Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-l7hp2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-25T02:31:22.095Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Taking Aim at Archival Practice: An Analysis of Structural and Institutional Processes that Affect Preservation, Availability and Access to Literary Archives in Malawi

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 April 2022

Clement Mweso
Clement Mweso*
Affiliation:
Principal Archivist, National Records and Archives Services of Malawi E-mail: [email protected]
Get access

Extract

In 2013, I traveled to the Khama III Memorial This paper examines archival practice in Malawi and demonstrates that the country has experienced a number of challenges pertaining to preservation and accessibility of literary archives. The country has a considerable collection of literary archives, for instance the huge volume of literary archives held by the family of the late Steve Chimombo that remains unexplored and uncatalogued at his home in Zomba. The Chimombo collection consists of the author's manuscripts and drafts of work both published and unpublished; diaries/ journals; copies of incoming and outgoing correspondence; historical material that documents the author's life such as photographs and family memorabilia; objects of significance like the special writer's desk. This collection is placed in boxes and cartons, filing cabinets, bookshelves, and drawers in his study room at his family home.

Type
Research Article
Information
African Research and Documentation , Volume 134: Papers from SCOLMA Conference 2018: Things come together? Literary archives from, in and for Africa, University of Birmingham, 10 September, 2018 , 2018 , pp. 30 - 39
Copyright
Copyright © African Research & Documentation 2018

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Booth, Douglas (2006) ‘Sites of truth or metaphors of power? Refiguring the archives’ Sport in history, 26 (1), pp. 91-109.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cook, Terry (2010) ‘Landscapes of the past: archivists, historians and the fight for memory’. Public lecture, The Ministry of Culture for Spain and the National Historical Archives, Madrid, Spain, 23 June 2010. http://www.culturaydeporte.gob.es/dam/jcr:cl5b65cd-851c-4a81-9528-6ef87984e417/conferencia-terry-cook.pdf.Google Scholar
Freshwater, Helen (2003) “The allure of the archive’ Poetics today, 24 (4), pp.729-758.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harris, Verne (2002) ‘The archival sliver: power, memory and the archives in South Africa’, Archival science, 2, pp.63-86.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lihoma, Paul. (2009) The impact of ISO 15489 on records management in Malawi. Unpublished MSc Thesis, submitted to University of Glasgow.Google Scholar
Likaku, Rodney & Woods, Joanna. (2017). ‘Writing the possible and the future: style in Malawian speculative fiction’, Journal of humanities, 25(2) pp.1-25.Google Scholar
Mphande, L. (1996) ‘Dr. Hastings Kamuzu Banda and the Malawi Writers Group: The (un)making of a cultural tradition’, Research in African literatures, 27 (1), pp. 80-101.Google Scholar
Mwiyeriwa, Steve S. (1978) Vernacular literature of Malawi 1854 -1975; an annotated bibliography. Zomba: National Archives of Malawi.Google Scholar
National Archives of Malawi (NAM). Minutes and agenda.Google Scholar
National Archives of Malawi (NAM 8-16-1 AR/40582) Access to Public Records. Nyondo, Pious. (2011). ‘Writing in Malawi: past and the future’. Paper presented at the US Embassy Auditorium in Lilongwe for Malawian budding writers in December, 2011 http://piusnyondo.blogspot.com/2012/05/writing-in-malawi-past-and-future.html.Google Scholar
Phiri, Kingston Lapaukeni (1999). Malawi writing today: a PEN anthology of recent writing in Malawi. Blantyre: Malawi PEN.Google Scholar
Schwartz, Joan M. & Cook, Terry. (2002). ‘Archives, records and power: the making of modern memory’, Archival science, 2, pp.1-19.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sturges, Paul. (1998). ‘The political economy of information: Malawi under Kamuzu Banda, 1964-1994’, International information and library review, 30, pp. 185-201.CrossRefGoogle Scholar