About the Archive

The Basler Afrika Bibliographien (BAB)’s archive comprises predominantly unpublished text, image, sound and film from private collections and organisational archives. These are complemented by thematically organised press and ephemera collections.

 

Focus areas

Namibia and southern Africa in the 20th century are core focuses. Characteristic of many archival collections is the interrelation of different formats, adding to the research potential of the collections.

 

Cataloguing

Since 2010, the archive holdings have been indexed and contextualised in an archive database. The database can be searched via our online catalogue. Detailed finding aids are available for holdings catalogued prior to 2010; these are accessible via the online catalogue, can be downloaded from this website or purchased in print.

 

We strive to catalogue materials in a multi-layered way. We usually index materials at the level of files or sub-files, and occasionally at the level of individual documents.

 

Acquisitions

The BAB regularly acquires new archive holdings, except for holdings stored in southern Africa. In consultation with the National Archives of Namibia (NAN) the BAB repatriates parts of collections since 1995. They are marked accordingly in our online catalogue and in the finding aids of the National Archives.

 

For more information on our holdings, please refer to our archive catalogue or contact us at archive@baslerafrika.ch.

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