It is a great honour to have been invited to participate in this first AEGIS Conference. I wish to acknowledge colleagues who conceived of the inclusion of librarians in the core of AEGIS - for it is only through the sharing of knowledge with scholars that the importance of libraries and collections in knowledge generation can be reinforced.

Improving the understanding of contemporary African societies is neither a luxury, nor a noble job for scholars, nor an easy occupation for librarians.

In the global world we live in, all societies are related. The fate, fortune and developments of one society have an impact on developmental and life processes of others. The understanding of this interrelationship of humanity is fundamental to building the Knowledge Society that the World aspires to. Understanding presupposes access to reliable sources of information, independent analysis of issues and open communication.

This sense of the precariousness of both the past and the present is something that most, if not all, historians must have felt at some time as they search, sometimes in vain, for relevant sources for their research. And archivists and librarians, even as they save what they can from disappearing, maybe for ever, or from the ravages of decay, know that it is perhaps only a small fraction of what should or could be saved.

Museums as well as other public and private institutions in Portugal and abroad, have collections of a diversified nature assembled during the 20th century in the former Portuguese colonies. Several important collections of archaeological and ethnological objects as well as photographs and documents from Mozambique are known today through scientific papers, publications and exhibitions promoted either by public or private initiatives. However, there are still a number of unknown collections that not only are important vehicles of information regarding the regions and peoples of Mozambique but also provide an important contribution for a better understanding of its history.

The Collection of the Anthropological Mission of Mozambique (AMM), gathered between 1936 and 1956, is an example of the importance of these collections.

The Swahili Manuscripts Project started in October 2000 at the School of Oriental and African studies (SOAS), funded by the Leverhulme Trust, and administered by the SOAS Faculty of Languages and Cultures, under the supervision of Prof. Graham Furniss, Dr Farouk Topan, and the SOAS Archivist, Ms Rosemary Seton.

The lead researcher of the project was Sh. Yahya Ali Omar, who is one of the few remaining scholars who can read and comment on the content of manuscripts. The expertise of Sh. Yahya has been fundamental for the creation of the catalogue. Sh. Yahya was assisted by two research assistants, Annmarie Drury and Angelica Baschiera.

The main focus of the Project has been to create an online academic catalogue of the extensive collections of Swahili Manuscripts held in the SOAS Archives.

Several decades of poor governance in Sierra Leone and the more recent civil conflict have left Sierra Leone's public sector and economic situation in a precarious position. Against this backdrop there is a desperate need to build capacity for public sector management at both central and local levels. Kelvin Smith, of The National Archives (TNA) Records Management Department, has made three recent visits to Sierra Leone as part of a programme to establish a Human Resource Management Office (HRMO) and to implement a Records Management Improvement Programme. TNA has for many years worked closely with the International Records Management Trust on projects such as this.

The national archives of Liberia - Africa's oldest republic - are in parlous condition. Mostly this is the result of the on/off war that has wracked the country since 1989.

Liberia's national archives used to be housed in their own building, but this was vandalised in the first period of the war, in 1990. Some 40 percent of the records were destroyed at that time. The remainder were bundled into cardboard boxes, plastic bags, and any other available receptacle and moved to another building. This, however, was subsequently used as a barracks for Nigerian peacekeeping troops who did not always treat the archives with the respect they deserved. The records were moved again, apparently in 1993, this time to a small building in the middle of Monrovia that also houses the National Library, although the latter has few books and is also in poor condition.