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Ghana National Archives: A Supplementary Note

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 May 2014

Adam Jones
Adam Jones*
Affiliation:
J.W. Goethe-Universität, Frankfurt am Main
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Extract

Two synopses of the holdings of the National Archives of Ghana were published fifteen years ago, one by David Henige, the other by R. E. Dumett. Henige's article offers a more detailed breakdown of some series (notably ADM 1–21 and SCT 1–44), while Dumett provides a more descriptive account and gives more details on ADM 22–262. In the meantime several of the inventories on which Henige and Dumett based their reports have disappeared or disintegrated, and others are rapidly heading in the same direction. The need for a full printed catalog is urgent; unless work on this is begun soon, the whole archive will have to be re-inventoried. In February/March 1987 I was able to check a few of the references given by Henige and Dumett or in the surviving inventories, and perhaps my notes may be of some use to future researchers.

Type
Research Article
Information
History in Africa , Volume 15 , 1988 , pp. 385 - 388
Copyright
Copyright © African Studies Association 1988

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References

Notes

1. Henige, David, “The National Archives of Ghana: A Synopsis of Holdings,” IJAHS, 6(1973), 475–86Google Scholar; Dumett, R. E., “Survey of Research Materials in the National Archives of Ghana,” Mitteilungen der Easier Afrika-Bibliographien, 11(1974), 1–44Google Scholar, with a note by Paul Jenkins, 45–48.

2. I have described the sad state of the archives in an article in West Africa 1987. For other recent comments on the same subject see Austin, Gareth, “The Kumase Branch of the National Archives of Ghana: A Situation Report and Introduction for Prospective Users,” HA, 13(1986), 383–87Google Scholar; Gocking, Roger, “Accra and Cape Coast Archives: Report on a Visit in Mid-1984,” Ghana Studies Bulletin, 3(1985), 7–8.Google Scholar The Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences has been pressing the government for help for the archives, as has the Pro-Vice Chancellor of the University of Ghana, Professor George Benneh, but so far without success.

3. As stated in Dadzie, E. W. and Strickland, J. T., Directory of Archives, Libraries, and Schools of Libraries in Africa (Paris, 1965), 17.Google Scholar