Stages in the development of the National Archives

The role of any national archive is to preserve, inform, and educate. Whilst the documents in the South Sudan National Archives span almost one hundred years, the Archive itself was developed over the course of several decades.

1970s:

The idea for a Southern Sudanese archive originated with late Mading de Garang when he was Regional Minister of Information, Culture, Youth and Sports. The archives department was created in 1977 as part of the Ministry of Information, Culture, Youth and Sports.

1981-1983:

Approximately 5,000 provincial records and files were collected between 1981 and 1983 from Greater Upper Nile and Greater Equatoria regions and brought to Juba to add to the collection there. The basement archive storeroom in the Equatoria province headquarters was then transferred to the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Information, Culture, Youth and Sports. Since later that decade, no further records were added to that collection.

1983-2005:

During the twenty-two years of war, the archives were neglected and many records were lost or destroyed. No archives staff were trained in the preservation of records, so damaged documents were usually discarded, among them records that could have been instrumental in resolving South Sudan’s many border issues with Sudan. Records that were left in provincial offices were also destroyed. Once destroyed, the information contained in these files were lost forever.

2005 onwards:

The Ministry of Information, Culture, Youth and Sports inherited responsibility for the National Archives and, since 2000, has been implementing a programme aimed at preserving the documents and creating a functional national archive. This work has been ongoing in collaboration with a number of international stakeholders including USAID, the US Ambassador’s Cultural Fund, the British Institute in East Africa (BIEA), the Rift Valley Institute (RVI), the Norwegian Government, UNESCO and UNOPS.

The first steps of the project focused on emergency interventions to rescue the physical documents and transferring them from various locations around Juba to a central repository. Subsequently, work was done to organize the collection by sorting, cataloguing and boxing the records for preservation. In 2011, the collection was moved from a tent to a rented house in Munuki, Juba.

Republic of South Sudan
Ministry of Culture, Museums and National Heritage