Black and Asian Britain seminars

Institute of Commonwealth Studies, in conjunction with the Black and Asian Studies Association

Black and Asian Britain seminars

Seminars September to November: 6 to 7.30 pm, Senate House, University of London, Russell Square, London WC1. Everyone is welcome. You do not have to pre-book/register.

Tuesday, September 14 (Room G37)

Marika Sherwood, Malcolm X’s visits to Africa and Britain.
Historians of Malcolm usually almost ignore these visits: I shall outline his activities and question reasons for these omissions. My book Malcolm X: visits abroad April 1964 – February 1965 will be available at a reduced price.

Tuesday, October 12 (room G34)

Rev. Israel Oluwole Olofinjana, History and Contributions of African Churches in Britain.
The seminar will trace the history of African Churches in Brittan, explore why Africans are starting churches in the UK and their contributions to the British society. Rev. Olofinjana’s recent book Reverse in Ministry and Missions: Africans in the Dark Continent of Europe will be available at a reduced price. (Rev. Olofinjana is the minister of the Crofton Park Baptist Church, Brockley Grove, Lewisham)

Wednesday, 17 November (room G34)

Stephen Bourne will talk about his new book Mother Country which acknowledges the wartime contributions of Britain's Black community to the Home Front in WW2.

Linguistic Human Rights: Policy/Practice in the Commonwealth and Symposium 2010-11

Institute of Commonwealth Studies, School of Advanced Studies

University of London

Linguistic Human Rights: Policy/Practice in the Commonwealth and Symposium 2010-11

Theme (2010-11): Language, Communication and Culture in the Commonwealth

Time: 5.30-7.30 PM


Organiser:
Dr Balasubramanyam Chandramohan PhD (Shef), FHEA, FRSA
bala.chandra@sas.ac.uk
Phones: 020 7862 8866/07779 162674

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The Seminar Series and Symposium examine issues of language policy and practice in the Commonwealth. The Seminars aim to provide an overview of the situation in different areas of Commonwealth, both the ‘new’ and the ‘old’ Commonwealth, by highlighting evolving/current policies and practice that impact on the use of language in a range of domains.

The Symposium in July 2011 will focus on language issues in relation to the work of specific institutions and/or initiatives that cover the Commonwealth as a whole.

The presentations and discussions will be of interest to attendees who have specialist interest in the Commonwealth and also to those with academic and/or general interest in areas such as linguistics, literature, culture and society in the Commonwealth and beyond.

Seminar Series: Autumn Term 2010-11

14th October 2010
Venue: Room G22

Portuguese linguistic legacies in the Indian Ocean Commonwealth: Mozambique, Tanzania, Kenya, India, Sri Lanka, Maldives and Malaysia

Speaker: Dr Shihan de Silva, Jayasuriya, Senior Research Fellow, Institute of Commonwealth Studies

18th November 2010
Venue: Room 275

Balancing Monolingual and Multilingual Imperatives: a policy/practice challenge for the Commonwealth

Speaker: Dr Balasubramanyam Chandramohan, Council for Education in the Commonwealth/Kingston University/Institute of Commonwealth Studies, University of London


9th December 2010
Venue: Room G34

Language and Globalization of Higher Education: A Practitioner's Viewpoint

Speaker: Elizabeth Thussu, Director of Administration, Heythrop College, University of London.

New seminar series on 'International Refugee Law'

New seminar series on 'International Refugee Law'

The Institutes of Advanced Legal Studies and Commonwealth Studies in collaboration with the UNHCR are pleased to announce a new seminar series on 'International Refugee Law'. The series has been inaugurated to mark the 60th anniversary of the UNHCR and the Refugee Convention.


Mr Roland Schilling, the UNHCR Representative to the UK, will open the seminar series on Monday 25 October at 5.30pm at the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies. Following Mr Schilling's opening speech, Dr Alice Edwards (University of Oxford) will give the first seminar of the series on 'Rethinking the detention of asylum-seekers and other migrants: exploring the alternatives - a comparative perspective'.


All seminars are free to attend. All welcome. For further information on the series and forthcoming seminars please contact ials.events@sas.ac.uk

British Library’s Endangered Archives Programme

The British Library’s Endangered Archives Programme


Call for applications


The Endangered Archives Programme at the British Library is now accepting applications for the next round of funding. Detailed information on the timetable, criteria, eligibility and procedures for applying for a grant is available on the Programme’s website. Applications will be accepted in English or in French. The deadline for receipt of preliminary grant applications is 5 November 2010.

Since it was established six years ago, the Programme has so far funded 137 projects in 57 countries in grants totalling £3.7 million. The Programme is funded by Arcadia, in pursuit of one of its charitable aims to preserve and disseminate cultural knowledge and to promote education and research. The aim of the Programme is to contribute to the preservation of archival material worldwide that is in danger of destruction, neglect or physical deterioration.

The Programme’s objectives are achieved principally by awarding grants to applicants to locate relevant endangered archival collections, where possible to arrange their transfer to a suitable local archival home, and to deposit copies with local institutions and the British Library. Pilot projects are particularly welcomed, to investigate the survival of archival collections on a particular subject, in a discrete region, or in a specific format, and the feasibility of their recovery.

To be considered for funding under the Programme, the archival material should relate to a ‘pre-modern' period of a society's history. There is no prescriptive definition of this, but it may typically mean, for instance, any period before industrialisation. The relevant time period will therefore vary according to the society. The endangered archival material will normally be located in countries where resources and opportunities to preserve such material are lacking or limited.

For the purposes of the Programme, the term ‘archival material’ is interpreted widely to include rare printed books, newspapers and periodicals, audio and audio-visual materials, photographs and manuscripts.

The Programme is keen to enhance local capabilities to manage and preserve archival collections in the future and it is essential that all projects include local archival partners in the country where the project is based. Professional training for local staff is one of the criteria for grant application assessment, whether it is in the area of archival collection management or technical training in digitisation.

The Programme is administered by the British Library and applications are considered in an annual competition by an international panel of historians and archivists.

For further details of EAP projects and collections as well as application procedures and documentation, please visit the Programme’s new website: eap.bl.uk

Web: eap.bl.uk

Email: endangeredarchives@bl.uk

West India Committee archives - handlist now available

Another newly added handlist added to the ULRLS Archives catalogue.

The West India Committee was formed in the 18th century, by London merchants, engaged in the West Indian trade, and absentee owners of West Indian estates. The Committee acted as a pressure group for West Indian interests, principally in the support of the sugar and rum trades and, in the first decades of its existence, in opposition to the abolition of the slave trade and then slavery. Following the abolition of slavery the Committee shifted its work firstly towards the encouragement of immigrant labour from India, China and Africa, and then from the 1840s to 1856 to opposing the removal of preferential sugar duties for West Indian sugar. Later in the 19th century, there were further moves to support cane-sugar grown in the West Indies against the new threat of beet sugar which was now being grown in Europe. The West India Committee mounted a strong anti-bounty campaign, as well as seeking alternative markets for West Indian cane sugar in the United States.


When bounties were eventually abolished throughout Europe in 1902, a concerted effort was made to widen the interests of the Committee beyond sugar alone, to the promotion of West Indian trade in general. The organization grew to include many members residing in the West Indies, and the Committee turned to representing their interests. The West India Committee was succeeded by the Caribbean Council for Europe, active also on trade issues, for example in relation to the Lome Agreement, in which the European Union granted some preferential terms to countries within the ACP (African Caribbean and Pacific States) group.

The Commonwealth Studies Library holds a microfilm copy of the early records of the West India Committee

M915 West India Committee minutes 1769-1924 [microfilm] contains:

Minutes and papers of the West India Committee and its predecessors, sub-committees and related organisations, including:

• West India Merchants
• West India Planters and Merchants
• Admiralty Committee of the West India Merchants
• Sub-Committee of the West India Planters and Merchants Appointed to Oppose the Abolition of the Slave Trade
• Literary Sub-Committee of the West India Planters and Merchants
• Merchants, Owners and Masters of Ships
• Jamaica Planters and Merchants
• Country Committees and Proprietors’ Groups: eg. Demerara and Berbice (later British Guiana), Jamaica, Trinidad, and Importers of West Indian Cocoa committees
• British and Colonial Anti Bounty Association
• Board of Commissioners of Grenada and St. Vincent
• Meeting of MPs Interested in the West Indian Colonies

(microfilm copy of original at the University of West Indies, Trinidad)

and two collections of archives from the West India Committee

West India Committee: Acquired Papers ICS96 1750-1988

This collection was acquired with the West India Committee Library and includes reports and accounts and lists of members; the Chinese Emigration Committee Rough Memorandum Book, 1857-1859; Library catalogues; and albums of press cuttings and othe rpapers relating to the work of the West India Committee, its members and events in the West Indies (including albums relating to sugar bounties and free trade, the 1907 earthquake in Jamaica, the West Indian Contingent Committee and the British West Indies Regiment, visits by Sir Algernon Edward Aspinall, Secretary of the West India Committee, to the West Indies, the Imperial College of Tropical Agriculture, Trinidad, royal tours, the West India Club, Hurricane Janet and the West Indies Hurricane Relief Fund, constitutional crisis in British Guiana 1953-54, and elections in British Honduras 1954). The collection also includes watercolours and sketch maps of Tobago, St Vincent and Antigua, by Sir William Young [1749-1815], Governor of Tobago [1807-1815] and a number of photograph albums.

West India Committee: Official Archives ICS97 1799-1999
This collection was donated by the West India Committee in 1999. It contains offical records of the West India Committee from about 1900. These include minutes of Annual General Meetings, Executive Committee, Management Committee and various Sub-Committees; minutes of the West Indian Contingent Committee 1915-1919; minutes of the War Services and Ladies' Committees 1939-1940; minutes of the Merchants' and Shippers' Standing Committee, and of the Passage Accommodation Sub-Committee 1949-1954; minutes of the Committee for Exports to the Caribbean, later the West Indian Trade Advisory Group 1965-1980; meeting papers, Annual Reports, lists of members, financial records and extensive files of correspondence and general files on topics including Post Lome negotiations, the rum trade, the rice trade, the banana trade, and tourism. The collection includes photographs relating to Caribbean personalities and countries.

New archives list - Jewish Settlers in South Africa

Another recent addition to the ULRLS Archives catalogue, is Jewish Settlers in South Africa (ICS88)

During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, significant numbers of Jews emigrated from Eastern Europe, Russia and elsewhere, to South Africa. The numbers from Russia, escaping extreme persecution, were particularly high. Many were attracted by the potential wealth from the gold mines, but success was not guaranteed and a struggle to become established was experienced by most settlers. However, in due course strong Jewish communities emerged in Johannesburg, Pretoria and elsewhere, and some found considerable financial success. Matters were interrupted by the South African War of 1899-1902, during which many Jews were forced to leave, but the influx resumed when peace was restored. In 1903 the Jewish Board of Deputies was established to provide for the welfare of new immigrants.

The records collected together here are a small sample of source material for the history of these events, and include a list of Jews resident in Johannesburg in c.1915-1917, compiled by the Board of Deputies' War Relief Committee for the purpose of raising funds for East European Jewish immigrants; copies of memoirs and biographical accounts of a small number of Jewish immigrants from the period; and copies of articles on the history of Jews in South Africa.

The material was donated to the Institute of Commonwealth Studies by Baruch Hirson, and appears to have been given to him by Riva Krut, who accumulated it in the course of research work for a thesis on the subject. Riva Krut's thesis, 'Building a home and community: Jews in Johannesburg, 1886-1914' is available in the Commonwealth Studies Library.

The papers include a photocopy of a list of Jews resident in central Johannesburg, together with statistical analysis of addresses and occupations, and note of provenance; memoirs and copies of personal papers of individual Jews, notes from interviews and articles about Jews in South Africa.

New archives catalogue additions - Nigeria

Included in the recent batch of handlists added to the ULRLS catalogue are three collections relating to Nigeria


Nigeria: Mid West Affairs: Oba of Benin (ICS92) includes papers dating from 1926 to 1946 concerning the Oba of Benin, including correspondence with the Governor on the revision of the Benin-Warri boundary, 1926; correspondence and papers on links between Eweka II, Oba of Benin and Fio Agbano II, King of Glidji, Togo, 1934; correspondence on request from the Oba for the use of armed Nigerian police during burial ceremony for his mother, 1935; correspondence and papers on alleged libel of Akenzua II, Oba of Benin by H O Davies in article 'My Impressions on Nigeria' in the 'Daily Service', 1940; and correspondence on award of CMG to Akenzua II, 1946.

Nigeria: Mid West State Movement (ICS93) dates from c1956 to 1963 and includes copies of papers on the case for a Mid-West State in Nigeria, 1956-1963; comprising papers produced by the Mid-West Plebiscite Committee, and the Mid-West State Movement, on the campaign for a separate state, with report a tour of the Benin and Delta Provinces. The demand for a separate State or Region by the peoples of the Benin and Delta Provinces of Western Nigeria, the Edo, Urhobo, Isioko, Itsekiri, Western Ibo, Ishan and Afenmai dated back to 1938. After World War Two the demand began to gain momentum. The matter was discussed at the 1957 Conference on the Nigerian Constitution, and the British Colonial Secretary, Alan Lennox Boyd [later Lord Boyd of Merton] appointed a Commission of Inquiry, under Sir Henry Willink to ascertain the facts about the fears of minorities in Nigeria and to propose means of allaying those fears, and to make recommendations on the creation of new states.

J G Wallace papers (ICS111) contain a rough draft of a history of British Law in Northern Nigeria, 1948-1959; and research papers and partial drafts of a history of Benue Province, Nigeria, c1959. The latter include copies of works by others, and of official administrative correspondence and reports, c1928-1959. The two works were originally intended as two volumes of one work; however, the volume on legislation having been completed more readily than that on Benue, Wallace intended to publish it separately. However, there is no evidence that either progressed beyond the state in which these drafts and notes were found. Very little information is known about Wallace apart from a note of his appointments in the Overseas Civil Service in one of the files in ICS111. He was assigned to the Northern Region of Nigeria in 1954, and after passing examinations, was appointed as a member of HM Overseas Civil Service in 1956. In that year he was made a Grade III Magistrate and posted to Nasarawa Division, then became an Administrative Officer Class IV in 1957. In 1958 he was posted in charge of Wukari Division, then of Lafia Division.