate a shared identity in the new era.

Protesters against colonial rule in Tanganyika (present-day Tanzania)

In the spirit of decolonization and nation-building, the new archival strategies initially had widespread support. Archivists were able to use the enthusiasm of independence as outreach, becoming involved in educational development, creating records policies in the new government, and generally having a presence in the public eye. Records and archives were viewed as crucial to the success of the newly created nation, as well as valuable cultural relics of their heritage.

Archive-building was one of the primary tasks of archivists immediately following decolonization. For these individuals, archives were an important way of asserting their new-found identity and establishing themselves as a nation. Archive-building is often viewed as creating a "counterarchive" to the colonial archive because of its establishment of a new "historical consciousness." It is a way to showcase the regions' contributions to the global community while also exhibiting their past from the indigenous perspective.

Challenges in Archive-Building

In spite of their initial success following decolonization, archivists in postcolonial nations eventually found challenges in archive-building. The state of archives left after the departure of colonial administration was one which depicted a highly one-sided view of the nations. As one African archivist put it, "Western civilization has overshadowed the African past," and "archival institutions in Africa are saturated with biased information or...do not necessarily reflect the real experiences of African people." Archives in places such as South Africa had the additional challenge of records that were intentionally destroyed to remove evidence of opposition groups or of crimes committed against the marginalized people. The problem of the existing representation of indigenous populations further skewed the basis of their archival heritage. When the voice of the indigenous were found in colonial archives, it was generally limited to the male, educated, and elite individuals, thus leaving out the diversity of the whole population. In other words, postcolonial archivists were expected to create a comprehensive history and identity for their nation with records that were either inaccurate, biased, or completely non-existent.

Ethical questions have arisen over who should have the authority to establish this new identity. Putting the power in the hands of the previously marginalized is the first step for postcolonial nations, but this ignores the fact that the colonized groups were not completely homogeneous in many nations. Cheryl McEwan voices this problem in pointing out the lack of representation of women's experiences under apartheid in South Africa. She argues that while archive-building is essential in understanding the "historical truth" of colonialism, it is also important to understand that every marginalized person should have a voice in the new history in order to "fully...realize their citizenship." A similar problem has arisen in South Asia, where the indigenous elites were often employees of the colonial government. This meant that the indigenous records in the archives of places like India represent only the highest social classes, a problem which is exacerbated by the caste identities and religious divisions in that society, resulting in the "uneven dialogic" of the colonial archive.

Migrated Records

A logistical and political challenge found in many postcolonial nations was that of "migrated records." These records are those which are pertaining to the former colony, but which were returned to the metropole after decolonization or during the course of colonial administration. In some cases, specifically in the British Colonial Office, these records are now in the custody of the former imperial power, while others still are in private manuscript collections or academic institutions. Archivists then must move staff and funding towards surveys of foreign archives, making copies of relevant records, and negotiating with foreign powers (some of which may not have entirely cordial relations with their former colonies).

In other cases, the custody of colonial records shifted with the changing territorial borders and imperial powers. In the case of Zimbabwe, the colony (then Rhodesia) went through a number of phases in its colonial and territorial structure, eventually becoming three separate independent countries (Zimbabwe, Malawi, and Zambia). Consequently, the colonial records of those nations were scattered between the three nations, which then was further complicated due to the fact that Zimbabwe became independent far later than Malawi and Zambia. The situation required an international agreement between the countries in order to make efforts to return the records to the nation which was most connected to them, and began efforts for copying those which all three countries would require in their archives. Complications such as these are not uncommon in a postcolonial environment, and cause questions of original order and respect des fonds to arise when it is unclear who has the authority to claim custody over records.

Another instance of migrated records pertains to private individuals documenting an area (and its people) and then depositing their records in a repository which is not geographically close to that area. An example is in Matthew Kurtz's documentation project of a community in Northwest Alaska. The community of Kotzebue had very little documentation of its native population's interaction with tourists to the area and the impact of tourism on their community, making a local history and archives project difficult. Kurtz therefore supplemented oral histories of locals with records from other institutions, namely, photographs and travel writings from the private fonds of people who visited the community as tourists. Although these records were a part of another fonds, copies were made for the archival documentation project and custody of the resulting collection was shared between the institution and the tribal government of the community.

Internal Issues

Many nations that gained independence in the second half of the twentieth century have experienced significant internal issues. Civil wars, military dictatorships, and economic struggles have overwhelmed many of these nations, making it difficult for them to focus on archive-building initiatives or on funding their national institutions. In times of difficulty for the nation, archives were seen as superfluous extravagances as compared to their needs for infrastructure, political stability, and education. Archivists in these nations therefore needed to be active in public outreach just to ensure their continued existence, and particularly emphasized their ability to facilitate the progress of the nation in difficult times through records management in such efforts as developing infrastructure in dam or highway construction projects.

New Types of Records

Traditional records are still found in postcolonial archives, created by government bodies, previous colonial administrators, and others, but the knowledge systems and cultures of places like Africa and the Caribbean emphasize non-textual records as well. For archive-builders in the postcolonial period, this has been a major focus. Oral recordings (including oral histories and other sound recordings), non-photographic pictorial records, and other forms of information have become established in the archives of these places.

Oral Tradition

African archivists specifically emphasize the oral tradition of their culture. This encompasses a multitude of records, including songs, stories, folklore, as well as oral histories. The tradition is especially significant even in the postcolonial era due to the low literacy rates of these nations. In the case of highly repressive colonial states such as South Africa, indigenous Africans were specifically prevented and discouraged from becoming literate or developing writing skills, whether in their own languages or in English. There is also a pride among Africans in documenting their society through a form of knowledge production which was not created by Europeans, as oral traditions were established in the pre-colonial period. If archivists only focus on textual records, therefore, many Africans would not have the ability to access their heritage in an institutional setting, and the documentary record would not be adequately reflective of their cultural identity.

Oral history projects have been instigated in many national archives of Africa following independence. Their goal is to represent those groups which were marginalized under the colonial regime, as a way to "give the voiceless a voice" in the archives. Archives would employ an "oral historian" whose job was to conduct oral histories to record and store in the archives. These were undertaken in the indigenous African languages usually, not in European languages, although translated transcripts were often created for greater access.

Outside of the national institutions, collections of oral records have emerged throughout Africa. The Sound Archive at the District Six Museum in South Africa is one such example. The museum exists as an initiative for an interpretive and interactive way for former residents of the District to connect with and share their memory of the forced removals from the community under apartheid. The sound archive has a wide range of records, including musical recordings, film footage, and oral histories of musicians. The sound archive's goal was to create a venue for musical documentation to be preserved, as well as a way to "empower communities" by breaking away from sound archives of anthropologists under colonialism.

Pictorial Records and Memory Cloths

An example of textile art from South Africa, a popular method of memory expression among some communities

Another example of deviating from traditional records in a postcolonial context is in the Amazwi Abesifazane memory cloths programme in South Africa. The memory cloths project's purpose was to aid in the healing process of the post-apartheid period, and to give women a way to express their experience through pictorial records. While this project specifically focuses on capturing the experiences of women in South Africa, its use of non-textual and non-oral records is reflective of South African traditions. The memory cloths are textile art made from beads and embroidery that reflect the South African traditions of using textiles for "cultural rites" as well as communicating feelings or identity. The cloths created in this project are going to be deposited into the South African National Archives, indicating the importance of non-textual records in African memory and the role they play in overcoming colonial-era violence.

Reconciliation and Biculturalism

See also Archives and Repatriation

The process of reconciliation between postcolonial states and their former colonial powers is one that is ongoing in the archives. Depending on the area, this process can consist of reclaiming custody of records (by former colonial powers returning them to independent nations), building a new documentary basis for the nation's experience, or creating a "bicultural" heritage that combines settler and indigenous communities and their shared histories.

Perhaps the most significant Reconciliation project is that of South Africa. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) gathered testimonies, oral or written accounts, of individuals who were victims of the violence of apartheid. Significantly, TRC also included perpetrators of that violence in order to have a more complete documentation of the regime. By building a history of the past using both sides, South Africa has worked to create a shared history among all citizens.

A reading room at the New Zealand National Library prominently featuring Māori art

Not all reconciliation initiatives focus on violence of the past, however. The National Library of New Zeland has pushed a strategy of "decolonizing the archive," including significant representation of the Māori people. Not only are records of the Māori in their native language collected by the National Library, but the architecture and physical space of the Library reflects Māori culture and art as well. Māori people are therefore highly included in the records themselves, and are given a more welcoming environment as users. In this way, the institutional side of New Zealand's heritage shows a concerted effort at reconciling the settler and indigenous groups to establish the bicultural nature of the postcolonial society.

International Collaborations

International collaborations have been significant in the development of archival projects in postcolonial nations. Support from international heritage programs comes in the form of financial assistance, preservation strategy, training, and technological assistance, all of which are much needed in postcolonial nations.

One example of such a collaboration is Mali's Timbuktu Manuscripts Project. This is locally run by the Ahmed Baba Institute, but has been supported in various ways by UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization), NEPAD (New Partnership for Africa’s Development) and NORAD (Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation). Support for this project has included the purchase of digital storage, digital preservation training, and technological contributions.

Another form of international support is grants. The Ford Foundation is a private non-profit organization which has contributed to a variety of projects in developing nations. One recipient is the Zimbabwe National Archives' Oral History Branch, which acquired a grant specifically for audio equipment for preservation of their oral history interviews.

Criticisms of international projects such as these build upon the distinction between Western and indigenous concepts of heritage. UNESCO, for instance, emphasizes textual and physical heritage, rather than oral and pictorial records that are valued in African cultures. In the Timbuktu Manuscript Project, only the preservation of textual records is carried out, which is seen by some as an "intellectual alienation from indigenous roots." Similarly, Western collaborators may simply not understand problems which are specific to developing nations, such as infrastructural limitations, and collaborative projects may be seen as a form of neocolonialism.

Professional Education

Transition from Colonial Education

Towards the end of the colonial period, the need to address records and archives in the territories became unavoidable. The volume of records in the colonial offices after the World Wars meant that European powers needed to address the state of records in the colonies. In the 1930s, universities, research organizations, and historians in both Europe and the United States established grant programs and publications highlighting the problems of colonial archives, and sometimes sent foreign historians or archivists to the colonies to establish and improve their records. More often however, the colonies' records began to fall under the control of the territories' libraries rather than under a consistent archival system. It was not until those states gained independence that the archival profession began to emerge. Directly following decolonization in the 1950s and 1960s, archival systems and professional training were frequently established with the assistance of foreign archivists or through funding from UNESCO. Once those systems were put into place, however, postcolonial nations were able to begin to develop their own national archival institutions and practices.

Caribbean

The library at UWI's Mona campus, home of one of the earliest university archives in the Caribbean

The development of the archival profession in the Caribbean has been led predominantly by the University of the West Indies (UWI). The first professional archivist in the Caribbean was in Jamaica in the 1950s, and subsequent surveys of Caribbean records helped to establish the need for archives and records management programs. The 1965 Caribbean Archives Conference involved representatives from both Caribbean nations and their former colonial governments (including the US, UK, and the Netherlands), and emphasized discussion on archival management and identifying and addressing the problems of the state of Caribbean records. Professional organizations such as CARBICA (the Caribbean branch of the International Council on Archives), the Caribbean Historical Associaion, and ACURIL (the Association of Caribbean University, Research and Institutional Libraries) were established soon after. In general, these early developments instigated the creation of more training and professionalization of archives in the Caribbean and the creation of archival legislation.

Professional educational programs took longer to emerge in the Caribbean. UWI only began offering records management education in 1991, which consisted only of a certification program rather than a Masters graduate degree, although degrees in "Heritage Studies" are currently offered. The University is presently making efforts to establish an Archival and Records Management graduate degree at its Mona campus, which would include courses on archival science as well as Caribbean-specific archival skills, such as "Preservation of materials in tropical environments."

Africa

Most of the information schools in Africa were founded by UNESCO after a 1953 seminar in Nigeria emphasized the need for "indigenous library education in Africa." Prior to the 1960s, African archivists had obtained their training in European or American information schools, which did not address African-specific archival issues. The first of these was the East African School of Librarianship, founded in 1963. Although it is a "School of Librarianship," it began offering courses in archival studies and records management in 1989. Another UNESCO archival education institution is the Regional Training Centre in Ghana (established in 1975), although critics argue that it has not had significant influence over the nation's archives due to lack of government support and trained instructors. Various other universities throughout Africa offer archival education in the form of undergraduate degrees, graduate degrees, and certification programs.

Kenya has perhaps the most developed archival education system in Africa. Kenya Polytechnic and Moi University both offer archival studies courses, and have both archivally trained staff and governmental support. Additionally, the consistency of training in the nation allowed for the University staff to be involved in government records management, creating a culture of appreciation for records in the nation.

India

Archival training in India differs from that of Africa and the Caribbean in that it is associated with the National Archives institution and was not established in coordination with Western powers. The School of Archival Studies was established in 1976 by the National Archives of India. The school offers the options of either a one-year professional degree in Archives and Records Management, or short-term certificate programs in the areas of archives management, records management, repography, conservation, and repair of records. The requirements for the professional degree program are relatively restrictive, requiring applicants to have a Masters degree in history or social sciences before being considered. The program does also benefit from being staffed by National Archives employees, thus assuring that instruction is based on the practical needs of Indian archives.

Technology and Digitization

Virtually every archival institution struggles with digitization and online access, and postcolonial archives are no exception. However, developing nations have further challenges in these ventures that wealthier nations do not face. In many postcolonial nations, infrastructure limitations threaten the development of digital archives initiatives. Limited electricity service in places like Saharan and Central Africa requires archivists to manage their electricity use carefully, which may result in dropping electricity to their internet services in order to use it towards more vital functions, thus making website hosting and online maintenance difficult. This problem is accentuated in those postcolonial nations with severe environmental concerns, where archivists' time and resources need to go towards the many preservation concerns as opposed to digitization efforts. Furthermore, although digitization of holdings is seen as a way to increase access to those records, the limited number of internet users in many postcolonial states poses a challenge for archivists wishing to push for those initiatives.

Many archivists in developing nations are hindered by outdated technology and manual systems as well. Financial difficulties in their nations following decolonization make funding for digital archives programs difficult to obtain, meaning that digital storage systems, automation software, and other technology needed for digitization is often lacking. There is also a general lack of training in digital systems in these nations, which hinders the use of technology systems when they are available.

Some postcolonial archivists have opposed archival digitization on an ethical and cultural basis. Munyaradzi Felix Murove, an African scholar, argues that the "computer archive is not a neutral machine," that is, that technology is biased towards the "computerised society's knowledge system." According to this argument, digitization promotes a Western knowledge system that emphasizes the individual and personal reasoning, which is in contrast to traditional African knowledge systems which promote "communal wisdom," "community, and common identity." Additionally, Murove cites the fact that the majority of Africans do not have computer access as a reason to oppose archival digitization. By moving archives to an online environment, he argues, Africans are losing access to their cultural memory and identity. In this school of thought, the goal of African archives should not be solely technological advancement, but to reconstruct African identity through a "synthesis of pre-colonial traditional society, colonial society as well as post-colonial society," specifically by focusing on the inclusion of oral archives rather than only textual records and understanding the importance of pre-colonial knowledge systems.

See Also

• Postcolonialism
• First Nations Archives
• Archives and Repatriation
• Archives and Repressive Regimes
• Archives and Power
• Archives in Southeast Asia