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History of the Centre
The National Archives of France opened its first building at Aix in 1966; at that time the Archives d'Outre-Mer (AOM) located there co-existed alongside the Section Outre-Mer of the National Archives (SOM) housed at the Rue Oudinot address in Paris. Following the abolition of the 'Ministry of France Overseas', it was decided in 1962 to bring together all the archives of the former French colonies, except for those of French West Africa which were all retained in Dakar. The archives transferred to Paris were only those of French government; those of administration, i.e. public works, health, education, local government, all stayed in their respective countries.
Initially at Aix 900 tonnes of archives arrived in the first ten months. In 1986 the SOM in Paris was closed and 17 linear km of documents, far from completely processed, were transferred to Aix. Now the Centre also houses a library of 100,000 volumes, comprising the collections from the AOM, the SOM and the École Coloniale. A brief description of the Centre is given, where the catalogue is in course of being automated.
The French legislation on archives of 1979 decrees that archives enter the public domain as follows: after 150 years from the date of birth of an individual for personal medical records, after 120 years from the date of birth of an individual for staff files, 100 years for state and legal registers, 60 years for documents relating to private life or state security, 30 years otherwise. Dispensation may be given in certain cases.
The local archives of Madagascar post-colonisation
These are largely complete, as the relevant French legislation goes back to 1896. Although these archives have often been moved from one location to another in the past they are basically in good condition. Post-independence procedures for handling these were modelled on those used for the former French colonies in India, 1951/54: pre-colonial and local administration archives stayed in the country, those of French government were repatriated. By 1958 (the year of independence) there were two distinct archive services in Madagascar: that of the French High Authority, and the Archives Section of the High Jurisdiction of Madagascar. After independence these became respectively the archives of the High Commission of France in...