Eternal memory or holy amnesia? Preservation of, and access to records and archives of African independent churches in South Africa

Abstract

Records and archives are important to any institution regardless of its size or whether it is a public or a private entity. However, many non-governmental organisations in South Africa such as churches, particularly African Independent Churches (AICs) think of records and archives management as a complex activity pursued by multinational corporations or government’s departments. The problem of lack of record-keeping and archives management in AICs can be partly attributed to various spiritual leadership succession battles that took place in these churches, for example Zion Christian Church (ZCC) in 1948, Nazareth Baptist Church (NBC) in 1976, St John Apostolic Church in 1970/1971, as well as a further split in 1997 resulting in a splinter of a splinter of a splinter and International Pentecostal Church (IPC) in 2000. These AICs did not keep records and had to suffer when required to present records as evidence in court. Furthermore, the memories of these churches can be lost forever due to lack of preservation of records resulting in “holy amnesia”. Utilising a qualitative research approach and various data collection tools such as interview, observation and questionnaire, this study sought to investigate the strategies and practices for preserving and accessing records in major AICs in South Africa with a view to stimulate the creation of archives repository for preserving the memories of AICs for eternity. Key findings of this study include AICs’ overreliance on oral communication and oral traditions, lack of awareness on the importance of archives management, and unavailability of archives repositories in the AICs to preserve records. The study suggests possible ways in which the AICs may preserve their records in such a way as to be useful to researchers in future and to protect the memories of the AICs for eternity. A further study in converting oral tradition in the AICs into written form is recommended.