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An archive of identity: the Central African Archives and Southern Rhodesian history

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Abstract

Between 1943 and 1956, government archivists in Southern Rhodesia (Zimbabwe) collaborated with the publisher Chatto & Windus to produce a series of nine books. The collection was known as the ‘Oppenheimer Series’. The volumes were published by the Central African Archives and offered in print, for the first time, the primary sources—diaries, correspondence, notes and maps—that chronicled the first English-speaking Europeans to visit south-central Africa. This paper explores the role of this publication event in building a settled identity for Europeans in Southern Rhodesia. The publication of the Series coincided with efforts by the Rhodesian archivists to bring manuscripts from the UK to their collection in Salisbury (Harare). These activities reveal a strategy not only to publish the history of European exploration and settlement in central Africa but to reify it through the physical presence of these books and the archival institution itself.

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Notes

  1. This book is in the personal collection of the authors.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Science Studies Unit, University of Edinburgh, Chisholm House, High School Yards, Edinburgh, EH1 1LZ, UK

    Lawrence Dritsas

  2. Centre of African Studies, University of Edinburgh, Chrystal Macmillan Building, 15a George Square, Edinburgh, EH8 9LD, UK

    Joan Haig

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  1. Lawrence Dritsas
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Correspondence to Lawrence Dritsas.

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Dritsas, L., Haig, J. An archive of identity: the Central African Archives and Southern Rhodesian history. Arch Sci 14, 35–54 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10502-013-9204-y

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