Africa in the MSU Libraries' Special Collections
MSU Libraries Special Collections has extensive Africana collections that attract scholars from far and wide. These include rare books, manuscripts, private papers, cookery books, comic art, and political ephemera. MSU is a major center of African Studies, producing more dissertations on Africa than any other U.S. university over the last ten years. Among the more interesting collections are the following:
Ethiopian Materials. 9 boxes: photocopies of archival materials and other documents deposited by the late Harold Marcus, his students, and others who traveled to Ethiopia.
Islamic Prayerbook and Satchel: Moroccan a manuscript from the early 18th century.
Onuma Ezera Collection of Biafran (Eastern Nigerian) materials. Onuma Ezera was MSU Africana Bibliographer. Includes pamphlets, photographs, and unpublished papers on the University of Nigeria (established with MSU sponsorship), which complement papers in the MSU Archives, as well as documents on the Biafran War.
Ottenberg, Simon. Limba Notes [1978-98]: Research notes on the Limba of Sierra Leone, which complement numerous objects donated by the author to the MSU Museum.
Ryck, Maurice Martin de, Congo manuscripts, ca. 1870-1962. Diaries, correspondence, notes, etc. on the Belgian Congo collected by a Belgian colonial official.
Teleki, Sámuel. East African diaries, in Hungarian, 1886-95; with English translations, 1961-65. Original diaries and translations of Count Samuel Teleki in East Africa, 1887-8.
The American Radicalism Vertical File collection includes several African folios, notably the papers of the Southern Africa Liberation Committee of East Lansing. The Michael Morris South Africa Collection includes material on political violence.
Recent acquisitions include the
private papers of David Hoffman, a Minnesota engineer in central Africa in
1911, Webster family papers, letters by sisters working in East Africa,
1925-45, South African Political Ephemera (party, union, and civil society
ephemera from 1980s-90s, including ballots from the historic 1994 election),
African Political Posters, and ephemera from recent major U.N. Conferences
in Africa--World Conference against Racism, 2001 and World Summit on
Sustainable Development, 2002.
Three significant donations currently in process are the papers of the late Professor Harold Marcus (Ethiopia), papers of Professor James Bingen (West Africa), and papers and field notes of Emeritus Professor John Hunter (medical anthropology).
Special Collections has a rich store of African cookbooks and comic art from many African countries, ranging from Algeria, Senegal and Nigeria to Kenya, Uganda and South Africa, not to mention the well-known Tintin au Congo.
More than forty rare Africana titles published before 1800 are held, including A voyage to Congo by Father Jerom Merolla da Sorrento (London, 1682?) and Substance of the report delivered by the Court of Directors of the Sierra Leone Company (Philadelphia, 1795).
People interested in depositing gifts should contact Peter Berg, Head of Special Collections, (517) 355-3770, berg@msu.edu, Joseph Lauer, Africana Librarian (517) 432-2218 lauer@msu.edu or Peter Limb, Africana Bibliographer (517) 432-4983 limb@msu.edu