Reflections on African archives: their role in meeting societal needs in the 21st century

Abstract

Global recognition of the role played by records and archives towards major global initiatives such as Open Government Partnership is slowly beginning to emerge. This is illustrated by the inclusion of a whole session on governance and information integrity at the November 2013 OGP Summit in London. Judging by the presentations at this session, it was evident that records and archives remain among the key factors driving the openness, good governance, transparency and accountability agenda world-wide. It’s in this context that this paper evaluates the contributions made by African archives towards meeting society’s needs and expectations in the 21^st century and further interrogates the changing role of African archival establishments during this period. The paper concludes by affirming the view that African archives have unique contributions to make towards the needs of society and hold the key to ensuring that official information generated by both governments and private businesses is protected and preserved in a trustworthy and usable manner.