This brief note is intended to update Martin Klein's report on Guinée's Archives Nationales. I recently returned from a visit to the archives in Conakry and found that some things have changed since Klein's stay there. For one, the archives have been moved; in 1985 the entire contents of the old building were transferred to the grounds of the National Museum. When I was there for two weeks in June 1986, the vast bulk of the records had yet to be filed, but Mr. Seydouba Cisse, the director, and his staff made daily progress on the reorganization. The documents which I needed, all from the colonial period, were readily available. Those in need of filing seemed to be of more recent date.

The office overseeing historical research also has been changed. Rather than contacting the Institute National de Recherches et de Documentation de la Guinée, anyone interested in doing archival investigation in Conakry or, presumably, historical or ethnographic research anywhere else in the country, should now write (preferably in French): Mr. Ahmadou Oury Diallo, Directeur de Patrimoine à la Direction Générale de la Culture; B.P. 391; Conakry, R. Guinée. The letter should state one's institutional affiliation, as well as the nature and duration of the proposed research.

In response to my initial query, I was sent a two-page form requesting information on educational background, publications record, research purpose, and itinerary. After submitting the completed form, I received tentative clearance to pursue research in Guinée. I say “tentative” because the letter of welcome was accompanied by a document titled “Conditions de Collaboration en Matiére de Recherches.”

In 1985 an oral history project was established in Swaziland, based in the National Archives at Lobamba. The Oral History Project set itself three tasks; the establishment of an oral archive on Swazi history; the publication of a selection of transcripts form the oral archive concerning the precolonial history of Swaziland; the popularization of precolonial history.

The precolonial history of Swaziland is the history of a largely non–literate people. The colonial period is well–documented, but mostly from the perspective of the colonial administration. Oral traditions are thus a primary source for both the precolonial and the later history of Swaziland. The Project is concerned to preserve oral testimonies about all periods of Swazi history, including the immediate past. Special attention however, has been paid to the collection and preservation of the oral record pertaining to the precolonial history of Swaziland, a period for which documentary sources are largely absent.

There are several reasons for this. Firstly, the relative stability of the Swazi kingdom and its high degree of centralization imparted to early Swazi traditions a unique chronological depth. Secondly, the varied circumstances of incorporation of its many component chiefdoms have endowed Swaziland with an exceptionally rich corpus of local and regional traditons. This diversity facilitates the development of a picture of precolonial life that moves beyond the elitist versions of history which have long dominated both Swazi history and precolonial history elsewhere in southern Africa. Not only are the surviving Swazi oral traditions about the precolonial past unusually rich, but Swaziland occupied a pivotal political position in nineteenth–century southeast Africa. Its traditions illuminate the processes and forces that shaped the history of the entire region

Beginning in the latter part of the sixteenth century British naval and shipping interests gradually emerged as one of the major maritime forces operating in African waters and, by the end of the eighteenth century, British shipping dominated the export slave trade. The establishment of colonial plantation economies in the Americas, the global expansion of British political and commercial interests resulting from the Napoleonic Wars, and the anti-slave trade suppression campaign in the first three-quarters of the nineteenth century all brought British seafarers into intimate association with African peoples. This relationship became more intense with the scramble for colonial territories throughout the continent in the late nineteenth century.

As a direct consequence of this extensive political and economic relationship a voluminous amount of documentary material exists. One of the principal depositories of this material is the National Maritime Museum (NMM) of Great Britain located in Greenwich, southeast of Central London. This essay reviews some of the documentary holdings found in the Library of the NMM, resources that scholars might find useful in reconstructing British maritime activities in relation to peoples of African descent. Located within the Museum its holdings include printed books and other printed materials, maps and atlases, rare and original manuscripts, ship's plans and drawings, collections on shipwrecks, piracy, and boats, together with various photographic and art collections. While the Library is free and open to the public, it is helpful to contact the Secretary of the NMM with a letter of introduction prior to a first visit.

Information on the existence and resources of African libraries and archives is scanty at best, and the scene changes quickly. No one has attempted to assemble a list for researchers of such institutions and resources in Burundi since 1974, when Daniel Nyambariza provided a list of documentation and research centers and other adresses intéressantes as a preface to his bibliography. No doubt once a very useful list, much of Nyambariza's information is now obsolete. The present report, based on my experiences conducting urban, social history research in Bujumbura in 1984/85, is intended to provide specific information on gaining access to and the availability of documentary sources in Burundi. Private and public libraries and archival locations are included.

I have tried to describe Burundi's archival situation from my own experiences as well as from printed information, not all of which I was able to verify. Although there probably exists some small area of duplication between the colonial records held in Brussels at the Archives Africaines and those to be found in Burundi, most of Burundi's archives--particularly low-level, local governmental records--can be assumed to be unique. Although most printed sources are usually more readily available in European or American libraries, I have assumed that a descriptive list of libraries would be an aid to other researchers and have tried to indicate rare and/or locally–generated publications and documents. At the close I have also assembled a list of other potential research locations which I did not visit personally owing to time constraints and the scope of my research.