COMMA 2012-1 – Government Recordkeeping in Sub-Saharan Africa
This issue of Comma focuses on government recordkeeping in sub-Saharan Africa. It is arranged into four sections that reflect four broad areas of current research, though these areas overlap in various ways throughout the issue. The articles in the first section are concerned, to a greater or lesser extent, with administrative history and the legacies of colonialism. In the second section, the authors concentrate on present-day national archives. The capacity of national archives to provide services to government is a significant component of the regulatory framework that must be in place if public sector records are to be managed well, especially in the hybrid paper/digital environment, and in the context of Open Government. The third section comprises articles about digital records. Digital technologies are changing the way that many African governments are working, but much more needs to be done to build the infrastructure and capacity that will be needed to manage digital records over time. The articles in the fourth section concern concepts that have become increasing important to our profession: professional solidarity, good governance, and accountability.