Researchers and scholars have written on the history of mining in Zambia using a variety of sources and archives. But much of the history written from local archives has relied heavily on the National Archives of Zambia. Yet, important archival holdings for researchers of the history of Zambia’s mining industry also exist in the Zambia Consolidated Copper Mines Archive, the United National Independence Party Archive, and in the Mineworkers’ Union of Zambia Headquarters. These repositories house rich collections of data invaluable for understanding Zambia’s mining industry. Covering the period from the 1890s to the present, these archives make possible new questions and interpretations of Zambia’s mining industry.

This report is on the J.H. Kwabena Nketia Archive at the University of Ghana, Legon, Accra. In the light of growing destruction of public archives in Ghana, mainly due to chieftaincy and land litigation but also because of the lack of a proper maintenance culture, this report will suggest that other, non-conventional archives, such as the J.H. Kwabena Nketia Archive should be explored by historians and researchers. This report highlights the contribution of J.H. Kwabena Nketia who sought to preserve information that is crucial at a time when the world seems to be abandoning most of the most important and significant aspects of Africa’s cultural and artistic history.