A Journey into Archiving
Rhoda Boateng
(BCA Reference: BCA/6/11/6- an early exhibition at Black Cultural Archives)
My entry into the archives profession intertwines with my time at Black Cultural Archives (BCA). I started as a volunteer in the reading room with limited knowledge about the archives sector, but I instantly gravitated toward the materials held in the collections. I had recently finished undertaking a Fine Art (BA), and like many of my peers at the time, found art school to be a psychically draining experience. It was rare that Black social and historical realities were considered important enough to examine or discuss during my time on the course, even though we were encouraged to flesh out the contextual surroundings of the artworks, artists, and movements we were studying. In particular, Black life in Britain seemed to be completely invisibilised. Where waves of politicized Black art movements (most famously in the early 1980s) had transformed the possibilities for Black artists in the UK, within the art school, there was silence. Against this backdrop, archival work and its importance shone out to me as a world of evidence.
This evidential impulse is a key driver of the collecting approach at Black Cultural Archives. Our founders sought to redress the distortions surrounding the Black presence in the UK, creating a ‘monument’ to Black history in the tradition of African American revolutionary activist Queen Mother Moore’s ‘African People’s Historical Monument Foundation’ (still BCA’s official charity title). ‘Black Cultural Archives’ was originally the name of the collecting project to gather these materials to be housed within the ‘monument’. The collections (which are all acquired via donation) center the activities and contributions of African descended people through a lens of self-determination whilst also highlighting that they are inseparable from British history at large. My understanding of the liberatory potential of archives stems from entering the profession through BCA, whose mission is dedicated to preserving and celebrating the lives of African and African Caribbean people in Britain. Unfortunately, although there are incredible Black archives and initiatives across the country which also undertake this work, the UK archives sector at large is still a space of gaps and silences where Black life in Britain is concerned.
(BCA Reference- PHOTOS/83, early photo of Black Cultural Archives founders with activist Queen Mother Moore)
I am currently finishing my archival training. Whilst studying formally has been crucial for my understanding of what is a particularly theoretical profession, being a Black archivist, there is always a tension at play while I learn. When studying, I try to sit with what does not sit well with me. The training is crucial, but also, as American archivist and academic Michelle Caswell states: "feelings are epistemologically valuable" (too). I use my discomfort to orientate me toward a more multiple understanding of what archives can do, which my role as Collections Assistant at BCA informs. Understanding the roots of the formal profession and the hierarchies implicit in the standardised ways of working with archive materials means that as I learn best practice, I must supplement my studying. I do this by seeking out counter-knowledge, which can allow me to rethink and reimagine the role of the archivist and archival spaces. I find a lot of guidance within the materials themselves at BCA.
(BCA Reference: GUTZMORE/1/7/2)
The majority of our records (and some of the most frequently accessed) were generated in the latter half of the 20th century, which coincides with the fact our organisation was founded in the early 1980s, a particular pressure point for Black communities in the UK – a result of the compounding effects of systemic racism in housing, employment, and education, amidst the continued criminalisation of Black people by the police. Due to this, the material is rich in the counter-knowledge it provides on how to preserve Black life against the backdrop of white supremacy. This has a bearing on archival practice as the material quite literally tells us how we might re-order the world differently! I think attending to the archive also means thinking of preservation as extending past the physical material itself and encompassing the people, ideas and worlds through which the material was created. As I continue my training it is this wider notion of preservation that anchors me, and my hope for my practice is to lean more deeply into this work. I have been lucky enough to contribute to projects at BCA which I think encapsulate this approach. One example is our series on the 40th anniversary of the 1981 uprisings across the UK. It brought together researchers, writers, activists, and artists to think about the legacy of the events, with a particular focus on the response from the community in Brixton, in the form of the Brixton Defence Campaign (BDC). BDC was a support group formed after the (April) 1981 uprisings in Brixton to advocate against the criminalisation of Black communities and provide legal aid for those arrested. The group also worked in solidarity with other defensive campaigns formed across the country.
(Screenshot from Uprisings! 40 years on panel, available here: Uprisings! 40 years on: Media, Terminology & Representation
Another project which uses the material to create new possibilities is our current project Undaunted: The Melba Wilson Collection. This year we are cataloguing the papers of mental health activist and writer, Melba Wilson, as part of a Wellcome Trust-funded project which, seeks to utilise archives to disrupt dominant categorisations and narratives in health research. The collection spans over 40 years of Melba Wilson’s work in national and regional mental health programmes, policy units, and services, including grassroots and community activism alongside formal policy work and leadership.
As part of the project, we are collaborating with our creative residents, Decolonising The Archive (DTA), to present a public programme, delving further into the stories and legacies of Black mental health initiatives in the UK. We recently programmed a roundtable event looking at contemporary initiatives and research into Black mental health. The event bought together Melba Wilson, Dr Jacquie Dyer, Connie Bell, Kariima Ali, and Jonas for an inter-generational conversation about mental health provisions for Black communities in the UK, taking Melba Wilson's collection as a starting point. I was struck by how often Melba stated that she did not see herself as the owner of the material and that it did not feel like her collection - her role as the collector of the material was one of many. These simple statements of co-production allow new entry points into what archives can be outside the singular models of ownership that the profession was historically built upon. The material is living and lives through multiple people.
One aspect of the job I find really nourishing is participating in this wider social life of archives. There are worlds around the material: the multiple caretakers a collection will have before it reaches the archives, the communities and groups who produced the material, and the people who re-activate it through research. There are desires for the collections outside of what archival institutions and their workers can imagine/think is possible – this drives the profession forward.