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oai:repository.unam.edu.na:11070/15412023-10-05T07:48:41Zcom_11070_973col_11070_976

Namhila, Ellen N. 2015-09-29T12:53:59Z 2015-09-29T12:53:59Z 2015 1455-1616 http://hdl.handle.net/11070/1541 Academic dissertation, University of Tampere. This dissertation explores the practical challenges experienced in user services of the post-colonial National Archives of Namibia (NAN) and the systemic trajectory of their origin. It is motivated by the observation of anecdotal evidence that many requests by Black Namibians for civic records such as divorce orders, adoption records, and estate records from the period of colonial and apartheid rule in Namibia cannot be served by the NAN despite intensive time -consuming searches, while similar requests by White Namibians can be served without problems within minutes. Further rationale originated in the observation that, while there is a substantial body of literature about the problems of archives in decolonized countries, this literature is primarily concerned with issues of current records management, maintenance, preservation, staff training, and occasionally the problem of migrated or entangled archives, while it rarely addresses the issue why and how the colonial situation affected the content and accessibility of the archives concerning the colonized persons. This study employs a historical case study design, taking an in-depth exploration of the colonizers’ records at the National Archives of the decolonized Namibia, using deceased estate records of Black Namibians (or “Native estates” in contemporary parlance) as a case study. It explores the colonial legal framework for the creation and management of the estate records, the actual Native estate files in custody of the NAN, as well as the finding aids, archives databases and the own administrative files of the NAN. It explores the relationship between the historical legal environment, the creation, management, disposal, listing, appraisal, destruction, archiving, indexing and metadata enhancement of the Native estates records over the colonial period, between1884 to 1990, and their alleged absence from the NAN. The study discovered a large but erratic corpus of 11,256 Native estate case files which had been assumed destroyed or lost, but also established substantial gaps in the holdings of Native estate records. Only few of those gaps could be explained by documented destructions, but the study traces the causes for the loss of substantial records to racially discriminatory legislation, a confusing and haphazard legislative and regulatory framework for Native estates, and an all -pervasive apart heid ideology that also affected the appraisal and the creation of discovery tools at the Archives. The dissertation concludes with a programme to “decolonize the archives”, recommending to unlock the full potential of the previously hidden “Native” records, not only by recording and indexing them in discovery tools but also by enhancing search options to alleviate the search problems caused by unstandardized name spellings and non -Western naming and kinship systems.It is anticipated that this study will raise awareness about similar gaps, stir debate and lead to further research about archival deficiencies with other types of person-related records, in Namibia as well as in other decolonised nations, in order to establish how far their national archival records are responsive to the needs of all citizens. en http://tampub.uta.fi/handle/10024/97932 Recordkeeping Native estate Namibia Colonial gaps Records Management Records Management, Namibia Namibia, History, 1884-1915 Namibia, History, 1915-1946 Namibia, History, 1946-1990 Recordkeeping and missing "Native Estate" records in Namibia: An investigation of colonial gaps in a post-colonial National Archive Thesismetadata.only