Fractures and Fragments: Finding Postcolonial Histories of Guinea in Local Archives

Abstract

AbstractUsing my experience working in the Regional Archives of Labé (Guinea), this essay examines the importance of using local archives to write political histories of postcolonial Africa. In doing so, I argue that the fractured and fragmentary nature of the postcolonial holdings of archives – often cited as a hurdle to writing histories of Africa after independence – is in fact the product of the states that (sometimes inadequately) maintain these repositories. As such, these “imperfect” archives should be approached as an opportunity to examine the local practice of statehood in postcolonial Africa.