Encyclopaedia Africana Is Well Under Way

Press, Volume CV, Issue 30955, 11 January 1966, Page 7

Encyclopaedia Africana Is Well Under Way

(N.Z.P.A. -Reuter) ACCRA. Work is well under way on the Encyclopaedia Africana which will “project the African image,” past and present, and show that many civilisations flourished on the African continent long before the arrival of the white man.

“We hope to produce 10 volumes and 10 million words in 10 years,” said Dr. W. A. Hunton, the Afro-American head of the secretariat, which is the nucleus of the growing editorial staff in Accra, Ghana.

An editorial board, gathered from 29 African countries, is assisted by national co - operating committees representing 32 countries, if one counts the exiles from the Portuguese colonies of Angola, Mozambique and Guinea, and the Union of

South Africa. A few of the French-speak-ing West African countries are not yet represented—for instance, the Ivory Coast, Guinea, Congo, Brazzaville and Gabon. Professor W. E. Abraham, Pro Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ghana and sometime Fellow of All Souls’ Oxford, is the chairman of the editorial board.

The first volume, expected to be ready for the printers by the end of 1966, will contain 2000 biographies of people no longer living, who have figured prominently in Africa’s history. They will range from the Queen of Sheba to “Auntie” Dede, an active member of President N k r u m a h's Convention People’s Party. Many Boadiceas

The list of strong female characters is a long one. There were so many great queens, of whom little is known outside Africa. They include at least three from Madagascar and more from Zanzibar and Ethiopia. A Liberian Joan of Arc will flicker briefly back to life along with many Boadiceas who were the scourge of generation after generation of European traders and colonists.

Among the biographies will be that of Dr. W. E. B. Du Bois. the first Pan-Africanist and founder of the modern movement for continental unity who, when over 96. came from the United States to Ghana at the special invitation of Dr. Nkrumah to lay down the general plan for the work. His widow is the present Director of Ghana Television. Dr. Hunton sat from 1943-58 on the Council of African Affairs in New York, founded to inform the American public, and particularly the Negroes, about the independence movements all over Africa. Paul Robeson was the chairman of this council. It was in New York that Dr. Hunton met a Gold Coast student destined to become the President of Ghana. Today, the two men are close collaborators. “We do not have an easy time finding the kind of

people we want,” Dr. Hunton said. “They should be Africans, for preference, and authorities on some part of Africa —north, south, west or east. We hope, however, to engage several more trained African scholars during the coming year.” In the volume of introductory articles the editors have decided to devote a tentative 30,000 words to Christianity and a further 30,000 to Islam. Such is the importance attributed to the European trade in slaves, its rise, scope and consequences that it will be given similar amount of space.

There will be individual articles of varying length on about 195 of the specific ethnic groups inhabiting the African continent.

Some 85,000 words have been allocated to the art, music, literature and religion of African peoples, with an analysis of every recognisable kind of music from Akan to Zulu. There will be a general census of the languages currently used in Africa, with 15 general, articles and another 128 on specific languages or language groups. “Pidgin” (European

languages adapted to indigenous pronunciation and expression) is regarded as worth 3000 words. Colonial Powers

The history of each colonial power in Africa and the consequences of their rule will be dealt with in turn. Britain and France will each get 10,000 words; Germany and Portugal 5000: Italy and Belgium 4000; and Spain 8000. Social institutions and political and legal systems in African society will be studied in detail.

The many kinds of marriage in Africa will be examined and compared. Six thousand words are allotted to beliefs and practices pertaining to fertility and barrenness in women, while 12,000 words is the allowance for observances of the attainment of puberty among adolescents. Feuds and blood vengeance are allowed some 2000 words each, while oaths and curses are allotted 3000.

But drums and drumming cannot be dismissed so briefly. Here is something fundamental throughout Africa—lo,ooo words, no less.

And the the language of the talking drums, by which news of important events was sent hundreds of miles across the continent to the complete mystification of the early Europeans, will get a further 6000 words.