Migrated archives: the African perspectives

Abstract

There are a number of cases of records and archives that have left their countries of origin and are now held in other countries. For example, on the eve of independence, vast amounts of records in African countries were repatriated to Western metropolitan cities. Efforts by newly independent African governments to   locate and retrieve these records have not been very successful. This paper    discusses the efforts made by national archives   from the east and southern Africa region through their professional association ESARBICA to locate and retrieve records held in European countries. Through a mailed questionnaire to Directors of National Archives, the paper captures the current views of the Director’s on   the impact  that the migrated archives has had on their respective countries and possible  technological solutions that may be employed to solve the migrated archives issue.