Abstract
As the European powers appeared to withdraw from their colonies, they often took with them records that were subsequently claimed by the governments of the newly independent countries. These records are post-colonial examples of displaced archives. In recent history, the problem of displaced archives has been approached as a legal problem, and this has produced relatively few resolutions to archival claims. This article approaches displaced archives from a new perspective, applying theories and concepts recently introduced into archival theory by Michelle Caswell, Anne Gilliland and Marika Cifor: affect, imagined records and impossible archival imaginaries, and radical empathy. This article will show that these concepts, which have been deployed to decolonise diverse aspects of archival work, could also help resolve a persistent international problem, which is both technical and geopolitical/diplomatic. This article will argue that archival theory, as recently influenced by Caswell, Gilliland and Cifor, demands a significantly changed approach to archival displacement, even as it sometimes arrives at established positions on repatriation and access. This change involves opening up dialogues about displaced archives to considerations beyond the juridical or geopolitical, to form richer understandings of archival displacement and its effects on individuals and communities. The article challenges individual archivists to apply the concepts of affect, imagined records and impossible archival imaginaries, and radical empathy in their work with colonial records as a component of decolonial archival praxis, and finally proposes a critical theorisation of displaced archives.
Highlights
Since the modern period, international disputes over the ownership of archives have been approached from a rights-based perspective, a perspective that Caswell and Cifor (2016) have suggested has characterised archival studies
What would a shift to a feminist ethics of care look like in cases of archival displacement? Taking the Migrated Archives case as an example, how would radical empathy change the relationship between the archivists at Kew and the records creators, subjects, users and communities?
With regard to the Migrated Archive, these concepts support the legal theory and traditional archival theory that demands the return of these records, but these concepts offer new tactics for reaching that goal
Summary
International disputes over the ownership of archives have been approached from a rights-based perspective, a perspective that Caswell and Cifor (2016) have suggested has characterised archival studies. In relation to the Migrated Archives—a high-profile case of displaced archives in Britain that I will describe below—many have argued that both orthodox archival theory and international law and (European) customary law calls for the return of these records to Britain’s former colonies. This article applies some of those ideas, which are, namely, affect, imagined records and impossible archival imaginaries, and radical empathy, to a case of archival displacement. These ideas are related insofar as they arise out of the milieu of the information studies programme at the University of California, Los Angeles, and are situated within a social justice paradigm I will argue that all of the people enmeshed in this set of relations that proceeds from colonialism share this responsibility, those people who currently have custody of the records
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