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——就他们在20世纪50年代遭受英国军队的可怕虐待向英国政府提起诉讼。在肯尼亚法律团队的压力下，英国当局于2011年承认持有大量从肯尼亚和其他前殖民地秘密转移的文件。英国政府所谓的“迁移”档案包括来自37个地区的约2万份文件。这一发现震惊了许多研究人员和档案保管员。2012年至2013年，当伦敦国家档案馆（National Archives）的研究人员获得大部分文件时，人们发现，从20世纪40年代到80年代，权力向新独立的国家转移，通常伴随着大规模的文件分类、移除和销毁过程。鉴于对帝国历史及其对当代世界遗产的重新关注，对英国“移民”档案的兴趣现在比以往任何时候都大。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《焚烧书籍》以及几部在线纪录片都引用了这些故事。然而，相对于“移民”档案对非殖民化历史的重要性，学术界的研究相对较少。这个项目将在伦敦首次开放十年后对这些藏品进行重大的重新评估。它将产生第一本书长度的“迁移”档案事件的研究。这本书是一本针对大众读者的学术著作，它将重新评估“迁移”档案所显示的关于非殖民化的内容。这本书认为，许多“迁移”的文件更应该被认为是“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年代移走和销毁殖民文件。这本书将探讨英国白人官员如何试图对殖民地人民保守这个秘密，即使是那些即将成为独立国家新领导人的人。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保密的，他们经常试图对来自前殖民地国家的有色人种隐瞒这些档案，但有时会允许英国白人研究人员查阅。该项目将使关于“迁移”档案的争论多样化。这些被转移到英国的文件，以及英国当局对有色人种保密的努力，使得全球南方的研究人员很难接触到这些“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个创新的指导计划，提供“迁移”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。“移民”档案的故事也很少在英国中学教授，尽管它对理解非殖民化及其对当代英国的遗产很重要。该项目将促进学校共同创建有关“迁移”档案的新教学资源。A-level学生将作为“实习生”参与该项目，与诺森比亚大学的学生导师和学校老师合作，分析“迁移”文件。该项目将共同创造教学资源，在年轻人中引发关于非殖民化的新对话。总的来说，该项目提供了对“迁移”档案的及时、广泛的重新评估，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.