Stolen archives? Re-evaluating the British 'migrated' archives and decolonisation

2009年，五名肯尼亚人--Ndiku Mutwiwa Mutua、Paulo Nzili、Wambugu Wa Nyingi、Jane Muthoni Mara和Susan NGondi--对英国政府提起诉讼，指控他们在20世纪50年代受到英国军队的可怕虐待。在肯尼亚法律团队的压力下，英国当局在2011年承认持有大量文件，这些文件是从肯尼亚和其他前殖民地秘密移走的。英国政府所称的“移民”档案包括来自37个领地的约2万份文件。这些发现震惊了许多研究人员和档案保管员。2012年至2013年，伦敦国家档案馆的研究人员获得了大部分文件，很明显，从20世纪40年代到80年代，权力移交给新独立国家的过程中，经常伴随着大规模的文件整理、移走和销毁过程。鉴于对帝国历史及其对当代世界遗产的重新关注，人们对英国移民档案的兴趣现在比以往任何时候都要大。在娜塔莎·布朗2021年出版的关于英国黑人经历的小说《集会》、理查德·奥文登2020年出版的关于压制知识的通俗历史小说《焚烧书籍》以及在线提供的几部纪录片中，都提到了它们。然而，相对于它们在非殖民化史上的重要性，关于这些迁移的档案的学术研究相对较少。这个项目将对这些收藏在伦敦首次开放十年后进行重大重新评估。它将出版第一本书长的关于“移民”档案事务的研究。作为一部面向大众的学术著作，这本书将重新评估“移民”档案所展示的非殖民主义。书中认为，许多“移民”档案更好地被认为是“被盗”的，它将探讨英国当局为什么以及如何从20世纪40年代到80年代移除和销毁殖民文件。这本书将探讨英国白人官员是如何试图向殖民地人民隐瞒这一秘密的，即使那些即将成为独立国家新领导人的人也是如此。它还将分析英国当局在这些档案被转移到英国后是如何试图对其保密的，经常试图向来自前殖民国家的有色人种隐瞒它们，但有时也会允许英国白人研究人员进入。该项目将使有关“移民”档案的辩论多样化。这些文件被转移到英国，英国当局努力对有色人种保密，这使得全球南部的研究人员很难接触到“迁移”的文件。该项目将为尼日利亚的早期职业研究人员提供一项创新的指导计划，提供“移民”文件的数字图像，以支持他们自己的研究，并为有关这些档案的辩论带来重要的新视角。英国中学也很少教授“移民”档案的故事，尽管它对理解非殖民化及其对当代英国的遗产很重要。该项目将促进为学校共同创建有关“迁移”档案的新教学资源。A级学生将以实习生的身份参与该项目，他们将与诺森比亚大学的学生导师和学校教师合作，分析“移民”文件。该项目将共同创建教学资源，将在年轻人中产生关于非殖民化的新对话。总体而言，该项目提供了一个及时的、广泛的“迁移”档案的重新评估，这将激发公众对这些重要文件的辩论和学术研究。

In 2009, five Kenyans - Ndiku Mutwiwa Mutua, Paulo Nzili, Wambugu wa Nyingi, Jane Muthoni Mara, and Susan Ngondi - brought a case against the British government regarding horrific abuse they had suffered from British forces during the 1950s. Pressed by the Kenyans' legal team, British authorities in 2011 admitted holding a large collection of documents that had been covertly removed from Kenya, and other former colonies. What the British government called the 'migrated' archives included around 20,000 files from a total of 37 territories. The revelations shocked many researchers and archivists. When most of the documents were made available to researchers at the National Archives in London from 2012 to 2013, it became clear that transfers of power to newly independent countries from the 1940s to the 1980s were routinely accompanied by large-scale processes of sorting, removing, and destroying documents.Given the renewed focus on histories of empire and their legacies for the contemporary world, interest in the British 'migrated' archives is now greater than ever. They have been referenced in Natasha Brown's 2021 novel about black British experience 'Assembly', Richard Ovenden's 2020 popular history of the suppression of knowledge 'Burning the Books', and in several documentaries available online. Yet there has been relatively little academic research about the 'migrated' archives relative to their importance for histories of decolonisation.This project will offer a major reassessment of this collection ten years after it was first made accessible in London. It will produce the first book-length study of the 'migrated' archives affair. A scholarly work aimed at a popular audience, the book will re-evaluate what the 'migrated' archives show about decolonisation. Arguing that many of the 'migrated' files would be better thought of as 'stolen', it will explore why and how British authorities removed and destroyed colonial documents from the 1940s to the 1980s. The book will consider how white British officials sought to keep this secret from colonised people, even those who would soon become the new leaders of independent countries. It will also analyse how British authorities attempted to keep the archives secret after their removal to the UK, often trying to conceal them from people of colour from formerly colonised countries, but sometimes granting access to white British researchers.The project will diversify debates about the 'migrated' archives. The removal of these documents to Britain, and British authorities' efforts to keep them secret from people of colour, have made it difficult for researchers based in the Global South to access the 'migrated' files. This project will deliver an innovative programme of mentorship to early career researchers based in Nigeria, making available digital images of the 'migrated' files to support their own research, and bringing important new perspectives to bear on debates about these archives.The 'migrated' archives story is also rarely taught in British secondary schools, despite its importance in understanding decolonisation and its legacies for contemporary Britain. The project will facilitate the co-creation of new teaching resources for schools about the 'migrated' archives. A-level students will work as 'interns' on the project, collaborating with Northumbria University student mentors and school teachers to analyse 'migrated' documents. The project will co-create teaching resources that will generate new conversations among young people about decolonisation.Overall, this project offers a timely, wide-ranging reassessment of the 'migrated' archives that will stimulate both public debate and academic research about these important documents.