Why Archive Matters so Much; it frames who we are and what we know

That's King Charles in Ghana in 1977 and to the right, my father a staunch royalist throwing his party to celebrate UK-Ghana relations.

This and many other photos are part of a collection shared with me by Ghana govt officials when I did some work for them. They tell stories with the King at centre, but they also prompt alternative narratives, you may have unlikely heard of.

Two years ago working with friends I came up with the idea for a journal focusing on Black issues. It would be current and social affairs with corrected histories. With my friends we co-founded Representology – a national UK journal focusing on media diversity.

For the launch issue I wrote about the Importance of Archive and here I’d like to add to that. The importance of archive to Ghanaians is heritage. The Twi expression 'Sankofa' with the bird bent backwards touching its tail, means go back and fetch. It’s physical and allegorical.

The stories of the past frame behaviour and narratives we currently live in. King Leopold’s Ghosts: A story of Greed, Terror and Herorism in Colonial Africa by Adam Hochschild is but one of several examples.

As the Europeans began to explore Manikongo (Congo) in the 15th century one of its kings Nzinga Mbemba Affonso, described as a studiously wise man, who learned to speak Portuguese. He wrote to the Portuguese king protesting against slavery, and forwarded many ideas for collaboration.

Hochschild writes everything that would come to be known about Africa for the next centuries came through the eyes and pens of white Europeans. King Affonso was rare in providing a voice, but it’s more or less lost to history.

Primary source archive in the shape of Windrush, and the many unclaimed “Windrush” voyages to the UK recast narratives and histories, particularly when they come from sources that have been lost, or silenced and the authors involved in rediscoveries have an empathy and deep connection towards understanding. Such is the case with Peter Fryer who wrote Staying Power: Th History of Black people in Britain. He was a friend of my Uncle Kwame who the worked at the Library.

Last year we digitised archive that was lost for thirty years. Archive from a show called Black London that I used to co-produce and present with Sheryl Simms. ?Our endorsements at the time were plenty, from politicians, the press, and musicians like Mefime, perhaps at the time so huge and influential he was the Jay-z of Rap at the time.

The archives by themselves are revelatory for the public speakers at the time addressing pertinent issues in race, culture, entertainment and politics. For instance . It features Lord Ouseley, newly appointed to the CRE as the CEO ( small clip here), coverage of the Rodney King beating, which thirty years later we’d witness in another guise in George Floyd.

Or political protests from Nigerian Afrobeat superstar Fela Kuti and the seeds of BLM which would feature in the British Library's 500 years of News exhibition. I would write a chapter for their book: Breaking the News; 500 years of News.?

But the real message the archive?presentation sends too is the need to re-examine narratives with an emphasis on primary sources to correct history and conventions. How to search for archive, how to use it, and why it matters in re-calibrating single narratives. Its?capture and digitsation matters as we head into a world of web 3, AI where algorithms, based on dominant groups, will be drive cognition and stories.?

Speaking at an event hosted by Althea Brown at Doughty Street Chambers with David Lammy MP, I posted this framework of how to source stories from people who likely don't even know their stories are important.

My mother was in someways typical of her generation in not telling of her past and the tribulations coming to the UK. One day thought I caught her, and her story was riveting. There are stories in your house that perhaps remain untapped.

This archive find which featured in a?one day conference of academics and practitioners looking at the BBC’s 100 years?asked various questions, for instance why there is no national Black network in the UK, at a time when the BBC is looking to cut back on local radio which will impact Black broadcasters and their audiences.

If you’e organising an event and would like me to share this presentation with you please drop me a line at [email protected] / [email protected]

The latest edition of Representology can be found here