Basil Davidson, a notable British journalist, historian of Lusophone Africa, and activist passed away last week.  The UK’s Guardian paper published an extensive obituary.  One of his many accomplishments was to be one of the first Western journalists to accompany the MPLA guerrilla movement in Angola, fighting to overthrow Portuguese colonial rule, as well as his coverage of subsequent liberation movements and civil strife in Eritrea.  From 1969 - 1985 he served as President of the UK’s Anti-Apartheid Movement, publishing a series of articles in the New Statesman exposing the horrors of the apartheid system and causing him to be banned as a “prohibited immigrant” from South Africa.

JSTOR’s Struggles for Freedom in Southern Africa collection includes numerous full text examples of Basil’s work such as some important monographs, pamphlets, and articles that he authored.  The JSTOR archival collections also contain a fascinating record of his scholarly publishing as well as critical readings of his own texts and ideas.  A fascinating life that contributed much to our contemporary understanding of Africa, but perhaps even more important, an excellent example of an individual who pursued social justice on the continent and the expansion of human awareness about Africa’s complexities and rich cultures and histories.

Later this weekend, Africa’s first world cup tournament ever will conclude in a Sunday match with Spain vs. the Netherlands.  Two European soccer teams will fight for first place and the world championship.  There were a lot of lessons for the world.  All the paranoia and hysteria about South Africa’s criminality never materialized and the world was definitely treated to a dazzling array of football skill and international camaraderie.  And yet, it is important to appreciate and remember how far South Africa has traveled, and how much so many have sacrificed, in order to rebuild this nation from shunned pariah to the continent’s super star.  We are proud of South Africa and we congratulate all those who ensured that the legacy of fair, competitive sport amongst and between all peoples and nations, that this could become one of the lasting legacies of the anti-apartheid movement and the new South Africa.

A couple of weeks ago, two widely disseminated stories appeared online first in Fast Company magazine and then also in ICON Magazine (see here and here) describing with wonderful detail the work of Prof. Heinz Ruther and his Zamani project. For many years, this team has been traveling through various parts of Africa, working with local government and heritage officials to document and create digital 3D models of various sites and landscapes. To date, the African Cultural Heritage Sites and Landscapes database includes detailed spatial, visual, and contextual documentation for 11 sites and landscapes.  This cutting edge online resource provides educators and students with a unique and diverse view of Africa’s living heritage. From natural landscapes that include vast irrigation channels and settlements from hundreds of years ago in the great Rift Valley (Engaruka) to the rock hewn churches in Ethiopia’s highlands (Lalibela) - this resource remains one the only academic databases available for teaching and research that combines content and data from over a dozen global partners focusing on Africa’s diverse and unique patrimony.  Courses and syllabi that cover archaeology in Africa, African civilizations, or African cultural production will all benefit from the unique resources available in this JSTOR collection.

A JSTOR awareness and training workshop will be held at the University of Zambia, Lusaka on May 26th, 2010. Participants are expected from among librarians, research and teaching staff as well as postgraduate students from the University of Zambia and other JSTOR participating institutions in Lusaka. The workshop will be hosted by University of Zambia Library and conducted by Rahim Rajan, Content Development Manager, and Siro Masinde, Regional Coordinator for Africa, who will be in Lusaka to attend the eLearning Africa 2010 Conference, May 26-28, 2010.The workshop is part of JSTOR’s efforts to increase awareness and enhance usage of JSTOR resources in Africa. The African Access Initiative was launched in 2006 by waiving participation fees for African non-profit and academic institutions.

 JSTOR has a long history of capacity building through education and outreach on the African continent, including previous stops in

• Ibadan (University of Ibadan) and Kano (Bayero University), Nigeria
• Nairobi, Kenya (for both a symposium and a GIS workshop)
• Dakar, Senegal (for eLearning 2009 Conference related workshops at Cheikh Anta Diop University)
• Tunisia and Egypt (training workshops at IHEC and Tunis El-Minar Universities, Cairo and Ain Shams University)
• Accra, Ghana (for eLearning 2008 and training workshop at the University of Ghana, Legon)

In our continuing collaboration with the British Institute in Eastern Africa, we are pleased to release a collection consisting of over 1800 archival images, slides, notebooks, and documents collected by the late Neville Chittick during his field work and visits to Somalia in the early 1960’s.  These collections provide valuable and useful visual imagery with which scholars can conduct further research and investigation, as well as useful digital content to introduce these cultural landscapes and historic geographies to students and researchers who may never have an opportunity to visit Somalia.

To see these materials, please click here.

This collection provides us with a rich glimpse of various monuments, urban, mountainous, and coastal environments, as well as religious monuments (of various faith communities) prior to the destructive civil wars that began in the 1970’s and that continue today. It is by no means hyperbole to mention that some of these sites and places may not exist today, or 40 years from now.

Somalia has a rich and interconnected history with the Indian Ocean and the East African coast - surely one that even predates the arrival of Muslims. JSTOR’s archival collections include a number of fascinating articles relevant to this collection including one by Dr. Mark Horton that explores trade and other connections between medieval East Africa and the Indian Ocean, and another by Dr. Felix Chami that provides an overview of archaeological surveys and expeditions along the East Africa coast.   There are also excellent articles that describe the arts and cultural contributions of Somalia in particular.

For example, this description of Mogadishu from an article in the journal African Arts by Mary Jo Arnoldi precedes an excellent introduction of material culture and art objects from Somalia:

“Mogadishu, now the capital city of Somalia, was one of the first Muslim settlements on the East African coast and its first secure harbor. Though it had been settled long before the arrival of Islam in the seventh century, this expansion made it an important commercial center for the trade of cloth, ivory, hides, slaves, spices, cattle and porcelain with merchants from Arabia, the Persian Gulf, Indonesia and China. Ibn Battuta in 1331 writes of Mogadishu as an enormous sized town over which presided the Sultan or Shaikh. Mogadishu was for a while in the sixteenth century under the control of the Portuguese and then fell under the suzerainty of the Sultan of Zanzibar in 1871.”

In April 2010, Dr. Siro Masinde and Rahim Rajan visited Bayero University of Kano in northern Nigeria and to the University of Ibadan to provide two half day training workshops to faculty and librarians from the University, as well as dozens of faculty and librarians from neighboring institutions across northern Nigeria - including those from Zaria, Kaduna, Katsina, Maiduguri, and Sokoto. In total, over 100 faculty and librarians attended the two sessions. This training was generously funded by a grant to JSTOR from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. Access to all JSTOR collections is freely available to all non-commercial institutions in Africa (this includes NGO’s, government organizations, museums, secondary schools, etc.) as part of JSTOR’s Africa Access Initiative.  We have recently loaded some photos from the recent workshops.  Safe and reliable supply of electricity and the exorbitant price of bandwidth were two leading obstacles, we were particularly heartened by the drive and ingenuity of the librarians and scholars to figure out ways to still make use of these powerful online educational resources.  They are making full use of whatever information they can access today and using that knowledge to create innovative solutions to solve these issues.

This weekend, scholars, archivists, librarians, and researchers from liberal arts colleges across the country will meet at Denison University, Ohio to promote the importance of the study of Africa in the United States.  Denison University has particular significance for the history of the founding of JSTOR (as some may already know).  Rahim Rajan is participating in an engaging session on Saturday afternoon on building courses on Africa in the Social Sciences and Sciences.  If you are planning on attending, please introduce yourself to Rahim.  Here is a link to the Africa Network website as well as this weekend’s program.  Hope to see you there!

Last week, Dr. Siro Masinde and Rahim Rajan conducted a series of training workshops to librarians, researchers, and graduate students from a range of academic and research institutions in  South Western Nigeria.  The workshop was held at the University of Ibadan - one of Nigeria’s oldest and most prestigious universities and centers of learning and research. The workshops were organized under the leadership and supervision of  Dr. Benedict Oladele, Chief Librarian of the University’s Kenneth Dike Library.  The workshops covered various fundamentals in the use of e-resources, while also providing these individuals with a deeper understanding of ITHAKA’s mission and range of activities.  These workshops were generously funded by a grant to JSTOR from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.  The MacArthur Foundation has a number of philanthropic projects in Nigeria - more information about those initiatives is available here.

The American Political Science Association (APSA) is pleased to announce a call for applications from individuals who would like to participate in a July 19- August 6, 2010 workshop on “Global Perspectives on Politics and Gender” in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.  This workshop is designed for university and college faculty in the social sciences residing in Africa, who have completed their Ph.D. and are in the early stages of their academic career. All workshop fellows must be engaged actively in an empirical research project in political science or an area of inquiry related to politics. Fellows should be working on a manuscript, paper, book chapter, or article that can be developed during the workshop into an eventual article-length publication.  Program announcements, the 2010 Application Form, and more information about the workshop can be found online at the APSA Africa Workshops project website, www.apsanet.org/africaworkshops. The application deadline is April 2, 2010.  Founded in 1903, the American Political Science Association is a major professional society for individuals engaged in the study of politics and government.

This past Sunday, the world remembered those killed 50 years ago in Sharpeville, South Africa.  This event was of great historical importance both for the region and for galvanizing momentum in the civil rights movement in the US. This article and the following excerpt from an article in the Guardian remind us of the important sacrifice made on that day and the important work that remains.

“Sunday marks the 50th anniversary of the day that changed the course of South African history. When police opened fire on thousands of unarmed protesters, killing 69 and injuring about 180, they inadvertently provided a catalyst for decades of armed struggle and forced the rest of the world to confront the iniquity of apartheid. White minority rule finally collapsed in 1994. Two years later it was in Sharpeville that the country’s first black president, Nelson Mandela, signed a new constitution.”

The journal Africa Today (published by Indiana University Press) had an insightful series of articles about the massacre in their May 1960 issue, including a eyewitness account of the shooting as well as a chilling excerpt of a speech made by Bernadus G. Fourie, the regime’s then Ambassador to the United Nations. JSTOR’s Struggles for Freedom in Southern Africa collection contains a wealth of important primary source and historical materials about the massacre including pamphlets (see below as an example), interviews with witnesses and victims, and various UN reports and investigations into the massacre.