For more than a decade, Antigua and Barbuda’s National Archives have been deteriorating in plain sight. The building has leaked so badly that when it rains outside, it rains inside, threatening centuries-old documents with mold, rot, and collapse. Now the government is relocating the Archives to a temporary space while planning long-overdue renovations for 2026. But the crisis we face is not a construction problem — it is a leadership failure.
No archive can survive without stable electricity, humidity control, and proper storage. Yet the very institution charged with safeguarding plantation ledgers, emancipation records, colonial maps, and ancestral documents has endured chronic power outages and decades of environmental damage. How can a nation protect its history under conditions that actively destroy it?
This is more than neglect. It is cultural abandonment.
Our ancestors endured chattel slavery, leaving behind only a faint, fragile documentary trail that allows us to reconstruct their names and stories. And yet, we have allowed that legacy to deteriorate under bureaucratic indifference. There is an old Antiguan saying: “Ungratefulness is worse than witchcraft.” And today, we are witnessing the spell of that ungratefulness unfold in real time. Our ancestors, who survived the unimaginable, would turn their backs in shame at what we have allowed to happen to the very records that hold their memory.
We Need Real Professionals — Now
Immediate triage must be carried out by trained archivists, conservation scientists, and preservation specialists — not political appointees with flattering titles and matching salaries. Mold remediation, environmental stabilization, and document rescue require expertise far beyond the current capacity of the department.
It is time to remove unqualified management and place the Archives under professional stewardship.
Call the University of the West Indies
We have regional expertise at our fingertips. UWI trains the Caribbean’s top archivists and conservation professionals. They have the laboratories, academic networks, and practical knowledge needed to assess the damage and design a sustainable recovery plan.
Why haven’t they been called?
Accountability Is Not Optional
If the government values national identity, then the Archives must be funded, digitized, and led by credentialed professionals — not loyalists. Antigua and Barbuda cannot build a future while erasing its past.
Preserving memory is preserving nationhood.
Failing to act now would be nothing short of national self-destruction.
