MPHO NGOEPE | Bring back displaced memory of Africa removed at independence

As we celebrate Africa month, we should pause, reflect, and look back in order to move forward. In the 1960s, when the “wind of change” swept through the African continent and many African states gained independence, the British Empire and other colonial masters such as Portugal, Belgium, Spain, Italy, and France left with almost all colonial office records, resulting in what is now known as “displaced archives”.

In the case of the British Empire, these records were displaced due to the instruction issued by the colonial office relating to the “disposal of classified records and accountable records” that the colonial administration was not to transfer certain types of records to the successor governments if such records might embarrass Her Majesty’s government, compromise security agencies, or be used by ministers in the successor governments.

As a result, the migration of sensitive records by the colonial powers was a standard practice alongside large-scale record destruction. Any material perceived as unfavourable was burnt, shredded, or otherwise permanently disposed of.

Displacement of these archives has a serious implication to the cultural memory, social justice, and governance of the continent. For example, Mozambique’s records detailing how the sewage system of that country was laid out were taken by Portugal when the country gained independence. Mozambique is prone to flooding, and the country now has no records to use in detecting where flooding could impact the sewage system.

Here at home, since the dawn of democracy in 1994, the country has been undergoing a land redistribution process. Without a complete picture of those who were forcibly removed from the land as a result of colonialism and apartheid policies, the land question remains a contentious and divisive issue that benefits certain groups or individuals with economic clout.

This implies that without the repatriation of these records, social justice and/or the country’s efforts towards nation building may fall short. In this regard, the full repatriation of records may enhance and enrich the country’s land debate. On the other hand, SA has been both a colony and coloniser from the time of the Dutch East Indian Company (1652–1795) up until the end of the apartheid era in 1989, when South West Africa (Namibia) gained independence from SA.

As a colonial society and as part of a group of societies colonised by the UK, SA has extensive archival resources relating to the histories of Namibia, Lesotho, Botswana, Zimbabwe, and Swaziland. It should be noted that as part of the 10 years of democracy in SA, the government repatriated colonial administration records of former South West Africa back to Namibia.

This success story can be used as a model for repatriation of archives, although it was a painstaking exercise for the records to be repatriated. As pundits indicate, hurdles were encountered from archivists, ministers and high commissioners until the envisaged repatriation was effectively finalised.

These include the records of the administration of the Caprivi Strip from the time when this was done directly by Pretoria, as well as the records of the magistrate and the town clerk of Walvis Bay. The SA government kept surrogates in the form of microfilms.

Furthermore, in 2018 SA returned Rhodesian state papers dating back to 1927 that Ian Douglas Smith brought here following the collapse of his regime. The same cannot be said about colonial powers such as Britain. Despite the availability of international principles such as Article 10 of the Vienna Convention on the Succession of States in Respect of State Property, Archives and Debts (1983), archival displacement is one of the unresolved injustices of colonialism.

As we yearn for the return of these exiled archives, perhaps we should pause and ask ourselves several questions. Should some form of impunity or protection from incrimination be offered to colonisers – for example, through a truth and reconciliation commission, as motivation for returning records?

For countries like SA, displaced archives are necessary for healing. Or perhaps the time is now for African countries to forget about displaced archives and focus on transformation in line with Africa’s Agenda 2063 so that archives can reflect the history of Africans as told by Africans, thereby resulting in (re)Africanisation.

• Prof Ngoepe is the director for the school of arts at the University of South Africa