THE UNITED REPUBLIC OF TANZANIA PRESIDENT’S OFFICE PUBLIC SERVICE MANAGEMENT RECORDS AND ARCHIVES MANAGEMENT DEPARTMENT The National Archives of Tanzania Fifty Years After Wright’s Report on the Government Records and Public Archives of Tanganyika (By Charles Magaya and James Lowry) September 2012 1 The National Archives of Tanzania Fifty Years After Wright’s Report on the Government Records and Public Archives of Tanganyika (By Charles Magaya and James Lowry) Charles George Magaya James Lowry Introduction On 2nd November, 1962, Miss Marcia Wright submitted her Report on the Government Records and Public Archives of Tanganyika with Recommendations for a National Archives, following her survey of the records and archives of the Tanganyika Government, which she undertook between July and October, 1962. Her survey was the first substantial step taken by the newly independent government towards the organisation of public records My Presentation wishes to compare Wright’s main findings and recommendations with the present situation of the Records and Archives Management Division, President’s Office – Public Service Management. AIM: To illustrate the development of the National Archives of Tanganyika/Tanzania in the last fifty years. Finally, we will look at the new challenges facing the National Archives in the digital environment. A Summary of the Colonial and Post-Colonial History of Record-Keeping in Tanganyika/Tanzania After Germany’s defeat in the First World War, German East Africa was divided between Belgium, which took control over the districts of Ruanda (now the Republic of Rwanda) and Burundi (now the Republic of Burundi), Portugal, which assimilated the Kionga Triangle into Portugese East Africa (it remains part of the Republic of Mozambique) and Britain, which took control of the territory called Tanganyika (now mainland Tanzania). In 1920, a British officer in Tanganyika discovered amongst the dilapidated records left behind by the German administrators secret instructions issued in 1916 by the last German Governor, that the most valuable government files should be buried at Tabora and other places, so as to prevent them to falling into enemy hands. The German government agreed to send out two representatives in 1921 to assist the British in finding and disinterring the records. The recovered records form the nucleus of the collection of German records now held by the National Archives of Tanzania. The collection was inscribed in the UNESCO Memory of the World register in 1997. 2 In 1951, the British Government appointed Mr. V.W. Hiller, who was Chief Archivist at the Central African Archives at Salisbury (now Harare), to report on the feasibility of establishing an archive service in Tanganyik Hiller recommended the establishment of an East African archives service to preserve the records of Kenya, Uganda, Tanganyika and Zanzibar, but the Government did not take action on these recommendations. Nothing further was done until independence in 1962, when UNESCO funded a study of the situation by Miss Marcia Wright. Wright’s report provides an overview of record-keeping under German and British rule, and the registry reforms of the 1950s, the findings of her survey and her recommendations for the establishment of a national archives. Her recommendations were largely accepted, and the National Archives was established in 1962. Mandate Wright looked to the Archives of Rhodesia and Nyasaland (the Central African Archives) as an example of a well-functioning archives service: a reputation it had gained largely as a result of the work and writings of Hiller. In particular, Wright believed that national archives of Tanganyika “similarly, should be charged with the preservation, custody, control and disposal of 1 “public archives”, taken to include the records and judicial records of the government…” . This is broadly the mandate given to the National Archives by the original Act and maintained in the Records and Archives Management Act, No 3 of 2002. Wright recommended four sections within the national archives; The Records Management section responsible for: providing professional assistance on the establishment and management of records in public offices. It establishing and ensuring compliance with standards for the management of public records; training of the government’s records staff; drawing up general retention and disposal schedules. The Archives Management Section responsible for: providing suitable conditions for the preservation and consultation of the archives; arranging and describing the archives and providing appropriate guides, indexes and other finding aids to facilitate access; and ensuring that reasonable facilities are available to public officers and the public for inspecting and obtaining copies. The technical Services section; to repair and binding equipment which conserves and restores archival materials that are deteriorating. Also makes copies available for consultation where the originals are at risk, and conducts microfilming and digitisation. The Records Centre Services; maintaining the integrity of all semi-current records that transferred from government offices to the National Archives. It ensures proper implementation of retention and disposal schedules relating to semi-current records. 1 Wright, M., Report on the Government Records and Public Archives of Tanganyika with Recommendations for a National Archives, Dar es Salaam, 2nd November, 1962, p. 15. 3 The Positioning of the National Archives Within Government Since its establishment, the National Archives has been placed under a number of different Ministries. The decision to transfer the National Archives from the Ministry of Education and Culture to the President’s Office - Public Service Management came when it was realised that there was a need to have one central organisation that could manage government records from creation to disposition. Before that, the National Archives was responsible for the management of non-current records, while the Records Management Section in the President’s Office was responsible for the management of current records. In September, 1999, the National Archives moved to the President’s Office, Public Service Management to increase the profile and authority of the National Archives to better enable it to influence record-keeping across government. The name was changed to the Records and Archives Management Division. Ministries Responsible for the Management of the National Archives since 1963: MINISTRY YEARS Ministry of National Culture and Youth 1963–1964 Second Vice President’s Office 1965–1971 Ministry of Education 1972–1973 Ministry of National Culture and Youth 1974–1979 Ministry of Information and Culture 1980–1983 Prime Minister’s Office 1984–1985 Ministry of Community Development, Culture, Youth and Sports 1986–1988 Ministry of Culture and Social Welfare 1989–1990 Ministry of Education and Culture 1990–1999 President’s Office – Public Service Management 1999 to date Perhaps the most significant development in record-keeping in Tanzania after the establishment of the National Archives in 1962 was the Records Management Improvement Programme that the United Kingdom’s Department for International Development funded from 1997 to 2001. The Programme delivered a number of reforms, including; i. Re-positioning the National Archives as a division of the President’s Office (Records and Archives Management Division, President’s Office –Public Sector Management), ii. Creating a records cadre across government, iii. Developing and introducing a new file classification system based on keyword indexing, iv. Introducing a full range of file control systems, including file titling rules, location indexes, file censuses, file movement procedures and access controls across a number of ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs), v. Developing records retention and disposal schedules, introducing physical improvements to registries, including removing closed files to records centres or destroying files with no ongoing value, according to the schedules, 4 vi. and developing a professional certification course in records management at the Tanzanian Public Service College. On 2nd November, 1962, Miss Marcia Wright submitted her Report on the Government Records and Public Archives of Tanganyika with Recommendations for a National Archives, following her survey of the records and archives of the Tanganyika Government, which she undertook between July and October, 1962. Her survey was the first substantial step taken by the newly independent government towards the organisation of public records. We intend to compare Wright’s main findings and recommendations (omitting the recommendations Wright made about particular classes and series of records and the specific arrangements she suggested for the procurement of equipment, etc.) with the present situation of the Records and Archives Management Division, President’s Office – Public Service Management (the national archives of Tanzania) to illustrate the development of the National Archives of Tanganyika/Tanzania in the last fifty years. Finally, we will look at the new challenges facing the National Archives in the digital environment. A Summary of the Colonial and Post-Colonial History of Record-Keeping in Tanganyika/Tanzania After Germany’s defeat in the First World War, German East Africa was divided between Belgium, which took control over the districts of Ruanda (now the Republic of Rwanda) and Burundi (now the Republic of Burundi), Portugal, which assimilated