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Rescuing, Interpreting, and, Eventually, Digitizing Regional Postcolonial Archives: Endangered Archives and Research in Pointe-Noire, Republic of Congo

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 March 2020

Alexander Keese  and
Brice I. Owabira
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Abstract:

This is a study of research and conservation activities into a newly rediscovered and opened regional archive in the Préfecture of Pointe-Noire in the Republic of Congo. The study illustrates the constraints attaching to complicated post-independence materials and the need for flexibility in approaching them. Begun as an initially well-defined project targeting a vanished colonial territorial archive, the work turned instead into the finding and reorganizing of an extremely valuable but dispersed post-independence archive. The article discusses the implications of such conditions for priorities in preservation measures and questions of digitization; it makes the case for a pragmatic approach.

Résumé:

Résumé:

Cette étude des activités de recherche et de conservation dans des archives régionales récemment redécouvertes et ouvertes, situées dans la préfecture de Pointe-Noire en République du Congo, illustre les contraintes et les besoins de flexibilité en ce qui concerne les matériaux post-indépendance complexes. Partant d’un projet initialement bien défini ciblant des archives territoriales coloniales disparues, les participants au projet ont passé plus de temps à trouver et à réorganiser des archives extrêmement précieuses mais dispersées après l’indépendance. L’article examine les implications de telles conditions pour les priorités à choisir pour les mesures de préservation et les questions de numérisation. Pour traiter de telles problématiques, cet article plaide pour une approche pragmatique.

Type
Archives and the Digital Turn
Information
History in Africa , Volume 47 , June 2020 , pp. 143 - 165
Copyright
© African Studies Association, 2020

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