Risk and labour in the archives

Archival futures from Uganda

Bibliographic Data

ID2103683
AuthorsEdgar C Taylor (0000-0002-4031-9986, corresponding author)
Year2021
Volume91
Issue4
Pages532-552
Publication date2021-08-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueAfrica (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0001-9720 • E-ISSN: 1750-0184
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0001972021000498
OpenAlexW3198567711
LanguageEN
Citations received4
References cited51

The history of archival management in Uganda reveals the foundational relationship between austerity and colonial archival institutions. This article discusses how impoverishment and self-interested editing were central to the bureaucratization of colonial archives at their founding. Extreme austerity in the wake of structural adjustment in the 1980s accelerated archival decay while adding new uncertainties to archivists' work. Postcolonial archivists' strategies of risk management and repair work have helped to preserve archives from potentially nefarious editing by partisan officials and publics. However, neglect and decay have also constrained the circulation of archives in public life and have reinforced colonial institutional violence. These conditions of postcolonial institutions require continuous hazardous labour from individuals embedded in the margins of state bureaucracy. This article emphasizes the backstage of archival labour and the risks that archivists navigate in preserving - and managing the public life of - relics of contentious pasts

Austerity · Bureaucracy · Business · Colonialism · Futures contract · Political economy · Political science · Sociology · State (computer science · Work (physics · Archaeological Research and Protection · Digital and Traditional Archives Management · History · Law · Public Administration

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