The most telling part of an archive is often what isn't in it. Silence in a record is rarely neutral; it is a decision wearing the costume of an accident.
Reading the gaps
Treat absence as evidence. Who could not afford to be recorded? Whose story didn't fit the form? The shape of the hole describes the thing that should have filled it.
A silence is also a sentence.
Written by Chidirim Nwaubani — November 2025
