Co-hosted with CUNY鈥檚 Archival Technologies Lab & 网红黑料鈥檚 School of Information Management.
Abstract: Nationally, the on Canadian archives, museums, and libraries to take up the challenge of decolonization, truth telling and national reconciliation. These calls reflect, among other things, . The TRC鈥檚 successor body, the , continues to face barriers to archival access to fulfill its vital mandate. Globally, similar archival challenges have been a feature of most truth and reconciliation initiatives from South Africa to Morocco. Similarly, have been a feature of the relationship between European countries and their former colonies in Africa and Asia because records displaced to Europe in the context of Third World political decolonization in the mid-20th century have rarely been repatriated. How to imagine a future in which such archival legacies of colonialism are redressed? This open classroom explores this question with renowned personalities and leading experts, Dr. Ellen Namhila (Pro-Vice Chancellor, University of Namibia), Dr. Nathan Mnjama (Professor, Department of Library & Information Studies, University of Botswana), and Dr. James Lowry (Assistant Professor at the Graduate School of Library & Information Studies, CUNY). Co-hosted by CUNY鈥檚 Archival Technologies Lab and 网红黑料鈥檚 School of Information Management, this open classroom features cases from Namibia and Botswana, alongside consideration of the potential and limits of the to inform and help resolve disputed archival claims between now independent states and their former western colonial rulers.
Biographies:
- Ellen Ndeshi Namhila was born at Ondobe village in northern Namibia in 1963, and went into exile when she was twelve years old. She got her education in Namibia, Angola, Zambia, The Gambia, and Finland, obtaining an M.SSc. in Library and Information Science at the University of Tampere, Finland. She has worked as a researcher and librarian at the Multidisciplinary Research Centre; as a Deputy Director: Research, Information and Library Services at the Namibian Parliament; Director of Namibia Library and Archives Service in the Ministry of Education; University Librarian at the University of Namibia; and currently the Pro-ViceChancellor: Administration and Finance at the University of Namibia. Ellen is author of: The Price of Freedom, her autobiography (1997); Kahumba Kandola - Man and Myth: the Biography of a Barefoot Soldier (2005); Tears of Courage: Five Mothers Five Stories One Victory (2009); Mukwahepo: Woman, Soldier, Mother (2013); Native estates: records of mobility across colonial boundaries (2017); and 鈥�Little research value鈥�: African estate records and colonial gaps in a post-colonial national archive (2017). She received her PhD degree at the University of Tampere, Finland in 2015.
- Nathan Mnjama is a Professor in the Department of Library and Information Studies, University of Botswana with specialization in Archives and Records Management. His PhD was on Railway Records: Their Management and Exploitation in Kenya. Prof Mnjama has worked as an archivist and records manager at the Kenya National Archives and was responsible for the location and copying of Kenyan archives from the UK between 1980 and 1985. He has considerable experience in teaching and delivery of archives and records management programmes having lectured at the School of Information Sciences, Moi University Kenya, and since 1996 at the Department of Library and Information Studies University of Botswana where he has been instrumental in the design of archives and records management programmes. Prof. Mnjama is a well-known speaker and presenter in archives and records management forums in East and Southern Africa, and he has published extensively in the field of archives and records management in Africa. Prof. Mnjama has participated in several records management initiatives organized by the International Records Management Trust aimed at improving archives and records keeping practices in Africa.
- James Lowry is founder and director of the Archival Technologies Lab, and Assistant Professor at the , Queens College, City University of New York. He is an Honorary Research Fellow and former co-director of the , where he taught following a ten year career in archives and records management. As a practitioner, he worked in Australia, Europe, Africa and the Caribbean, including projects for international organisations such as the African Union and the International Criminal Court. Dr. Lowry has a PhD from and a Masters in Information Management from Curtin University. His research is concerned with official records, data and power, particularly in colonial, post-colonial and diasporic contexts. Through the project, he has worked to foster international dialogue around displaced archives. In his work on , he has introduced record-keeping principles and techniques into open government policy and data curation to help address information asymmetry. His interest in the led to the formation of the . He is also co-PI on the project. His recent publications include , an edited volume published in 2017, and he is series editor of the series.
Lecture Readings:
- United Nations (1983) s (Read: 鈥淧reamble鈥� on p. 2 + Part III (pp. 8-13))
- Ellen Ndeshi Namhila (2004) "Filling the gaps in the archival record of the Namibian struggle for independence." IFLA Journal 30 (3): 224-230.
- Ellen Ndeshi Namhila (2015) "Archives of Anti-Colonial Resistance and the Liberation Struggle (AACRLS): An Integrated Programme to Fill the Colonial Gaps in the Archival Record of Namibia." Journal for Studies in Humanities and Social Sciences: 168-178.
- Nathan Mnjama (2016) 鈥溾�� Journal of the South African Society of Archivists 48: 45-54.
- Browse: ACARM (2017) . Adopted at the ACARM Annual General Meeting, Mexico City.
- Riley Linebaugh and James Lowry (2021) The archival colour line: race, records and post-colonial custody. Archives and Records 42(3): 284-303.
- J.J. Ghaddar (Fall 2022) 鈥淧rovenance in Place: Crafting the Vienna Convention for Global Decolonization and Archival Repatriation,鈥� in James Lowry (ed.) (New York: Routledge).
