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The dead archive: governance and institutional memory in independent Mozambique

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 August 2021

Benedito Machava  and
Euclides Gonçalves
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Abstract

Translated from the Portuguese expression arquivo morto, the dead archive is a site where files that have lost their procedural validity are stored for a determined number of years before they are destroyed or are sent to permanent archives. In Mozambique, where awareness and institutional capacity for proper archival procedures are still being developed, a common feature of the dead archive is the way in which files are untidily piled up with old typewriters, furniture, spare parts and other material debris of bureaucratic work and administration. In these archives, more than forty years of institutional and public memory lie ignored in leaky, damp basements across the country and in serious danger of irreparable damage. Drawing from various stints of historical and anthropological field research conducted between 2009 and 2016 in Maputo, Niassa and Inhambane provinces, this article examines the dead archive in order to explore the relationship between institutional memory and governance during the long period of austerity in Mozambique. Based on our investigation of the multiple layers of the dead archive, we argue that the Mozambican post-socialist government has sought to control institutional memory as a way to keep the ruling party in power in the context of multiparty politics. While the public sector has experienced conditions of austerity since independence, we show how, during the socialist period (1975–90) of single-party rule, the state's relationship with institutional memory was more progressive, with transparent and communicative archival practices. In contrast, despite the combination of public sector reforms and progressive legislation regarding the right to information, the multiparty democratic period (1990 to the present) has seen an exacerbation of administrative secrecy leading to less transparent and communicative archival practices.

Résumé

Résumé

Traduction de l'expression portugaise arquivo morto, l'archive morte est un lieu dans lequel sont stockés pendant plusieurs années les dossiers qui ont perdu leur validité procédurale, avant de les détruire ou de les transférer dans des archives permanentes. Au Mozambique, où la sensibilisation et la capacité institutionnelle en matière de procédures d'archivage correctes sont encore en développement, une des caractéristiques courantes de l'archive morte est la manière dont elle est entassée pêle-mêle avec de vieilles machines à écrire, d'anciens meubles ou pièces de rechange, et autres rebuts matériels du travail de bureau et de l'administration. Partout dans le pays, ces archives renferment dans des sous-sols humides plus de quarante années de mémoire institutionnelle et publique, ignorées et exposées à un risque grave de dommage irréparable. S'appuyant sur divers travaux de recherche historique et anthropologique menés sur le terrain entre 2009 et 2016 dans les provinces de Maputo, Niassa et Inhambane, cet article examine l'archive morte afin d'explorer la relation entre mémoire institutionnelle et gouvernance au cours de la longue période d'austérité au Mozambique. Ayant examiné les multiples niveaux de l'archive morte, les auteurs soutiennent que le gouvernement postsocialiste mozambicain a cherché à contrôler la mémoire institutionnelle pour maintenir le parti au pouvoir dans le contexte de la politique multipartite. Alors que le secteur public traverse une période d'austérité depuis l'indépendance, les auteurs montrent comment, pendant la période socialiste (1975–1990) de régime à parti unique, la relation de l’État avec la mémoire institutionnelle était plus progressiste, avec des pratiques archivistiques transparentes et communicatives. A contrario, malgré les réformes du secteur public et la législation progressiste en matière du droit à l'information, la période démocratique multipartite (1990 à aujourd'hui) a vu une exacerbation du secret administratif qui s'est traduite par des pratiques archivistiques moins transparentes et communicatives.

Type
Intellectual and cultural work in times of austerity
Information
Africa , Volume 91 , Issue 4 , August 2021 , pp. 553 - 574
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press

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