Arquivo Histórico de Moçambique (AHM)

Overview

The Arquivo Histórico de Moçambique (AHM) serves as the national archives of Mozambique, based in Maputo. Since July 17, 1976, it has operated as a special organic unit of Eduardo Mondlane University.

History

The archive was established in 1934, set up gradually between 1938 and 1940, originally as part of the library of the colonial Department of Statistics. In 1939 it was designated the official "Arquivo do Governo da Colónia." From 1943 to 1963 it was headed by Lieutenant Caetano Montez, who collected nineteenth- and early twentieth-century documents. Following Mozambique's independence from Portugal in 1975, the archive became the repository of records of the Republic of Mozambique, and in 1976 it came under the oversight of Eduardo Mondlane University. The AHM has since contributed to Mozambique's Sistema Nacional de Arquivos (established 1992) and its successor, the Sistema Nacional de Arquivos de Estado under the Ministério da Função Pública (established 2007).

Collections, Holdings, and Publications

The AHM holds mostly nineteenth- and twentieth-century documentation generated largely by organs of the Portuguese colonial public administration, along with a small number of private collections ("espólios") and records from companies and associations. Earlier correspondence (circa 1750-1830) between the island of Mozambique and colonial districts was sent to Lisbon in the 1890s and is held at the Arquivo Histórico Ultramarino, though much of it also exists on microfilm at the AHM. Since April 1986 the AHM has published the journal Arquivo, documenting the archive's activities, growing collections, and Mozambican history.

Access and Usage

The AHM offers historical and archival research services, document evaluation and selection, training and technical assistance in archives and records management, digitization and microfilming, public services, and reprography, including issuance of birth, marriage, and death certificates. Primary documentation can be consulted at facilities on the university campus, including the Department of Permanent Archives and the Central Archive Department of Eduardo Mondlane University, as well as a Special Collections department on Avenida 25 de Setembro.