It is just twenty years since SCOLMA's journals carried a two part survey (one in the last issue of Library materials on Africa, the second in the first issue of its successor, African research & documentation) of writings relating to African archives. Compiled by J.D. Pearson, the first part covered manuscripts and archives in African countries, while the second covered African related material located outside Africa. Pearson was encouraged to undertake his survey of the literature by the discussions at the Nairobi International Conference on African Bibliography of 1967, with its pioneering account of the archival literature prepared by Peter Duignan. As far as I am aware there has been no systematic attempt to cover this literature since, although there have been useful overviews such as David Easterbrook's survey in Africana journal in 1980.