"Little Research Value" African Estate Records and Colonial Gaps in a Post-Colonial National Archive / Ellen Ndeshi Namhila.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Namhila, Ellen Ndeshi, author.

Series:

Basel Namibia studies series ; 17.

Basel Namibia studies series ; 17

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

National Archives (Namibia).

Estates (Law)--Namibia.

Estates (Law).

Probate records--Namibia.

Probate records.

Namibia--Race relations.

Namibia.

Namibia--Statistics, Vital.

Genre:

Electronic books.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (279 pages) : illustrations.

Manufacture:

Baltimore, Md. : Project MUSE, 2018

Place of Publication:

Baltimore, Maryland : Project Muse, 2018

Summary:

Ellen Ndeshi Namhila is intrigued by the question: Why can the National Archives of Namibia respond to genealogical enquiries of Whites in a matter of minutes with finding estate records of deceased persons, while similar requests from Blacks cannot be served? Not satisfied with the sweeping statement that this is the result of colonialism and apartheid, she follows the track of so-called "Native estates" through legislation, record creation and disposal, records management and administrative neglect, authorised and unauthorised destruction, transfer and appraisal, selective processing, and (almost) final amnesia. Eventually she discovers over 11,000 forgotten surviving African estate records -- but also evidence for the destruction of many others. And she demonstrates the potential of these records to interpret the lives of those who otherwise appear in history only as statistics -- records which were condemned to destruction by colonial archivists stating they had "little research value and no functional value". This study of memory against forgetting is a call to post-colonial archives to re-visit their holdings and the systemic colonial bias that continues to haunt them. This is the revised version of Ellen Namhila's 2015 doctoral thesis published at the University of Tampere, Finland.

Contents:

Silencing the African past in a colonial state archive: the history of the administrative death of "dead natives". Introduction / by Dag Henrichsen

1. Introduction

2 literature review

3. Methodology

4. Legal framework for administration of deceased native estates

5. Administrative structures and processes

6. The management of native estate records in the nan

7. Discussion and conclusions.

Notes:

Includes index.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 184-214) and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9783905758931

3905758938

OCLC:

1019666379