Pub Date : 2013-01-01DOI: 10.1017/s0305862x0002080x
M. A. Fubah
Collections of photographs by colonial officers, missionaries and medical personnel taken during the colonial era, can be found in many public and private archives and museums, in Africa, Europe and America. Although the existence of most of these collections have been made known to the public through exhibitions, catalogues and publications (Geary 1991, 2000; Webb 1987, 1988), some have received scant or no attention. This, however, is in spite of the role of colonial photographs as “testimony about early explorations and distant peoples and places” (Geary 1988). Colonial photography, Geary notes, is part of the “discourse about foreign worlds and foreign peoples—a discourse revealing as much about ‘us’ as it reveals about ‘them'” (Geary 1988: 11).
{"title":"The Thomas Hardie Dalrymple Grassfields Photographs Collection 1937-1942 (Royal Commonwealth Society Collections, University of Cambridge Library)","authors":"M. A. Fubah","doi":"10.1017/s0305862x0002080x","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/s0305862x0002080x","url":null,"abstract":"Collections of photographs by colonial officers, missionaries and medical personnel taken during the colonial era, can be found in many public and private archives and museums, in Africa, Europe and America. Although the existence of most of these collections have been made known to the public through exhibitions, catalogues and publications (Geary 1991, 2000; Webb 1987, 1988), some have received scant or no attention. This, however, is in spite of the role of colonial photographs as “testimony about early explorations and distant peoples and places” (Geary 1988). Colonial photography, Geary notes, is part of the “discourse about foreign worlds and foreign peoples—a discourse revealing as much about ‘us’ as it reveals about ‘them'” (Geary 1988: 11).","PeriodicalId":89063,"journal":{"name":"African research & documentation","volume":"1 1","pages":"25-35"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2013-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"56842610","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2013-01-01DOI: 10.1017/s0305862x00020811
R. Thierry
This article considers the challenges and opportunities for African publishing in an age of ‘book globalisation’, dominated by large multinational firms based in Europe and North America since the 1980s. ‘Bibliodiversity’ is desirable. Different kinds of networks have been structured for the African book market to sustain diffusion and distribution. It is important to take account of the institutions, economic factors and authors’ strategies which lie behind a given book. The first part of this article considers the relations between African literary production and the global book market. The second considers the Cameroonian book market and globalisation.
{"title":"De L’Edition Camerounaise Au Marche International Du Livre","authors":"R. Thierry","doi":"10.1017/s0305862x00020811","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/s0305862x00020811","url":null,"abstract":"This article considers the challenges and opportunities for African publishing in an age of ‘book globalisation’, dominated by large multinational firms based in Europe and North America since the 1980s. ‘Bibliodiversity’ is desirable. Different kinds of networks have been structured for the African book market to sustain diffusion and distribution. It is important to take account of the institutions, economic factors and authors’ strategies which lie behind a given book. The first part of this article considers the relations between African literary production and the global book market. The second considers the Cameroonian book market and globalisation.","PeriodicalId":89063,"journal":{"name":"African research & documentation","volume":"1 1","pages":"37-47"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2013-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"56842620","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2013-01-01DOI: 10.1017/s0305862x00024225
S. Spencer
IntroductionIn the autumn and winter of 1954 Commissioner John Allan, the second-in-command of the Salvation Army, visited Africa and travelled through those countries where The Salvation Army was then established: Kenya, Rhodesia, South Africa, Nigeria, the Gold Coast, French Equatorial Africa and the Belgian Congo. During his visit he met tribal and national leaders including, on 11 November 1954 in the Gold Coast, Kwame Nkrumah in his Presidential Office, where Commissioner Allan "asked God to guide Nkrumah as he controls the destiny of his people".When an account of the tour was written up for publication in 1955, the article began as follows:Nowadays Africa is a continent where something dramatic is always happening. One part or another is constantly in the public eye. Here and there a new order is in course of being established and, as one competent authority has stated, tomorrow's headlines are certain to come out of the Dark Continent.2If we look past the stereotypical and condescending language about Africa, the author was right. Within a year, Kwame Nkrumah had become president of an independent Gold Coast, and within five years the majority of the countries Allan visited had gained independence from European powers.The Salvation Army had been in Africa since the 1880s and, as illustrated by the records of Commissioner Allan's visit, their archives show a movement affected by, and responding to, many of the historical changes on the continent. The cataloguing of previously 'hidden' collections has enabled research into new perspectives on the African continent.The Salvation Army's origins were in the mid nineteenth century schisms within Methodism. In 1865 William Booth, who had been a minister with the Methodist New Connexion, and his wife Catherine established the East London Christian Mission, which proved popular enough to quickly set up a string of its own meeting-houses in London and quickly spread across the country. In 1878, tapping into the jingoism of the era, the Christian Mission rebranded itself as 'The Salvation Army' and soon developed the now familiar accoutrements of brass bands, uniforms and a fully-realised military structure with General Booth at its head. Its ministers were known as 'officers' and its chapels as 'corps'. The Salvation Army reached its hey-day in Britain in the years after the First World War, by which time it had become a world-wide movement. This international expansion was closely linked to the British Empire; the social reformer Henrietta Barnett, not herself a Salvationist, wrote in 1922 that "Few people realize that the work which The Salvation Army does is of measureless importance to England as an Empire builder".3The Salvation Army in AfricaThis association with the British Empire dates from 1882 when The Salvation Army began to send missionaries to the Indian sub-continent; the first move into an African colony was in 1883 when three pioneer officers, Major Francis and Rose Simmonds with Li
{"title":"“Our Foreign Field”: records of the Salvation Army in Africa","authors":"S. Spencer","doi":"10.1017/s0305862x00024225","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/s0305862x00024225","url":null,"abstract":"IntroductionIn the autumn and winter of 1954 Commissioner John Allan, the second-in-command of the Salvation Army, visited Africa and travelled through those countries where The Salvation Army was then established: Kenya, Rhodesia, South Africa, Nigeria, the Gold Coast, French Equatorial Africa and the Belgian Congo. During his visit he met tribal and national leaders including, on 11 November 1954 in the Gold Coast, Kwame Nkrumah in his Presidential Office, where Commissioner Allan \"asked God to guide Nkrumah as he controls the destiny of his people\".When an account of the tour was written up for publication in 1955, the article began as follows:Nowadays Africa is a continent where something dramatic is always happening. One part or another is constantly in the public eye. Here and there a new order is in course of being established and, as one competent authority has stated, tomorrow's headlines are certain to come out of the Dark Continent.2If we look past the stereotypical and condescending language about Africa, the author was right. Within a year, Kwame Nkrumah had become president of an independent Gold Coast, and within five years the majority of the countries Allan visited had gained independence from European powers.The Salvation Army had been in Africa since the 1880s and, as illustrated by the records of Commissioner Allan's visit, their archives show a movement affected by, and responding to, many of the historical changes on the continent. The cataloguing of previously 'hidden' collections has enabled research into new perspectives on the African continent.The Salvation Army's origins were in the mid nineteenth century schisms within Methodism. In 1865 William Booth, who had been a minister with the Methodist New Connexion, and his wife Catherine established the East London Christian Mission, which proved popular enough to quickly set up a string of its own meeting-houses in London and quickly spread across the country. In 1878, tapping into the jingoism of the era, the Christian Mission rebranded itself as 'The Salvation Army' and soon developed the now familiar accoutrements of brass bands, uniforms and a fully-realised military structure with General Booth at its head. Its ministers were known as 'officers' and its chapels as 'corps'. The Salvation Army reached its hey-day in Britain in the years after the First World War, by which time it had become a world-wide movement. This international expansion was closely linked to the British Empire; the social reformer Henrietta Barnett, not herself a Salvationist, wrote in 1922 that \"Few people realize that the work which The Salvation Army does is of measureless importance to England as an Empire builder\".3The Salvation Army in AfricaThis association with the British Empire dates from 1882 when The Salvation Army began to send missionaries to the Indian sub-continent; the first move into an African colony was in 1883 when three pioneer officers, Major Francis and Rose Simmonds with Li","PeriodicalId":89063,"journal":{"name":"African research & documentation","volume":"871 1","pages":"35-52"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2013-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"56844131","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2013-01-01DOI: 10.1017/s0305862x00020793
V. Doorn, C. Marlene
The article discusses the history of the abstracts and indexing journal originally known as 'Documentatieblad,' which was renamed to 'African Studies Abstracts (ASA)' and later to 'African Studies Abstracts Online' (ASAO), published by the African Studies Centre (ASC) in Leiden, the Netherlands since 1968. Key themes are socioeconomic and political developments, government, law and constitutional development, history, religion, anthropology, women's studies, education, and literature. Publications are in a western language. Due to increased Internet connectivity in African countries, the monthly print edition of ASAO was discontinued from March 2012 onward. The number of subscribers to the ASAO mailing list has increased from 472 in 2004 to 1681 by the end of 2012. By contrast, the number of subscribers to the printed abstracts journal never exceeded 350. Of the 260 journals systematically scanned in 2013, some 160 were wholly or partially abstracted with the remainder being indexed. Over time the abstracting of monographs became increasingly selective. There have been various initiatives over the past twenty years to further cooperation in documenting African Studies material, including 'Africa-Wide Information', 'AfricaBib' and 'ilissAfrica' of the European Librarians in African Studies (ELIAS) network. Notes, ref., sum. [ASC Leiden abstract].
{"title":"A Half Century of Abstracting at the African Studies Centre Leiden","authors":"V. Doorn, C. Marlene","doi":"10.1017/s0305862x00020793","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/s0305862x00020793","url":null,"abstract":"The article discusses the history of the abstracts and indexing journal originally known as 'Documentatieblad,' which was renamed to 'African Studies Abstracts (ASA)' and later to 'African Studies Abstracts Online' (ASAO), published by the African Studies Centre (ASC) in Leiden, the Netherlands since 1968. Key themes are socioeconomic and political developments, government, law and constitutional development, history, religion, anthropology, women's studies, education, and literature. Publications are in a western language. Due to increased Internet connectivity in African countries, the monthly print edition of ASAO was discontinued from March 2012 onward. The number of subscribers to the ASAO mailing list has increased from 472 in 2004 to 1681 by the end of 2012. By contrast, the number of subscribers to the printed abstracts journal never exceeded 350. Of the 260 journals systematically scanned in 2013, some 160 were wholly or partially abstracted with the remainder being indexed. Over time the abstracting of monographs became increasingly selective. There have been various initiatives over the past twenty years to further cooperation in documenting African Studies material, including 'Africa-Wide Information', 'AfricaBib' and 'ilissAfrica' of the European Librarians in African Studies (ELIAS) network. Notes, ref., sum. [ASC Leiden abstract].","PeriodicalId":89063,"journal":{"name":"African research & documentation","volume":"1 1","pages":"15-23"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2013-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"56842559","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2013-01-01DOI: 10.1017/s0305862x00021907
J. Schultz
IntroductionIn May 1963, discussions between the African Studies Association (U.S.), the Midwest Interlibrary Center (now Center for Research Libraries), and Africana librarians from twelve North American institutions helped create the Cooperative Africana Microform Project (CAMP). Owing to the rise in digital information and preservation formats, CAMP renamed itself the Cooperative Africana Materials Project in 2010. Its mission has been to collect and preserve African newspapers, serials, and ephemera not typically held at U.S. institutions. As its original name suggests, microfilming continues to be an important method of preserving CAMP holdings. While building the collection involved some direct purchases of microfilm from Africa and Europe, the role of collaboration among U.S. and later African institutions enhanced collections and expanded the scope of CAMP's work. The history of these initiatives prior to 1995 has been documented by several CAMP members.2Expanding on these writings, this article will examine collaboration efforts between CAMP and African archives giving particular interest to history and political economy. Issues concerning access, collection, and preservation of African archival materials continue to reflect the legacy of colonialism. CAMP has tried to carefully navigate these unequal power relations. Through collaboration, it seeks access and preservation of African materials for institutions and scholars residing largely in the Global North. However, collaboration between institutions in the Global North and South may still appear as one-way flows of information. African archival materials, in physical and increasingly digital forms, continue to experience this dynamic. With this in mind, CAMP-funded initiatives undertake preservation in situ or return preserved materials to their home African institution(s). In return, CAMP asks that its members be granted microfilm or digital access to these materials. While this arrangement has worked between CAMP and numerous African institutions, it has not suited others. Initiating projects in African countries with strict legislation protecting the export of national cultural heritage remains difficult. With the growth of projects digitising African heritage, tensions persist between protective policies of African governments opposing a "virtual stampede" (Lalu, 2007) versus seemingly greater access for all.African archives, like African mineral resources, are a commodity usually exchanged unequally between the Global North and South. The rise of digitisation projects, funded by U.S. and European institutions, may continue to make Africans largely consumers and not producers of their own documentary heritage. One way to mitigate this problem is supporting capacity building for self-sustaining African preservation efforts. CAMP pursued this model beginning in the 1990s. Resources were first directed to the National Archives of Senegal to support microfilm equipment purchase and o
{"title":"Supporting Capacity Building for Archives in Africa: initiatives of the Cooperative Africana Materials Project (CAMP) since 1995","authors":"J. Schultz","doi":"10.1017/s0305862x00021907","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/s0305862x00021907","url":null,"abstract":"IntroductionIn May 1963, discussions between the African Studies Association (U.S.), the Midwest Interlibrary Center (now Center for Research Libraries), and Africana librarians from twelve North American institutions helped create the Cooperative Africana Microform Project (CAMP). Owing to the rise in digital information and preservation formats, CAMP renamed itself the Cooperative Africana Materials Project in 2010. Its mission has been to collect and preserve African newspapers, serials, and ephemera not typically held at U.S. institutions. As its original name suggests, microfilming continues to be an important method of preserving CAMP holdings. While building the collection involved some direct purchases of microfilm from Africa and Europe, the role of collaboration among U.S. and later African institutions enhanced collections and expanded the scope of CAMP's work. The history of these initiatives prior to 1995 has been documented by several CAMP members.2Expanding on these writings, this article will examine collaboration efforts between CAMP and African archives giving particular interest to history and political economy. Issues concerning access, collection, and preservation of African archival materials continue to reflect the legacy of colonialism. CAMP has tried to carefully navigate these unequal power relations. Through collaboration, it seeks access and preservation of African materials for institutions and scholars residing largely in the Global North. However, collaboration between institutions in the Global North and South may still appear as one-way flows of information. African archival materials, in physical and increasingly digital forms, continue to experience this dynamic. With this in mind, CAMP-funded initiatives undertake preservation in situ or return preserved materials to their home African institution(s). In return, CAMP asks that its members be granted microfilm or digital access to these materials. While this arrangement has worked between CAMP and numerous African institutions, it has not suited others. Initiating projects in African countries with strict legislation protecting the export of national cultural heritage remains difficult. With the growth of projects digitising African heritage, tensions persist between protective policies of African governments opposing a \"virtual stampede\" (Lalu, 2007) versus seemingly greater access for all.African archives, like African mineral resources, are a commodity usually exchanged unequally between the Global North and South. The rise of digitisation projects, funded by U.S. and European institutions, may continue to make Africans largely consumers and not producers of their own documentary heritage. One way to mitigate this problem is supporting capacity building for self-sustaining African preservation efforts. CAMP pursued this model beginning in the 1990s. Resources were first directed to the National Archives of Senegal to support microfilm equipment purchase and o","PeriodicalId":89063,"journal":{"name":"African research & documentation","volume":"1 1","pages":"3-12"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2013-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"56843457","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2013-01-01DOI: 10.1017/s0305862x00022007
T. Barringer
{"title":"The Hidden History of South Africa's Book and Reading Cultures, by Archie Dick. Scottsville: University of Kwazulu-Natal Press, 2012, xvi + 196 pp. ISBN 9781869142476. SAR215.","authors":"T. Barringer","doi":"10.1017/s0305862x00022007","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/s0305862x00022007","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":89063,"journal":{"name":"African research & documentation","volume":"1 1","pages":"80"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2013-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"56843063","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2013-01-01DOI: 10.1017/s0305862x00024237
Lucy Hughes
Given that the words 'Africa' or 'African' are not present in the name of the Centre, many might be surprised at the quantity and quality of material relating to that continent, held at the Henry Martyn Centre. It is held in a variety of formats including correspondence, photographs, maps and newspapers. In addition to this archival material, the Henry Martyn Library offers a very rich resource which complements the archival holdings. Books, unpublished theses and journals about Africa are all to be found there. I will begin by explaining briefly what the Henry Martyn Centre does, and about how the archive has developed. I will then go on to explain how the very strong African link has been forged and fostered over the years. In the second half of this paper I will consider in what ways these African collections could be described as 'hidden', and how we are addressing that. I will be taking a 'case study' approach, focussing on a few key examples.History and identity of the CentreThe Henry Martyn Centre (http://www.martynmission.cam.ac.uk) was formed in 1998 to promote and support the study of missionary activity and World Christianity through the provision of archive and research facilities and through a regular programme of scholarly lectures and seminars. It continues and extends the work of the Henry Martyn Library, which has been in existence since 1898, and which was set up to commemorate Henry Martyn (1781-1812). After winning a reputation as a scholar, Martyn - who had been a student and Fellow at St John's College, Cambridge - went on to become chaplain to the East India Company and was the first translator of the Bible into Hindi and Persian, dying tragically young. We commemorated the bicentenary of his death in 2012. During the nineteenth century Martyn enjoyed renown as an inspirational cultural hero; the Henry Martyn Hall in Market Street in Cambridge was built in 1887 as a meeting place and training centre for mission and remains to this day. Although the present day Henry Martyn Centre is located on a different site, at Westminster College, Martyn's legacy is continued.The HMC archive provides a resource for all those interested in the study of the modern missionary movement. It is used by academics in the fields of history, anthropology and theology; it is also used by church leaders and members of missionary organisations interested in understanding their past. It is a resource for historical reflection for those participating in contemporary missionary activity.Structure of the archiveBroadly speaking there are two kinds of collection within the archive. In the first category are collections which are named after the missionary who created them, or the individual who gathered the papers or records together. In many cases, the material is preserved in the original order in which it was donated to us by individuals or their families. Some examples of this kind of collection are: the Joe Church collection and the Phillips collect
{"title":"The Henry Martyn Centre: home of some ‘hidden’ African Collections","authors":"Lucy Hughes","doi":"10.1017/s0305862x00024237","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/s0305862x00024237","url":null,"abstract":"Given that the words 'Africa' or 'African' are not present in the name of the Centre, many might be surprised at the quantity and quality of material relating to that continent, held at the Henry Martyn Centre. It is held in a variety of formats including correspondence, photographs, maps and newspapers. In addition to this archival material, the Henry Martyn Library offers a very rich resource which complements the archival holdings. Books, unpublished theses and journals about Africa are all to be found there. I will begin by explaining briefly what the Henry Martyn Centre does, and about how the archive has developed. I will then go on to explain how the very strong African link has been forged and fostered over the years. In the second half of this paper I will consider in what ways these African collections could be described as 'hidden', and how we are addressing that. I will be taking a 'case study' approach, focussing on a few key examples.History and identity of the CentreThe Henry Martyn Centre (http://www.martynmission.cam.ac.uk) was formed in 1998 to promote and support the study of missionary activity and World Christianity through the provision of archive and research facilities and through a regular programme of scholarly lectures and seminars. It continues and extends the work of the Henry Martyn Library, which has been in existence since 1898, and which was set up to commemorate Henry Martyn (1781-1812). After winning a reputation as a scholar, Martyn - who had been a student and Fellow at St John's College, Cambridge - went on to become chaplain to the East India Company and was the first translator of the Bible into Hindi and Persian, dying tragically young. We commemorated the bicentenary of his death in 2012. During the nineteenth century Martyn enjoyed renown as an inspirational cultural hero; the Henry Martyn Hall in Market Street in Cambridge was built in 1887 as a meeting place and training centre for mission and remains to this day. Although the present day Henry Martyn Centre is located on a different site, at Westminster College, Martyn's legacy is continued.The HMC archive provides a resource for all those interested in the study of the modern missionary movement. It is used by academics in the fields of history, anthropology and theology; it is also used by church leaders and members of missionary organisations interested in understanding their past. It is a resource for historical reflection for those participating in contemporary missionary activity.Structure of the archiveBroadly speaking there are two kinds of collection within the archive. In the first category are collections which are named after the missionary who created them, or the individual who gathered the papers or records together. In many cases, the material is preserved in the original order in which it was donated to us by individuals or their families. Some examples of this kind of collection are: the Joe Church collection and the Phillips collect","PeriodicalId":89063,"journal":{"name":"African research & documentation","volume":"1 1","pages":"53-59"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2013-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"56844165","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2013-01-01DOI: 10.1017/s0305862x00021919
Rachel Playforth
Based on a paper delivered at the 2013 SCOLMA Conference, Hidden Collections in African Studies.
基于一篇发表在2013年SCOLMA会议上的论文，《非洲研究中的隐藏藏品》。
{"title":"Unhiding African collections at the British Library for Development Studies","authors":"Rachel Playforth","doi":"10.1017/s0305862x00021919","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/s0305862x00021919","url":null,"abstract":"Based on a paper delivered at the 2013 SCOLMA Conference, Hidden Collections in African Studies.","PeriodicalId":89063,"journal":{"name":"African research & documentation","volume":"1 1","pages":"13"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2013-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"56843466","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2013-01-01DOI: 10.1017/s0305862x00021920
N. Court
IntroductionSCOLMA's 2013 conference was based on the Research Library UK (RLUK)'s 2012 report, Hidden Collections, which SCOLMA defined as "material for which there is no online presence" in its pre-conference publicity. Many researchers are made aware of collections and documents in the custody of West Sussex Record Office via online sources such as the National Register of Archives (NRA), Access to Archives (A2A) - still an extremely useful resource, even though new catalogues and additions to existing catalogues can no longer be entered - and our own website, using our Search Online facility. The purpose of this paper is not to dispute the importance of an online presence in our increasingly digital world. However, although an online presence is undoubtedly vital, this paper will argue that this alone is not enough to bring collections to prominence - especially those specialist or niche collections which researchers might not expect to find housed in a particular repository.The collection which forms the basis of this paper and which will be used to demonstrate that an online presence is not, on its own, enough to bring specialist collections to prominence - the Hornung Papers, deposited at West Sussex Record Office in 2009 - has had an online presence of sorts since early 2010, when a record of its deposit and a necessarily brief indication of its content were made available via the NRA. Although the collection remains uncatalogued, in December 2012 a basic collection (fonds)-level description was created using Calm ALM cataloguing software and this description is accessible via West Sussex Record Office's Search Online facility. Since March 2012, this basic collection-level description has also been accessible via the Archives Hub, "which provides a gateway to many of the UK"s richest historical archives" by hosting both collection-level descriptions and full catalogues on its website;2 in addition, the collection provided the Hub's feature page during June/July 2013, providing further exposure.3 One of the key benefits of contributing to the Hub is that its content is accessible via Google searches - unlike the content of most in-house online archive catalogues. The anticipation is that this link to Google will enable researchers to identify and access archive collections of which they may not have been aware.Nonetheless, despite this increased online presence, the Hornung Papers remain largely unused and, in effect, can be considered a "hidden collection".4 The purpose of this paper is, therefore, to examine why the collection remains hidden and to identify the barriers which prevent it from being identified and used. The paper will also outline the various attempts which are being made to break down these barriers, and to bring this collection - which has been described as a rare and unique survival by several academics - to light.Background: "Pitt" Hornung, the Sena Sugar Estates and the Hornung PapersIn essence, the Hornung Papers com
{"title":"When and why is a collection “hidden”? Awakening interest in the Hornung Papers at West Sussex Record Office","authors":"N. Court","doi":"10.1017/s0305862x00021920","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/s0305862x00021920","url":null,"abstract":"IntroductionSCOLMA's 2013 conference was based on the Research Library UK (RLUK)'s 2012 report, Hidden Collections, which SCOLMA defined as \"material for which there is no online presence\" in its pre-conference publicity. Many researchers are made aware of collections and documents in the custody of West Sussex Record Office via online sources such as the National Register of Archives (NRA), Access to Archives (A2A) - still an extremely useful resource, even though new catalogues and additions to existing catalogues can no longer be entered - and our own website, using our Search Online facility. The purpose of this paper is not to dispute the importance of an online presence in our increasingly digital world. However, although an online presence is undoubtedly vital, this paper will argue that this alone is not enough to bring collections to prominence - especially those specialist or niche collections which researchers might not expect to find housed in a particular repository.The collection which forms the basis of this paper and which will be used to demonstrate that an online presence is not, on its own, enough to bring specialist collections to prominence - the Hornung Papers, deposited at West Sussex Record Office in 2009 - has had an online presence of sorts since early 2010, when a record of its deposit and a necessarily brief indication of its content were made available via the NRA. Although the collection remains uncatalogued, in December 2012 a basic collection (fonds)-level description was created using Calm ALM cataloguing software and this description is accessible via West Sussex Record Office's Search Online facility. Since March 2012, this basic collection-level description has also been accessible via the Archives Hub, \"which provides a gateway to many of the UK\"s richest historical archives\" by hosting both collection-level descriptions and full catalogues on its website;2 in addition, the collection provided the Hub's feature page during June/July 2013, providing further exposure.3 One of the key benefits of contributing to the Hub is that its content is accessible via Google searches - unlike the content of most in-house online archive catalogues. The anticipation is that this link to Google will enable researchers to identify and access archive collections of which they may not have been aware.Nonetheless, despite this increased online presence, the Hornung Papers remain largely unused and, in effect, can be considered a \"hidden collection\".4 The purpose of this paper is, therefore, to examine why the collection remains hidden and to identify the barriers which prevent it from being identified and used. The paper will also outline the various attempts which are being made to break down these barriers, and to bring this collection - which has been described as a rare and unique survival by several academics - to light.Background: \"Pitt\" Hornung, the Sena Sugar Estates and the Hornung PapersIn essence, the Hornung Papers com","PeriodicalId":89063,"journal":{"name":"African research & documentation","volume":"97 1","pages":"21-33"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2013-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"56843474","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2013-01-01DOI: 10.1017/s0305862x00021968
H. Zell
Creating Postcolonial Literature: African Writers and British Publishers, by Caroline Davis. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013, 255 pp. ISBN 9780230369368 £50.Based on extensive oral testimonies and new archival research in, among others, the archives of Oxford University Press, this is a study about an eclectic but now largely forgotten series of postcolonial literature, the Three Crowns series. At the same time the book presents an insightful examination of the activities of three branches of Oxford University Press in Africa over a period of several decades.The Three Crowns series was launched by OUP in 1962. It was terminated in 1976, although it lived on for a short time thereafter, as OUP branches in Africa were allowed to continue to use the Three Crowns name and logo for their locally published literary titles. The series became the vehicle for the international publication of the works of several prominent African writers such as Wole Soyinka, John Pepper Clark, Joe de Graft, Athol Fugard, Oswald Mtshali, Lewis Nkosi, and Leopold Sedar Senghor, among others. Although small, financially unsuccessful and hence short lived, the series, Caroline Davis says, "provides a unique insight into the process of postcolonial literary production and transcultural relations" (p.1). The study also probes into to two broader questions: how did Britain impose and maintain its cultural dominance over Anglophone African literature beyond the end of former colonisation in the continent; and what role was played by British publishers in the creation of African literature in this period of decolonisation?In much of the literature about the relationship between Western publishers and the African writer there have usually been two opposing strands of thought: one which casts foreign publishers as a benevolent influence in the development and growth of a literary culture in Africa, a 'civilising mission', and the other presenting the publishers as agents of cultural imperialism. It is the author's intention to test some of these assertions by closely examining the publishing strategy of the Three Crowns series, describing how the literature in the series was evaluated and selected, and how the books were produced, marketed and sold. In particular she seeks to establish how OUP "assumed a role as both gatekeeper and 'consecrator' of African literature" and "how it attained the power to confer value on the literature, and what the implications of this were for the literature published" (p.5).Part I of the study surveys the historical and contextual background to literary publishing in Africa, which unfolds in four highly detailed chapters that chart and scrutinise OUP's publishing strategies in colonial and postcolonial Africa, and the activities of OUP's branches in Nigeria, Kenya, and South Africa. In addition to describing the development of the branches' literary lists, it examines the nature of OUP's vision and cultural mission in Africa, issues such as OU
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