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Encyclopaedia Africana Project
"A Pan African Dream Come True"

EAP Legacy  |  EAP Scholars Archive

Legacy Archive Document
Date: 2000 April 18

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EAP Secretariat's Archive
2000 April 18

The Encyclopaedia Africana Project
A briefing on its establishment, management, resources, agenda, achievement and envisaged future of the Encyclopaedia Africana Project.

by Mrs. Grace Bansa
Acting Director of the Secretariat
Encyclopaedia Africana Project
Accra, Ghana, West Africa
April 18, 2000

Establishment

The concept of having authentic history of Africa and African life documented in an organised form may have been considered by many from all over the world. However, the people and structures that were instrumental in formulating a strategy to implement the idea of an Encyclopaedia Africana were the late Drs. W.E.B. Du Bois and Kwame Nkrumah. The enthusiasm of the two received support from Governments of independent African states and the OAU. Efforts towards the realisation of the Encyclopaedia Africana dream culminated in the establishment of the Secretariat for the Encyclopaedia Africana Project (EAP) in Accra, Ghana in 1962. The Secretariat of the EAP has been hosted by the Government of Ghana since its formation and currently functions under the National Council for Tertiary Education of Ghana s Ministry of Education.

Our Mandate

From its inception the mandate of the EAP has been to initiate, facilitate and produce authentic peer-reviewed articles. The central subject of articles must be indigenous Africa and African life. To give structure to the Secretariat s output, articles were to be published in a series of volumes, constituting the Encyclopaedia Africana . Each set of volumes was to cover an aspect of African life such as History, Economic systems, architecture, religion, biographies, medicine etc.

Management

The overall management of the EAP is under a Pan-African committee known as the Standing Committee of the Editorial Board of the Encyclopaedia Africana Project . The Standing Committee is constituted of a member each from participating African Countries. The Committee periodically sets an agenda for the Secretariat and assists the Secretariat in identification of authors. Director of the Secretariat manages the affairs of the Project in consultation with the Chairman of the Standing Committee where necessary.

In addition to the Standing Committee, each participating country has a National Co-operating Committee, which takes care of the affairs of the EAP within its own boundaries.

Resources and Activities

From it inception till 1967 the EAP was funded by contributions from some participating African Countries, the OAU and UNESCO. Since 1967, however, due to various socio-political changes in Africa the absence of both Drs. W.E.B. Du Bois and Kwame Nkrumah, funding sources of the Project have been reduced to that of Ghana Government, which only maintains the Secretariat. Under the conditions, the Standing Committee directed the Secretariat to concentrate on the production of a 20-volume Dictionary of African Biography. Each volume was to cover a country or a group of countries depending upon information available. Activities towards the publication of the biographies are still in progress.

Our Agenda

  • To strengthen infrastructural and human resource capacities of the Secretariat
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  • To peer-review biographical articles covering Nigeria and Egypt for the publication of volumes IV & V of the Encyclopaedia Africana: Dictionary of African Biography®™ .
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  • To activate translation of Libyan articles into English in preparation for publication.
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  • To initiate publication of volumes I, II & III in French.

Our Achievements

In spite of the conditions summarised above the Secretariat, under the dynamism of the Chairman of the Standing Committee, Dr. S.O. Biobaku former Vice Chancellor of the University of Lagos, has managed to publish three volumes of the Dictionary of African Biography-

Volume I - Ethiopia and Ghana

Volume II - Sierra Leone and Zaire

Volume III - South Africa, Botswana, Lesotho and Swaziland

Presently biographical articles covering Nigeria and Egypt are being compiled and organised for peer-reviewing and eventual publication. Articles on Libya, originally written in Arabic, are available to be translated into English for publication.

Our Expectations for the Future

The Secretariat of the EAP has, during 1997, gained hopes to pitch its activities at rates almost comparable to that of initial years of the Project through collaboration with international institutions with similar objectives. Presently, we are affiliated with the Race Relations Institute of Fisk University, USA, through the Institute s Director, Dr. Raymond Winbush. We can also claim improvement in resource allocation to the Secretariat by the Ghana Government. From these resources, we hope to initiate activities centering on the first two items on our immediate agenda, using current information technological tools.

Through the efforts of Dr. Raymond Winbush, EAP Advisor and Ms Prema Qadir, EAP Web Curator, the EAP s needs, efforts and potential were as widely as possible exposed to the world for all to help. 

We are very grateful. 

The EAP remains committed to contributing to the documentation of authentic African history as a contribution to baseline information for lasting development on the African continent.

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Grace Bansa
Acting Director of the Secretariat
EAP Secretariat's Archive

Post Office Box 2797
Accra, Ghana, West Africa

Fax: 011.233.21.779228
Telephone: 011-233-21-776939
e-mail:
eap@africaonline.com.gh

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Mrs. Grace Bansa, Acting Director of the Secretariat
Mrs. Grace Bansa

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Encyclopaedia Africana Dictionary of African Biography
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Encyclopaedia Africana Dictionary of African Biography

Encyclopaedia Africana Project
2000 April 18
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