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AEGIS European Conference on African Studies
11 - 14 July 2007
African Studies Centre, Leiden, The Netherlands
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Colonial boundaries and the dispersal of African archives: Re-constructing the Archives of Mandume ya Ndemufayo
| Panel |
46. Shaping collections, producing alternative histories: The example of Namibia as a contested research entity
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| Paper ID | 767 |
| Author(s) |
Shiweda, Napandulwe
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| Paper |
No paper submitted
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| Abstract | The colonial border between northern Namibia and southern Angola terminally affected the Kwanyama kingdom, which was one of the most important Ovambo kingdoms in the region. At the time Mandume ya Ndemufayo was the king of the Ovakwanyama and spent most of his reign (1911 to 1917) fighting Portuguese and South African colonial forces. Traces of Mandume's memory are present in 'orature' such as songs, folklore, poems etc, and in this way he is remembered in Namibia and Angola. However, these intangible traces barely feature in the different archival sites where the story of Mandume is buried in archives, where the archival weight rests on paper documentation produced by colonial states.
Furthermore, my paper argues that African archives remain largely limited by colonial boundaries that seriously limit the access of many Africans to the documentary history of their communities. A current project based at the National Archives of Namibia, known as the Archives of Anti-Colonial Resistance and the Liberation Struggle (AACRLS) project seeks to bring together historical documents related to the history of Namibia that are not in the National Archives and also to make the material more accessible to the the Namibian public. The paper will specifically look at a collections trip that was undertaken to Angola and Portugal, to survey and collect historical documents relating to the history of the Kwanyama, Okavango, Humbe, Mbadja kingdoms and the Portuguese colonial forces. The paper will focus on archival materials relating to King Mandume ya Ndemufayo of the Ovakwanyama people. The paper will argue that this case study provides some initial insight into the different archival practices which have shaped for different archives that refer to Mandume.
This paper will question and analyze what factors drove the collection and organization of archival material on Mandume at the different archives in Namibia, Portugal and Angola respectively and the ways in which these reflect the different agendas of those creating each archive. The paper will argue that one way in which the colonial archival shaping of African subjects could be challenged is to construct a 'Mandume Archive' by collating copies of dispersed archival materials and complimenting documents that consign Mandume to the role of a subject in a variety of colonial concerns with oral histories that commemorate Mandume as a central figure in the history of an African kingdom. |
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