British Library endangered archives Dr Marie Rodet helped restore now available online

14 February 2022

Dr Marie Rodet, Reader in the History of Africa, collaborated with the British Library Endangered Archives Project in 2018-19 to help restore the archival collection of the Cercle (administrative district) of Kita, Mali, dating back to the very early times of French colonisation in the region (1880s). The digitisation took place in Kita over 4 months in 2019 where 12,367 folios on the micro and local Malian history in the twentieth century, and on slavery and post-slavery in Kita were digitised. The period ranges from 1904 to 1962.

Kita is one of the most ancient colonial districts in Mali (1880) as French colonisation started in Western Mali and Kita played a crucial military role in the conquest. It was also one of the very first colonial railroad stations. Thus the Cercle, the main administrative authority since colonisation, collected a tremendous amount of information about the social and economic life of the region over the twentieth century.

Dr Marie Rodet said:

"It's a great achievement and such a relief to have this collection finally fully online, especially as I learned that a similar collection that I had helped salvage 10 years earlier in the same region that we had been unfortunately unable to digitise at the time, had been burnt to the ground following political unrest in 2020.”

For more information on and to view the archives please visit the British Library website.