Malawi National Archives: 
A wealth of information

Misanet.com / The Nation (Malawi) - The Malawian newspaper The Nation in a background chronicle presents the country's National Archives. The history of the archives dates back to the early days of the British Protectorate. "Underscore from its humble beginning at independence, the National Archives of Malawi has grown to become one of the well-organised archival institutions in this part of Africa," the author writes.

Brief History
The early development of archival services in the then British Central African Protectorate was largely due to the efforts of some British ministers. For instance, in March 1914, Lord Harcourt, the Secretary of State for the Colonies, asked his colonial governors to "furnish me (him) with a brief report as to the existing arrangements for the custody and preservation of the older official records of the government which you (they) administer."

In 1929, L. S. Amery demanded to be apprized not only the condition of the state of organisation of the records themselves. His successor as Colonial Secretary, W. O. Ormsby Gore, revisited the situation and followed it up with a colonial dispatch in which he emphasised that:

"The preservation of its records in a satisfactory state must be regarded as one of the first duties of a colonial government, a duty which derives greater urgency from ... delay in the institution of suitable protective measures may and does lead to the inevitable loss of documents of value.

Because of such bold measures, a National Archives was established in Salisbury, Southern Rhodesia. Through a series of laws, this new institution was later to collect and preserve the records of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland.

In the year 1947, depots were opened in Livingstone, Northern Rhodesia and in Zomba, Nyasaland. Eleven years later, a consolidating legislation was carefully drawn up. Consequently in 1959, the legislation was passed as the Federal National Archives Act.

This act provided for the preservation, custody, control and disposal of the public records and judicial records of the federation and its territories. The federal government thus acquired, together with various other assets, the records of the territorial records centres created in Nyasaland and the two Rhodesias. The records upon reaching the age of 30 years and after being judged to be of enduring historical value - were declared public archives right in the National Archives Headquarters in Salisbury.

Early in the 1960s, Nyasaland seceded from the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland. In 1963, she became a self-governing state. On the dissolution of the federation, the Federal National Archives Act became obsolete. It was thus amended by the Archives Enactment Regulation.

It then became very prudent and even more necessary for each of the three countries to set up its own national archival institution. With such a reality in the minds of government officials, an Archives Working Party was established. Its main duty was to make recommendations on how the archival resources, then in Salisbury, could be proportionally shared. This Archives Working Party later on became the Committee on Federal Records.

The committee consisted of a chairman, a secretary and a representative from each of the three territories. For a period amounting to a decade, that is, 1964-74, the committee physically examined the federal records. Thereafter schedules for their disposal were drawn-up. The result here was that at intervals, the records became repatriated to the country from which they had been imported.

However, a sizeable body of records which were of purely federal nature presented some problems. Since they were indivisible it was decided to keep them permanently in Salisbury. Researchers of all the territories were guaranteed unimpeded access to these controversial archives.

In general terms, what had earlier on been the Zomba depot of the Federal National Archives graduated into what became known as the National Archives of Malawi. This took place on January 1, 1964, just six months before Nyasaland became an independent state. To this day, the National Archives of Malawi as a department enforces two acts of Parliament, namely: the National Archives and the Printed Publications Acts. It operates through five professional divisions, namely, records centres, public archives, historical manu-scripts, conservation and the library.

Holdings
Underscore from its humble beginning at independence, the National Archives of Malawi has grown to become one of the well-organised archival institutions in this part of Africa with numerous problems which deserve a special attention not in this article but a later one.

In 1964, through the 60s, its holdings consisted of about 4,500 cubic feet of government records. By 1984, this figure had grown to not less than 39,000 cubic feet. As at now, the holdings of government files are in excess of not less than 60,000 cubic feet. The number of files that can be consulted in the search room is in excess of 25,000. In 1984, it was 14,000. The figure of 25,000 could have been exceeded had there been more room available than is the situation at the moment. The historical manuscript section has 174 accessions from various sources.

The library has also experienced unprecedented growth. In 1964, there were 120 books. At present the figure is in excess of 50,000. This includes Central Africana Collection. The library also has 1,495 titles of periodicals.

Divisions and their activities
There are three Records Management centres, one in each of the country's regions. Their main responsibility is to promote government records managements services. They act as immediate storage areas for all the records falling noncurrent in the government department. The employees in these centres also conduct records management surveys for government records. They also offer file-issue service to those ministries and departments which have deposited their records.

Needless to say that these centres ensure that ministries and departments transfer their noncurrent records to the records management centres for safekeeping. Once the records have been retired to these centres, a decision is made on what to destroy and what to keep.

Such a decision is based on the standing instructions for the deposition of records drawn jointly by prominent officials of ministries/departments and the senior staff of the National Archives of Malawi. The instructions indicate how long the file is going to be kept after its closure. Nonetheless, some records are eliminated as soon as their value to the government ceases, while others are recommended to be kept permanently for posterity's sake.

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