By Georgia Kerrigan ’27
This academic year, Northwestern’s Melville J. Herskovits Library of African Studies celebrates its 70th anniversary.
The library was founded in 1954 with the personal collection of its namesake, a groundbreaking Northwestern anthropologist and the founder of the Program of African Studies. Herskovits helped anthropology advance past its colonialist roots by advocating the premise of cultural relativism, or understanding cultures within their own terms rather than the anthropologist’s. Over the years, the library has maintained this objective as it has grown, providing researchers a deeper understanding of the continent with each acquisition.
A metal sculpture by Nigerian artist Sokari Douglas Camp, held by the Herskovits Library.
To honor the anniversary, a lunchtime event in October drew about 80 students, faculty and staff from around campus. In remarks at the event, Chris Abani, director of the Program of African Studies, praised the Herskovits as a “place where ancestors live,” and for preserving history that could easily be lost.
“Almost all the knowledge we have about so many things comes through from Africa to other ancient cultures. But nobody puts a name on this knowledge, and so in many ways the most powerful advancements ever made were made by people who erased themselves,” he said. “The vision of this library is that it wants to collect information against erasure.”
He encouraged the community to use the library regularly, because “libraries are powerful. But if a library is not used, it’s not a useful thing,” he said. “An archive is actually a living thing, and it needs tunnels. It needs rabbit holes. Every time you come as a scholar and do work, you open up rabbit holes that others can follow.”
At the Herskovits anniversary event, from left: Libraries Dean Emeritus Sarah Pritchard; Herskovits curator Esmeralda Kale; Chris Abani, director of the Program of African Studies, and Libraries Dean Xuemao Wang
Abani and Herskovits Library Curator Esmeralda Kale performed a brief ritual blessing at the event in an African libation tradition. They sprinkled water — “a primordial thing” from which life evolves, Abani said — while singing and speaking benedictions in Yoruba and English to venerate the space.
“We seek not answers,” Abani intoned. “We seek only to know how best to lie down in front of the mystery so that we can be given more questions.”
According to Kale, the event was a chance to acknowledge the communal nature of the library, but she didn’t want to give the typical “it takes a village” speech.
The Herskovits holds more than 5,000 posters that address African politics, health campaigns, entertainment and social issues, such as this 1969 poster advertising an “International Week of Solidarity with Africa.”
“With the libation, I wanted to make it really meaningful to Africans by putting it in an African context. I wanted the people in the room to understand that one hand cannot wash itself. You need the other hand to do it,” Kale said.
Kale considers the anniversary, “an opportunity to reflect on where we started, how far we’ve come, and the possibilities for the future.”
Though Kale refers to Herskovits today as “the best in the world” of African Studies libraries, she recalled its establishment as far from grandiose. Rather, the collection, which now has over 400,000 volumes, began as a single shelf.
“They began by collecting books on Africa from around Deering Library to give them a separate space,” she said. “Then, they got a donation of newspapers, which became foundational material. Then, they started looking for money, they got a grant, and the collection’s funding was cemented.”
Still, Kale says that while the library has grown significantly, its mission has stayed the same: to educate, celebrate, and make accessible its collection of diverse materials that tell the story of African history, culture, and society.
As for how a library with a notably small staff of three full-time employees achieves such a considerable goal, Kale noted two strategies: taking care not to overburden themselves and relying on collaboration.
Kale is quick to clarify that Herskovits is not a museum, acknowledging that they must channel their resources toward as much as they can do, leaving showcasing as an often unfeasible undertaking. Thus, the open house held extra significance as a rare opportunity to bring out collections, pair them with relevant literature, and curate a cohesive exhibit.
A manuscript from the extensive library of Umar Falke, a 20th century Hausa scholar-trader dedicated to the pursuit and dissemination of Islamic knowledge. Photo by Jasmin Shah.
Naturally, the campus partner most essential to the Herskovits is the Program of African Studies. Kale described PAS as “an umbrella program that brings faculty and students together. It puts people from different departments into disciplinary, collaborative conversation.”
As a part of that conversation, the library is situated among various institutions, from the Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art and the Chicago Art Institute to Northwestern’s Institute for the Study of Islamic Thought in Africa (ISITA), to name a few.
With network support and funding from the Libraries and dedicated endowments, Kale is able to pursue what she identifies as a key goal of her work at the library: “To curate with the past and future in mind. To connect with the past in order to keep young people interested in the future.”
When asked what she wanted for the future of Herskovits, Kale replied simply, “I want us to still be here.”
Georgia Kerrigan is a Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications sophomore