The National Audiovisual Institute's African collections, between epistemological anxiety and historiographical potential

Abstract

What has become of the audiovisual recordings captured by France in Africa during the colonization and the decolonization periods ? And to whom do they belong to ? Based on these questions and on a visit to the French National Audiovisual Institute (INA) digitized collections, this article addresses a colonial archive that remains little studied. As an archive-subject, it constitutes a stimulating place to examine colonial history. For that reason, it awaits analysis by historians of the colonization as well as by postcolonial archivists.