Addressing Imbalances of the Colonial Heritage at the National Archives of Zimbabwe: Imagining Inclusive Archivy!

African native houses of memory have habitually been regarded as surrogate institutions that preserve stories of colonial masters. Ornamental native reminiscences have for long been secluded by colonial memory enhancers as a way of expressing elitism, sexism, racism, and power. Inherited African colonial archival institutions have always borne imprints of foreign supremacies with little to nothing about Indigenous inhabitants of settlements. Over eighty-seven years of existence, and forty-two years after independence, the remodeling of the National Archives of Zimbabwe (NAZ) has been long overdue with a drive towards inclusivity with archives deeply rooted in an Afrocentric realism. Dusted African remembrances need to be resurrected by recapturing and re-imagining isolated memories. The institution is still struggling to embark on a march towards the establishment of a democratic archival collection that represents every tribe of the nation. Like the rest of Africa, the institution suffers from collection imbalances. This study recommends the reconfiguring of archival administration processes to reflect the Indigenous people of Zimbabwe through oral history interviews, community archives, and participatory archiving. The institution mostly houses colonial heritage and is still working on filling the gaps.