Tanzania National Archives Records and Archives Management Department (RAMD)

Overview

The Tanzania National Archives (TNA), formally administered as the Records and Archives Management Department (RAMD), is the national archives of Tanzania. The department is subordinate to the President's Office – Public Service Management and Good Governance. Headquarters are in Dodoma, with the main archival collections and historical reading facilities in Dar es Salaam.

History and Founding

Following a November 1962 survey by historian Marcia Wright, which found government records threatened by destruction in a roofless warehouse, the National Archives were established by Presidential Decree No. 7 of December 1962, as a division of the Ministry of National Culture and Youth. The establishment of this institution also followed several years of deliberation and feasibility studies by the British government beginning in 1950. The National Archives Act (No. 3 of 1965) formalized the institution's legal mandate. The department has been known by several names reflecting successive government reorganizations.

Collections and Holdings

The archives contain three major groups of materials: records from the German colonial administration of German East Africa (pre-1916/17), British colonial records of the Tanganyika Territory (pre-1962), and records from post-independence Tanzania at central and local government levels. Among its most notable holdings is a collection of over 8,000 files from the German East Africa administration (1890–1918), part of which was buried by the last German governor in 1916 and excavated by British authorities from 1921 onward with German archival assistance. This German colonial collection was inscribed in the UNESCO Memory of the World register in 1997. Additional holdings include newspapers, official gazettes (from 1919), church archives, private papers, and maps and plans from the colonial and post-independence periods. A third division is dedicated to archives relating to Tanzania's founding figures, Julius Nyerere and Abeid Karume. The system has six regional branch offices in Mbeya, Mwanza, Arusha, Dodoma, Tanga, and Singida.

Access and Usage

Access requires a research permit from the Tanzania Commission for Research and Technology (COSTECH), which should be obtained well in advance. Researchers may use computers in the reading rooms and request photocopies. Specific folios must be requested individually.