Archival Silences within the National Archival Documentary Heritage Institutions of Botswana

Abstract

The study is an interpretive qualitative multiple case study, which examined archival representation of social groups in five selected heritage institutions in Botswana. Purposive sampling was used to select study participants. Data collection for the study was through semistructured interviews, non-participatory observations and document analysis. The findings indicate that archival representation of social groups is still at infancy stage in Botswana, as a result of poor interpretation and implementation of the National Archives and Records Services of 1978, (amended in 2007); lack of updated policies that inform practice and limited resources to do archival processes. The contents of the archival collection revealed a male, ethnic based, linguistic oriented and ruling party inclined image with underrepresented groups consisting of people with disabilities, the poor and women. For under-documented groups, the LGBTQ+ community, people living along borderlines and refugees come out. The causes for silences in the archival collections is attributed to discriminatory sections of the constitution, lack of reflexivity on the part of the archival institutions, mistrust of mainstream heritage institutions by communities and failure to survive time by indigenous culture which is mainly oral to name but a few. Consequently, the study recommends an acquisition and management model based on stewardship and a national archival system, that can ensure the documentation of a socially representative archival heritage.