African Archives Research Articles

Writings on African Archives

Writings on African Archives

C. A. Willis: The Upper Nile Province Handbook: a report on peoples and government in the Southern Sudan, 1931. Edited by Douglas H. Johnson. (Oriental and African Archives, 3.) xx, 476 pp., 8 plates. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995. £50.

C. A. Willis: The Upper Nile Province Handbook: a report on peoples and government in the Southern Sudan, 1931. Edited by Douglas H. Johnson. (Oriental and African Archives, 3.) xx, 476 pp., 8 plates. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995. £50. - Volume 60 Issue 2

Writings on African Archives

Writings on African Archives

Writings on African Archives, by John McIlwaine, with an essay by Anne Thurston and contributions by Pino Akotia and Justus Wamukoya. Published by Hans Zell on behalf of the Standing Conference on Library Materials on Africa (SCOLMA), London, 1996 xviii + 279 pp. £45 ISBN 1-873836-66-X

Writings on African Archives, by John McIlwaine, with an essay by Anne Thurston and contributions by Pino Akotia and Justus Wamukoya. Published by Hans Zell on behalf of the Standing Conference on Library Materials on Africa (SCOLMA), London, 1996 xviii + 279 pp. £45 ISBN 1-873836-66-X - Volume 74

Writings on African Archives

Writings on African Archives

Writings on African archives

Writings on African archives

Writings on African archives (Part 6)

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Writings on African archives, (Part 5)

Writings on African archives, (Part 5)

Writings on African Archives (Part 4)

For a general introduction to this working bibliography and an account of criteria for inclusion see Part 1 in ARD 62. This section contains a number of items relating to the various West African workshops organized by the Association of Commonwealth Archivists and Records Managers (ACARM), of which copies are available in the library of the Institute of Commonwealth Studies, University of London where the Association has its Secretariat. Although in general in this series of bibliographies entries have not been made for “in-house” finding aids produced by archives, an exception is made here for the extensive series produced by the National Archives of Nigeria. This is because these cyclostyled lists were fairly widely circulated, and certainly many of those produced in the 1960s are available in libraries outside the country (in the U.K. for example in the Institutes of Commonwealth Studies and Historical Research and SOAS at the University of London).

Writings on African archives, part 3

Writings on African archives, part 3

Ina Beasley: Before the win changed: people, places, and education in the Sudan. Edited by Janet Starkey. (Oriental and African Archives, 1). xxiv, 483 pp., 12 plates, Oxford: Oxford University Press for the British Academy., 1992. £30.

Ina Beasley: Before the win changed: people, places, and education in the Sudan. Edited by Janet Starkey. (Oriental and African Archives, 1). xxiv, 483 pp., 12 plates, Oxford: Oxford University Press for the British Academy., 1992. £30.

Writings on African archives (Part 2)

Writings on African archives (Part 2)

Writings on African Archives (Part 1)

It is just twenty years since SCOLMA's journals carried a two part survey (one in the last issue of Library materials on Africa, the second in the first issue of its successor, African research & documentation) of writings relating to African archives. Compiled by J.D. Pearson, the first part covered manuscripts and archives in African countries, while the second covered African related material located outside Africa. Pearson was encouraged to undertake his survey of the literature by the discussions at the Nairobi International Conference on African Bibliography of 1967, with its pioneering account of the archival literature prepared by Peter Duignan. As far as I am aware there has been no systematic attempt to cover this literature since, although there have been useful overviews such as David Easterbrook's survey in Africana journal in 1980.

Nigerian and other African archives at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew

Most people know Kew only as a public garden with very special greenhouses and other buildings. Few visitors realise that it is a scientific institution with research laboratories, a great herbarium and archives of all descriptions. In the context of this symposium the living collections in the Gardens are unlikely to be applicable as an archive, although there are many specimens of great historical interest, including the world's oldest greenhouse plant (Encephalartos Iongifolius) which is an African species brought from Natal by Mason in the 1770s.Over five million dried specimens are housed here in systematic order. They have been received from collectors all over the world during the last two centuries. The Herbarium is especially rich in tropical African collections, including Nigerian. For example those from Theodor Vogel's Niger Expedition of 1841 formed the basis of Hooker's Niger Flora (1849).

Southern African Archives in the University of York

Southern African Archives in the University of York

West African archives at the Main Library, University of Birmingham

Collections of African material at the University of Birmingham in part reflect links with Cadbury's whose gifts of land helped to establish the University on its Edgbaston site, and whose involvement in the early West African cocoa track is well-known; the Library's collections of Africana have however been particularly developed over the last thirty years or so, since the establishment of the Centre of West African Studies here in 1963. All relevant library and archive materials are kept in the Main Library not at the Centre.The most notable archive is that of the Church Missionary Society (CMS), which is on deposit at the University Library. This archive is in three sections: early papers up to 1880; 1881-1934; and 1935-49. Later material has been retained at CMS. The archives cover many African countries, including Nigeria, and all other countries in which the CMS has worked.

National Register of Manuscripts (Narem) South Africa

In 1970, the editorial of the South African Archives Journal - mouthpiece of the Southern African Society of Archivists, expressed the view that previous attempts towards a national register of manuscripts had not materialised. It noted however, that the South African Government Archives Service was considering this undertaking, and suggested that whenever this register came about, in whatever form, the “key requirement should remain its suitability for complete publication”.In 1977 the first initiative towards the register came from the Bibliographical Committee of the South African Library Society, when it requested the South African Library to draw up a register of manuscripts and other material in South African libraries. Circulars were sent out to prospective participants and the South African Library produced a guide to its own collection in Cape Town.

African Archive in Bremen

African Archive in Bremen

Historical notes on astronomy in South Africa

Astronomical investigation in South Africa begins with the European settlement at the Cape. Observations by visitors, some of whom stayed only very briefly, were mainly concerned with the determination of the geographical position of the Cape. The first scientific expedition of importance was that of Lacaille in 1751–1753, who undertook geodesy and positional astronomy. In spite of his enormous services to astronomy, no full-length biography of Lacaille appears to have been written. The early work of the Cape Observatory included a verification and extension of Lacaille's geodetic measurements, undertaken by Maclear. Maclear investigated Lacaille's work very thoroughly, and his papers in the South African Archives, which also deal, among other topics, with the period of John Herschel's visit to the Cape (1834–1838), are probably the major unworked source of historical material on astronomy in South Africa. Related documents exist at the Royal Greenwich Observatory in England, and among the Herschel papers, now dispersed. The later history of astronomy at the Cape is well covered by printed works, notably by those of Sir David Gill. A similar remark applies to the more recent activities of the numerous observatories in South Africa. The possibilities of the investigation of Bantu traditions previous to European settlement are mentioned.

A Guide to the Public Records of Southern Rhodesia under the regime of the British South Africa Company 1890–1923. By V. W. Hiller. Central African Archives, Longmans Green & Co., Cape Town, 1956. Pp. 282.

A Guide to the Public Records of Southern Rhodesia under the regime of the British South Africa Company 1890–1923. By V. W. Hiller. Central African Archives, Longmans Green & Co., Cape Town, 1956. Pp. 282.