Rebalancing the Historical Narrative or Perpetuating Bias? Digitizing the Archives of the Mineworkers’ Union of Zambia

Abstract

This article examines the project to digitize and preserve the archives of the Mineworkers’ Union of Zambia and has two aims. The first aim is to discuss the process of cataloguing and digitizing an archive that has undergone significant deterioration, and the theoretical and practical challenges to achieving this. The second aim is to relate making this archive more accessible to questions of knowledge production. Despite its limitations, the value of this archive is that it is primarily composed of documents produced by Africans about the world as they saw it. These are not the records of external powers, colonial officials, or those studying African peoples.

African Trade Unions: An Introduction

“…Digital archiving is increasingly being used in Africa to enhance the institutional memory of trade unions and to strengthen the sense of collective identity among members. For example, the International Institute of Social History (IISH) in Amsterdam is conducting a digitisation project involving organisations including the Confederation of Ethiopian Trade Unions (IISH, 2018) and the Mineworkers' Union of Zambia (Money, 2021). Gathering such information is important, since research for this Special Issue reveals that trade unions would welcome greater knowledge of where they can get information on labour issues and support for their work.…”