Chapter 1: The Archives
IN THIS LESSON
Memory work is care work: “it [is] necessary to recognize acts of records creation and recordkeeping in Black diasporic communities that are unique to [their] history”
Black studies informs us on the ways that the archives can be a site of trauma, misrepresentation, and a place that perpetuated systemic, colonial ideas. Throughout history— not only was there a “lack” of Black Archivists and scholarship, but traditional boundaries in heritage places did not formally acknowledge Black thought that had already existed. Moreover, Black thought was often created through methods that challenged the traditional archive and showed how repositories could centre communities, rituals, oral traditions, and participation. So, how or when does Black thought become archival—a part of memory work, and an act of care?
When exploring memory work within the context of archives, Amaka Okechukwu argued “that Black Archival Practice is shaped by a collective ethic of care for Black communities that includes naming and identifying the quotidian; excavation and recovery; and storytelling.” Especially considering the intangibility of Black life and death that is often invoked within the archives, food is one alternative method that can be further examined as an example of record creation and the keeping of heritage. This mode of archival creation through memory and care work seeks to expand beyond boundaries, yet speaks upon taste (which is subjective/biased)— this can be seen in the following video, as culinary historian, Michael Twitty states:
’Food is the way of all human beings on Earth to say, “we eat this, this is us” [and] “they eat that, and that is not us.” Everybody has this deep connections to gastronomy in their personal, familial lives.’
Further drawing on Michael Twitty’s statement, Julie E. E. Young’s The Border as Archive: Reframing the Crisis Mode of Governance at the Canada-US Borders (2022) criticizes that “with border as archive, we see that the nation-state is always in crisis as demonstrated through its anticipatory governance of unwanted migration as a threat across time and space.” The archive — like food — is a political tool that is shaped by governance.
Alexis Pauline Gumbs’ M Archive : after the End of the World (2018) explores this notion by imagining a dystopian future where a researcher excavates an archive that well depicts Black life in a world that “didn’t taste right.” Gumbs’ poetic triptych portrays how the act of taste is a nuanced, intangible expression that brings Black bodies to carry the weight of memory and trauma:
“there were spaces we made in our palate to preserve what preserved us. be it blood, water, waste. be it sweat, tears, or secretions. be it breathing or decomposition. what she knew was that if the body could gather enough salt, it could stay. it could stand anything. it could reconstitute the stolen soil in vein. taste is not a big enough word to hold it. what we went through”…
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Gumbs, A. P. (2018). M Archive : after the End of the World. Duke University Press.
Okechukwu, A. Notes on Black Archival Practice. (2022). The Black Scholar, 52:4, 27-42.
Sutherland, T. and Collier, Z., The Promise & Possibility of Black Archival Practice. (2022). The Black Scholar: Journal of Black Studies and Research.
Sutherland, T. and Collier, Z., Witnessing, Testimony & Transformation as Genres of Black Archival Practice. (2022). The Black Scholar: Journal of Black Studies and Research.
Vice News. (2017). The Man Who Relives Slave History Through Food (HBO). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AchlG09pq4U