An Update by Roger Cocking
Mercy College
During the five weeks that I spent in the National Archives in Accra in November and December 1997, it was obvious that there were plans to make improvements to the facilities that have over the years have fluctuated in quality. The search room had been expanded and there were stacks of concrete blocks indicating that construction was underway. Undoubtedly the most dramatic indication of change was the new Record Building that stands behind the main complex of buildings and enjoys the luxury of air-conditioning in its front offices.
However, from the researcher's perspective, the most important new development was the availability of accession lists for the CSO file series. This record, that up until very recently, was only available in bits and pieces and through special negotiation, contains over thirty sub-headings that cover an enormous variety of subjects that the Colonial Secretary's Office dealt with. I was particularly interested in a series that dealt with the disposition of capital crimes in the Colony and Ashanti from the 1930s to the 1950s. It was apparent that the colonial criminal justice system acted with a vengeance on the premise that "justice delayed is justice denied." In some murder cases, a scant two months elapsed between the committing of the crime to the judicial hanging that was all too often the depressing end of these affairs!
There is clearly enough material in this newly available record to provide grist for several excellent dissertations, and the promise is for even better access since Mr. Joseph Anim-Asante and his staff are hard at work completing a CSO Paper Listing project. I observed him at work, in the new Record Office building, computerizing this record. He told me then, at the beginning of December, 1997, that he had entered about a third of the hand-written list into the computer. Apparently the up-coming millennium change had slowed the project down, and Joseph had to seek help from a local computer expert to resolve this problem. I do not claim to understand this challenge to the computer world, but it seemed that he was making considerable progress and the Ghana Studies Council should be willing to contribute some more of its funds to complete a project that will be of great benefit to researchers who want to use this record.
With so much going on, I also interviewed Mr. C. K. Gadzekpo, the Director of the National Archives of Ghana, to get some sense of what were the plans for the future. He began by discussing the implications of the Public Records and Archives Administration Act that the Ghana government had passed in the previous August. This Act had made the National Archives responsible for current and semi-current government records. Most of these records had review dates from any where from ten to twenty years. At this point many would be destroyed, but those considered worth preserving would make their way into the Archives. He mentioned that this new system was designed primarily to help record keeping in the ministries, but in the long run would be of great benefit to the National Archives since it would insure the acquisition of recent government material that would be of interest to researchers. He mentioned also that he was temporarily taking care of the new Record Center until a director could be appointed for the position.
Mr. Gadzepko also mentioned that the National Archives was in the process of taking possession of equipment supplied by Danida, a Danish Government international development agency. It consisted of "conservation equipment, microfilm cameras, a leaf-casting machine for laminating records at a faster rate than was currently possible, plus a substantial amount of binder equipment like presses etc." Danida had also provided four months of training for two members of his staff at the Danish School of Conservation as well as three months of training for four members of his management staff. This has been been during through February of 1997, and had been the first time that they had ever seen snow!
Some of this equipment, microfilm readers, were going to end up in the search room, and hence the reason for its expansion and the construction that I had witnessed. In the new expanded search room, there was also going to be an area for map reading. Altogether, Danida had provided three million Danish crowns in assistance, and the rest of the money necessary for other improvements was going to come from the Ghana government which "hopefully" will make this allocation in the up-coming financial year. Completing the search room improvements will depend on this.
As far as long-term plans are concerned, Mr. Gadzekpo mentioned he wanted to improve the National Archives' library as well as produce a guide to all of the Archives' holdings. Already, there was an editorial section in place whose task this would be. While I was speaking to him, Mr. Joseph Mensah, the
Mr. Gadzekpo's office and mentioned some of the maintenance problems that his building, which is located in one of the buildings of the Regional Hospital, was having. Mr. Gadzekpo felt that the true long-term solution was for the National Archives to have their own buildings rather than sharing space, as was the case in Sekondi. I subsequently spent time in the Cape Coast Regional archives and made a quick visit to the Kumasi Regional archives, both of which are the property of the National Archives, and judging from their appearance Mr. Gadzekpo's point was well taken. The Cape Coast Archives looked to be in better shape than I have ever seen it, but it is still under-utilized, while the Kumasi Archives is being expanded.
In addition to speaking to Mr. Gadzekpo, I also spoke with Luigi Valsecchi of the Universita degli Studi di Urbino in Rome, who was doing research on the history of the Ahanta area. He mentioned that it was very likely that either the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs or the European Union was going to contribute funds towards a document conservation project that would include providing the necessary technical equipment as well as personnel training. A number of Italian institutions were interested in the project which would result in microfilming and placing on CD-ROMS archival. The project was still at the planning stage but he was confident that it would come off. It seemed to me that this project would very nicely fit in with the Danida project, and might also encourage the the provision of additional financial support from the Ghanaian government to the National Archives.