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Archival Documents on Upper Volta: Here, There, and Everywhere1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 May 2014

Raymond R. Gervais
Raymond R. Gervais*
Affiliation:
McGill University
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Extract

Fluctuations of colonial policies toward territorial integrity were not without effects, first on the people of these colonies and then on the organization of their own administration. A case in point is the tortuous history of colonial administration in Upper Volta (now Burkina Faso). Created in 1919 out of the oversized Haut-Sénégal-Niger—which extended from the Sénégal river to lake Chad—in order to rationalize the administration Upper Volta survived as an autonomous colony until January 1933, when it was officially dismembered. The northwestern part (i.e., Ouahigouya) was ceded to the French Sudan, the central and southwestern regions (Mosi and Bobo) to Côte d'Ivoire, and a small portion of the eastern portion (Fada N'Gourma) to Niger. After harsh negotiations the colony of Upper Volta was recreated in 1947. Researchers who have worked on this part of the French empire know that every adjustment brought to the administrative arrangement also caused personnel and documents to be displaced to the new centers—Abidjan, Niamey, or Bamako.

This institutional constraint on the organization of complete sets of archival documents for the study of the region's past has been strengthened by a well-known post-independence symptom: bureaucratic plethora. Indeed Burkina Faso is probably the only country in the world to possess more archivists than organized archives. The Direction des archives, with its dozen archivists in the 1980s, had not produced a single inventory of what could be found in the capital (Ouagadougou) or in the regions, although important work had been done by individual archivists appointed to specific Ministries or by expatriate researchers.

Type
Research Article
Information
History in Africa , Volume 20 , 1993 , pp. 379 - 384
Copyright
Copyright © African Studies Association 1993

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Footnotes

1.

The following notes stem from research related to a Doctorat d'Université dissertation at Université de Paris VII under the direction of Catherine Coquery-Vidrovitch entitled “Population et politiques agricoles coloniales dans le Mosi, 1919-1940,” 1990: Volume 3 covers the sources of economic and demographic history for the region. The research was funded by FCAC (now FCAR, Québec) and SSRC (Canada) doctorate fellowships. I thank both institutions sincerely for their assistance.

References

Notes

2. Nikiéma, J.Répertoire des archives concernant la Haute-Volta dans les fonds de l'AOF aux archives du Sénégal, 1890-1958 (Ouagadougou, 1973)Google Scholar; idem. Bibliographie des ouvrages concernant la Haute-Volta conservés aux archives du Sénégal (Ouagadougou, 1973); idem., Textes concernant la Haute-Volta relevés dans les J.O. A.O.F., C.I. et H.-V.: période 1904 à 1948 (Ouagadougou, n.d.)

3. During my two field trips, I tried as much as circumstances allowed to identify and organize the material I found in the administrations of Ouagadougou, Koudougou, Tenkodogo, and Kaya. At the DGRST, then the CNRST, I produced Inventaire des archives du Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique et Technologique (Ouagadougou, 1984).Google Scholar This inventory can be found both at the DGRST and the History Department of Burkina Faso University.

4. The presentation that follows can cover only the archival collections I visited—Paris, Dakar, Bamako, and Abidjan.

5. See Guide des sources de l'histoire de l'Afrique: Sources de l'histoire de l'Afrique du Sud du Sahara dans les archives et bibliothèques françaises: vol. 3: Archives (Zug, 1971).Google Scholar The archives were organized by Fonds: Fonds Schefer, affaires politiques, affaires économiques, travaux publics, etc. The set of inventories for each (with the exception of Schefer) were sub¬contracted to a rather large number of different persons, precluding the possibility of some form of unifying logic.

6. There are numerous books and repertories of the Dakar archives, but the most useful one is Ndiaye, A. G.Répertoire des archives: sous-série 2G, 1895-1940 (Dakar, 1978).Google ScholarMbaye, S.Sources de l'histoire démographique des pays du Sahel conservées dans les archives (1816-1960) (Dakar, 1987), 147–63Google Scholar, gives only documents in the Dakar archives.

7. Niakate, M.Archives nationales du Mali, répertoire 1855-1954 (Bamako, 1974).Google Scholar

8. Tchriffo, D.Les archives de Côte d'Ivoire comme sources d'histoire ivoirienne: les fonds de la série DD des origines à nos jours (Paris, 1976).Google Scholar A document confidentially circulated was prepared by Dennis D. Cordell with funding from the Institut national de la statistique et de la démographie (INSD), Direction de la recherche démographique. Documents sur la Haute-Volta disponibles aux archives nationales de la Côte d'Ivoire (Abidjan). (Ouagadougou, 1980).Google Scholar See also Mbaye, S.Sources de l'histoire démographique de la Haute-Volta (Abidjan, 1981).Google Scholar

9. Gervais, , “Population et politiques” 3: 345–63Google Scholar, gives such a presentation. Mbaye, , Sources/Sahel, 149Google Scholar, offers a similar approach for the Dakar archives only.