Jean Wilfrid Bertrand, Director General of the National Archives of Haiti recalls that the International Day of Archives (June 9) was established in order to make known the role of the Archives "keeper of time" and to value the work of archivists around the world.

In Haiti, a happy initiative has come to reinforce the fight started since 1984 by a group of young Haitian archivists, all determined to safeguard these irreplaceable witnesses of our history as a people.

However, "despite the efforts made for more than 37 years in Haiti, the threat of destruction of an entire section of the National Memory remains under the threat of a sword of Damocles suspended above our Nation [...]"

Bertrand estimates that "more than 50 years of administrative and historical archives stored here and there in our various public institutions throughout the national territory are not yet transferred to the National Archives of Haiti."

In addition, the January 2010 earthquake still leaves traces in our administrative archives : "partial and or total destruction, scattering of storage sites, inaccessibility to documents, decision-making without reliable information."

It is up to the three Powers of the State to accentuate and strengthen their control over the entire administrative memory, says Jean Wilfrid Bertrand, adding that the State University of Haiti (UEH) must be able to train technical executives oriented towards taking charge of our documentary heritage, which will make it possible to preserve and enhance the memory of political and administrative action and to provide researchers with the sources of the history of tomorrow."

For its part, the Directorate General of the National Archives of Haiti is working for the construction of a building to standards designed to safeguard not only what remains of the national memory, but also to ensure rational management in the future of the entire archival production chain from the creation of documents on the premises until they become historical documents.

HL/ HaitiLibre