LIBS 2703 Archival Concepts & Practices

The Relationship between History, Archives &

Memory with Special Reference to the
Caribbean; The Power of Archives in Post-
Colonial Societies
Memory and History
• In a You Tube video from the Tate Art Gallery in England, ‘Animating
the Archives” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QNN2LFe_iD8
someone says that
• “ARCHIVES ARE WHERE MEMORIES ARE STORED AND HISTORY IS
MADE”

However the question to ask is whose Memory and whose History? It is

the interrelation of history and memory that this lecture is about
The official archives of Jamaica
• These records are at the Jamaica Archives in Spanish Town. This is the
largest repository of official government records (both central and
local governments) in the Commonwealth Caribbean. These records
constitute unique and irreplaceable evidence of Jamaica’s history as
they reflect the cultural, social and political development of the
nation. The Collection includes papers and other materials from
private persons and non-governmental bodies and institutions. An
important category of non –government records is the collection of
records from a number of religious denominations in the country.
Records at the Jamaica Archives
 These are the archives of Central Government Ministries and
Departments and include records from the Colonial Secretary’s Office
(Minutes of the Legislative Council, Dispatches to and from the
Secretary of State etc.; the Island Record Office (Slave Registration
Returns, Land Patents, Inventories (Properties of deceased) Crop
Accounts, Civil Status Records etc), Topological maps of Jamaica and
Courts Records
Categories of Records
• Local Government Records – These are records of the parish councils
and their predecessors – the Parochial Boards and the Vestries. The
records include Minutes of meetings, tax rolls and jury lists for varying
periods.
• Statutory Bodies Records (Formerly Semi-public) - These are records
produced or received from quasi-government bodies or agencies with
statutory authority.
• Question for you all

• Who created these records and why were they

created??
Value of Archives
• You will recall that in the first class we said that “in general, archives consist of records that have been
selected for permanent or long-term preservation on grounds of their enduring cultural, historical, or
evidentiary value”
• We quoted from Sue McKemmish some of the reasons why archives are kept and among them were

• As evidence of continuing rights and obligations;

• As instruments of power, legitimacy and accountability, facilitating social
interaction and cohesion;
• As a source for our understanding and identification of ourselves, our
organizations and our society;
• As vehicles for communicating political, social, and cultural values”
•
• McKemmish “Introducing Archives and Archival Programs” in Keeping Archives, edited by Judith Ellis, 2nd ed, Melbourne, Thorpe in association with
The Australian Society of Archivists Inc, 1993, p 2
•
Records in a Colonial Society
• However when dealing with a colonial society – and
the countries of the Caribbean were colonies of
European powers for centuries – the question to be
asked are evidence of whose ‘rights and obligations’
and whose power and legitimacy? Similarly whose
“political, social and cultural values” are
communicated?
•
• The answers are simple as the rights, obligations and values are those
of the colonizer power whether British, Dutch, Spanish or French.
Records are part of the apparatus of control in a colonial society,
especially as what happened in the region when the colonizers were a
minority of the population.
• Bastain says that Thomas Richards in The Imperial Archives argues
“that the deliberate and comprehensive gathering and storing of data
about their vast and far-flung Empire was key to the success of British
imperialism. And he sees the power of information (the archive) as
both a shaping and a controlling force in 19th-century imperialism”.

• Bastain Jeannette,” Reading Colonial Records Through an Archival Lens: The Provenance of Place, Space and Creation”, in Archival Science 2006, Vol 6: p 268

• http://search.proquest.com.rproxy.uwimona.edu.jm/docview/214900741/69CC37CC3F984F78PQ/2?accountid=42530

•
Power of Records
• Although Victoria Borg O’Flaherty was referring to St Kitts when she
said that “Since power and the ability to create archives rested with
the island’s elite, the records naturally reflect the events they felt were
important”, these words could apply to the other colonies in the
region Borg- O’Fkagerty, “Overcoming Anonymity” Kittitians and their
archives”, in Community Archives: The Shaping of Memory, edited by
Jeannette A. Bastian and Ben Alexander. London: Facet, 2009,Series
2009. Principles and Practices in Records Management and
Archives,ed. Geoffrey Yeo
•
The Power of Archives
• Terry Cook in What is Past is Prologue said that the French historian Jacques
Le Goff referred to the ‘politics of archival memory’ for says
Cook “since ancient times, those in power decided who was
allowed to speak and who was forced into silence, both in
public life and in archival records. Indeed, archives had their
institutional origins in the ancient world as agents for
legitimizing such power and for marginalizing those without
power”.
• Cook, Terry, What Is Past Is Prologue in n Archivaria, vol 43 (Spring 97) p
1http://journals.sfu.ca/archivar/index.php/archivaria/issue/view/402/showTocfile Republished
•
Whispers in the Archives: finding the voices of
the colonized in the records of the colonizer
by Jeanette Allis Bastian
Whispers in the Archives by Bastian
• “Do the records created by the bureaucratic institutions of
colonialism have any value to the colonized? How do the
descendants of the enslaved, the descendants of that transported
mass of silenced humanity, find the voices of their past, not the past
as documented by the former planters, merchants and colonial
officials, but the past as experienced by their ancestors who created
no official records themselves, but enter the record obliquely, as
transactions perhaps as property”
• Page 28
Bastian cont.
• “How can the voices of those who were silenced by recovered?

• How can communities that were the victims of records, use these
records to build reliable and constucts of their past? p 28
The Role of Historians
• It is up to the historians to interrogate these records to find what
Bastian describes as the ”words or actions of the colonized, the
‘whispers’ within the records, either through transcription of
proceedings or testimony or through observation by the record
creator …and while …..this is of necessity mediated by a third party, it
can yield valuable clues to the nature and character of a people and a
society”.
•
 Historical Markers on
the Mona Campus

There are two (2) monuments on

the Mona Campus in memory of the
hundreds of enslaved persons who
worked on the Mona and Papine
estates. (go & visit them)
The monuments are inscribed with
the names of the enslaved persons
who lived there when Slavery ended
in 1834.
These names came from research in
the Archives and is the work of an
historian intent on interrogating the
records to find out about the
enslaved population.
Archival Records
• As we can see Archives in the Commonwealth Caribbean do not
necessarily reflect the totality of social, economic and political
narratives that inform the popular or national discourse. There is
some disconnect between popular memory and the evidences of the
histories espoused by those in authority
Oral History
. As Ellen Rojo said, “archives are a selective memory”. In selecting
records for preservation, archivists are making decisions on the
materials which will constitute the raw data which historians will later
use to construct their history of the past. This is where Oral History
comes in, and as
Bastain says “Oral traditions add yet another strata to our efforts to
hear the authentic voices of a captive and writerless people….for folk
tales and stories of events handed down through the tradition augment
historical evidence.”
• Bastain, Whispers In the Archives, p 35
Archives and Memory

• Since archives are institutions that require funding, authorization, and

legitimacy, it is no wonder that they traditionally have reflected the
dominant culture and privileged the voices and stories of the
powerful.13 13 Jimerson, Archives Power, pp.212, 216.
• It is crucial, then, that archives—especially those within spaces that
were impacted by colonialism, racism, and socio-cultural
marginalisation—look outside the official repository, and even
beyond the confines of fixed record formats to acknowledge and fill
the obvious voids in the hegemonic social memory.
 Memory
• Historical narratives are based on memory. Memory is a key
component for the development of a community’s social, cultural and
political self.
• As an individual, family or community evolves it is the stories of their
past that shapes their perspective on contemporary issues and future
reactions. Thus, identities are expressions of the experiences of the
past, which are memorialised in the present, and will serve to inform
future constructions
• A community’s dependence on memory, and their efforts to glorify
their collective knowledge, is a means of social resistance
Concept of Community Archives
• “Collections that encapsulates a particular community’s
understanding of its history and identity. This will often be personal
photographs, documents, ephemera and oral history, “unofficial
records that might not normally be preserved, let alone widely
available. The [characterization of the] community itself might be
geographically based or relate to a cultural or thematic community of
interest”
• David Mander “Special. Local and About Us: The development of Community
Archives in Britain in Community Archives: the shaping of memory, London,
2009. p 32
Community Archives
• Community histories or community archives are the grassroots
activities of documenting, recording and exploring community
heritage in which community participation, control and ownership is
essential... Collections [including] material objects, paper and digital
records, audio-visual materials and personal testimonies, all created
or collected and held within the community.

• Andrew Flinn, ‘Community Histories, Community Archives: Some

Opportunities & Challenges’, Journal of the Society of Archivists, Vol.28 No. 2,
2007, p.153.
You tube video on a Community Archives
• At this point, a short You Tube video on the Austin History Centre
Community Archives which collects materials from several minority
groups in Austin, Texas
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m_77DevuAV0

• The establishment of community archives is one way of looking

outside of official records for information on a community
Community Archives & the Caribbean
• Community archives within the Caribbean will be a useful means of
acknowledging communities that have been marginalized by
colonialism, cultural elitism, socio-religious discrimination and racism,
among other things. Other non-traditional forms of records, which
are of significance to their communities, will be validated. Bastian
offers a new outlook for archives in the Caribbean. Her reading of the
carnival as an archival record places greater emphasis on the
appreciation of the context and suggests possibilities for Caribbean
records
Records of the people
• “Events such as performances, parades, celebrations, and
commemorations, while generally recognised as expressions of
cultural values may require a considerable stretch of archival
boundaries in order to be thought of as archival evidence or even as
records themselves... Each of these societal events generally do not
occur in isolation, but rather form components of a complex matrix, a
web of multilayered interconnected formats—visual, oral and
textual—that together comprise a self-contained archive of cultural
expression”.
J. Bastian, ‘Play Mas’: Carnival in the Archives and the Archives in Carnival:
Records and Community Identity in the US Virgin Islands’, A. S. Vol. 9, 2009,
pp.114-115.
South Africa Truth & Reconciliation Commission
www.justice.gov.za/trc/index.htm
l

• The last part of the class was devoted to the above Commission which
depended heavily on the existence of records to fully understand
what happened under Apartheid.
• This emphasis on the availability (and often the non availability) of
records demonstrates the power and value of archival records and
what can happen when the records are deliberately destroyed.

(all quotations are from the Report)

The Commission

The South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) was set up by the Government
of National Unity to help deal with what happened under apartheid. The conflict during this period
resulted in violence and human rights abuses from all sides. No section of society
escaped these abuses.
The TRC was based on the Promotion of National Unity and Reconciliation Act, No 34 of 1995
(pdf)

"... a commission is a necessary exercise to enable South Africans to come to terms with their
past on a morally accepted basis and to advance the cause of reconciliation."
Mr Dullah Omar, former Minister of Justice
The Commission
• TRC Final Report - Summary and Guide to Contents
• TRC Final Report - Volume 1 (1.4 MB)
• TRC Final Report - Volume 2 (1.7 MB)
• TRC Final Report - Volume 3 (2.2 MB)
• TRC Final Report - Volume 4 (832 KB)
• TRC Final Report - Volume 5 (1.1 MB)
The Evils of Apartheid
• The story of apartheid is, amongst other things, the story of the
systematic elimination of thousands of voices that should have been
part of the nation’s memory. The elimination of memory took place
through censorship, confiscation of materials, bannings,
incarceration, assassination and a range of related actions. Any
attempt to reconstruct the past must involve the recovery of this
memory – much of it contained in countless documentary records
Vol 1 Chapter 8 section 1 introduction
Destruction of Records in South Africa
The tragedy is that the former government deliberately and
systematically destroyed a huge body of state records and
documentation in an attempt to remove incriminating evidence
and thereby sanitise the history of oppressive rule. As this
chapter will demonstrate, the urge to destroy gained momentum
in the 1980s and widened into a co-ordinated endeavour,
sanctioned by the Cabinet and designed to deny the new
democratic government access to the secrets of the former state.
Destruction of Records in South Africa
• The destruction of state documentation probably did more to
undermine the investigative workof the Commission than any other
single factor. Vol 1 Ch 8 p 204

• In some cases, documents were traced to the inventories of other

departments of government although, even where individual files
were located, either in hard copy or in electronic form, there were
often large gaps. At times, the files contained no more than a single
• document. Sometimes they were completely empty. p 202
Destruction of Records in South Africa
The Commission’s probe into record keeping by the security
establishment (recounted later in this chapter) revealed an almost
claustrophobic culture of secrecy whose transformation requires
concerted action. But the most effective tool, ultimately, was the
selective destruction of memory, and it is in this context that the
destruction of state records must be considered.
• Vol 1 Chapter 8 p 208
Destruction of Records in South Africa
It is, of course, true that the state destroyed many other non-public records in the
course of its raids and bombings of the structures and premises of liberation
movements both inside and outside the country. This, however, is a story that
remains to be told elsewhere. Also of significance was the impact of apartheid
on the record-keeping practices of anti-apartheid organisations, many of which
were reluctant to commit certain kinds of information to paper. Many also
destroyed records rather than allow them to fall into the hands of state oper
atives.
• Vol 1 chapter 8 section 17
Destruction of Records in South Africa
• In this period, huge volumes of state records were destroyed with the
authorisation of either the Archives Commission (until 1979) or SAS
(under the signature of the Director of Archives). While there is
evidence that SAS attempted to secure a degree of professional
autonomy, it is highly improbable that apartheid imperatives did not
mould selection decisions. Indeed, numerous instances of this can be
cited: for instance, in 1968 Military Intelligence was given
authorisation (SV-35) to destroy classified records on a 'read and
destroy' basis;
 THE PURGING OF OFFICIAL MEMORY : A CHRONOLOGY

• From at least the 1970s: Government offices, particularly within the security establishment,
routinely destroy 'sensitive' records.
• 1978: The Prime Minister authorises government-wide guidelines for the routine destruction of
classified records. These are updated, with the StatePresident's approval, in 1984.
• 1988: Records of the South West Africa Territory Force are appraised and large volumes
destroyed.
• 1991: NIS begins a systematic destruction programme which continues until late in 1994. The
guidelines are channelled to the State Security Council as a basis for government-wide guidelines.
• November 1991: NIS attempts to collect all NSMS records, apparently to implement selective
destruction.
• 1992: The Security Branch of the SAP begins a systematic destruction programme, which
continues into 1993.
• 3 July 1992: Minister of Justice and National Intelligence authorises the destruction of NIS
financial and related records outside parameters laid down by Treasury requirements.
One of the Conclusions of the Report
The work of the Commission has suffered as a result of this
wholesale destruction. Numerous investigations of gross violations
of human rights were severely hampered by the absence of
documentation.
Ultimately all South Africans have suffered the consequences, in
that the process of reconciliation and healing through a disclosure
of the past has been deliberately curtailed.

• Summary Ch 6 section 1