by Esmeralda M. Kale, George & Mary LeCron Foster Curator of the Melville J. Herskovits Library of African Studies
In addition to answering your questions, revising our LibGuides and identifying e-books and resources, the Herskovits Library has acquired a few new items, which will be available for use once we return to the Herskovits Library. These are just a few of them.
A recent addition to our collection of pop art are two more images by New York-based Ghanaian artist Dennis Owusu-Ansah. They should be of interest to the younger generation of students that often visit us. There has been a resurgence of interest in hairstyles and this has led to an increase in images all over the internet, in magazines and publications. Have you noticed images of women’s hair threaded in bright colors or braided with African fabric? It is almost impossible to resist picking up “African Roots;” it really is a nice connection between African hair and the continent of Africa. The second piece speaks to the theme of freedom and social justice and links notable African figures with African American ones. “Freedom Fighters” connects Kwame Nkrumah, Nelson Mandela, Marcus Garvey, and Martin Luther King. We hope both of these items will generate a great deal of conversation while connecting the past to the present.
We recently received a small collection of missionary bibles in several African languages: Ga, Amharic, Bali, Duala, Hausa, Temme, Nama, Ovambo, Shambala, Tshi (Chwee), and Mungaka to name just a few.
- The Gospels of St. Matthew and St. John, in the Accra Language, translated from the original Greek by A. W. Hanson, chaplain of Cape Coast Castle. London, British Bible Society, 1843. 2 ff., 169 pp.
- Novum Testamentum domini nostri et servatoris Jesu Christi […] in linguam Amharicam vertit Abu-Rumi Habessinus, edited by Thomas Pell Platt. London, Watts, Soc. ad Biblia sacra in Britannia, 1829. English and Amharic titles, 811 pp.
- Am-bóšra trika Yísua masia mo ama-gbal ma Mátai o-som /The Gospel of Jesus Christ according to St. Matthew, translated into Temne by Rev. Chris. Fred. Schlenker. Stuttgart, Steinkopf for the British Bible Society in London, 1865. 100 pp.
The Imperial British East Africa Company: Incorporated by Royal Charter 3rd September, 1888 [London, various printers, 1887–90] was also added to the collection. It consists of treatises, parliamentary papers, regulations, agreements concerning slave trade, reports, and letters documenting the establishment of British influence and commerce in East Africa. It strengthens our collection of materials on the scramble for Africa and British interests in East Africa during this period. “The volume opens with the concession given by the Sultan of Zanzibar, Sayyid Bargash Bin-Said, to the British East African Association (the precursor of the IBEAC) in 1887. Zanzibar, Pemba, adjacent coastal regions and even some inroads reaching as far as the Congo River had been part of the Omani overseas territories since the late 17th century;” however, in the second half of the 19th century European powers, especially Germany, showed keen interest in establishing their influence. With the signing of the Heligoland-Zanzibar Treaty between the United Kingdom and the German Empire in 1890 Zanzibar became a British protectorate.
Staying within the same period but moving south, another recent addition is a small collection of materials relating to the borders of what would become present-day Eswatini (formerly Swaziland). Made up of notes and letters of Francis de Winton, the British commissioner to Swaziland, this archive provides the user with a perch on de Winton’s shoulder to observe as members of the joint commission negotiated the fate of the kingdom. The commissioners included de Winton representing Britain, Theophilus Shepston, and Captain Robert Baden Powell representing Swaziland. Also present were Generals Nicolaas Jacobus Smit and Petrus Jacobus Joubert representing Pretoria and Mr. Van Alpen. “The material provides much added insight into the workings of the committee, the ambitions of, and complications faced by, each party, as well as valuable unpublished first-hand testimony” by many of the participants.