Book contents
- Curating the Colonial Past
- African Studies Series
- Curating the Colonial Past
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Acknowledgments
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- Part I Struggle to Conceal
- Part II Struggle to Reveal
- 5 International Archival (B)Orders
- 6 “The Memory of a Nation”
- 7 Decolonization and the Struggle for Kenya’s “Migrated Archives”
- Conclusion
- Appendix
- Bibliography
- Index
- African Studies Series
7 - Decolonization and the Struggle for Kenya’s “Migrated Archives”
from Part II - Struggle to Reveal
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 September 2025
Book contents
- Curating the Colonial Past
- African Studies Series
- Curating the Colonial Past
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Acknowledgments
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- Part I Struggle to Conceal
- Part II Struggle to Reveal
- 5 International Archival (B)Orders
- 6 “The Memory of a Nation”
- 7 Decolonization and the Struggle for Kenya’s “Migrated Archives”
- Conclusion
- Appendix
- Bibliography
- Index
- African Studies Series
Summary
Chapter 7 frames Kenyan attempts of archival retrieval as a matter of decolonization at the international, bilateral, and national levels. Importantly, it also draws attention to how the concealment of the “migrated archives” affected political activity not only within Kenya but also in England, as a country undergoing its own re-nationalization process at the end of empire. The process of recovering records from the UK provided the Kenyan Government a framework in which to invoke a sovereign and unified Kenyan polity as the rightful home for the “migrated archives,” while dissent over Kenyatta’s centralized authority grew within the country. Meanwhile, British engagement with the “migrated archives” throughout the 1970s and 1980s resulted in the consolidation of postcolonial archival secrecy with other European partners as evident in the voting blocs formed in the 1983 Vienna Convention on the Succession of States in Respect of State Property, Archives and Debts.
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- Curating the Colonial PastThe ‘Migrated Archives' and the Struggle for Kenya's History, pp. 236 - 276Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2025
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