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EAP History Archive
1962 December 18
Opening
Address:
A Proposed Conference on the Encyclopedia Africana
by W.E.B. Du Bois
Director of the Secretariat
Accra Ghana, West Africa
December 18, 1962
I wish first to express my
sincere thanks to those of you
here who have
accepted
the invitation of our
Secretariat to participate in
this Conference and thus assist
us in the preparatory work which
we have undertaken for the
creation of an Encyclopaedia Africana
.
You have noted, from letters
cited in our Information Report,
the most gratifying endorsement
from scholars in all sections of
the world of the general aims of
this work. Some of you, however,
ask if an Encyclopaedia Africana
at this time is not premature.
Is this not a too ambitious
undertaking for African scholars
to attempt? Is there enough
scientifically proven
information ready for
publication?
Our answer is that
an Encyclopaedia Africana
is
long overdue. Yet, it is logical
that such a work had to wait for
independent
Africans to carry it our...
It is true that
scientific written records do
not exist in most parts of this
vast continent, but the time is
now for beginning. The
Encyclopaedia hopes to eliminate
the artificial boundaries
created on the continent by
colonial masters. Designations
such as "British
Africa", "French
Africa", "Black
Africa", "Islamic
Africa" too often serve to
keep alive differences which in
large part have been imposed on
Africans by outsiders. The
Encyclopaedia must have research
units throughout West Africa,
North Africa, East, Central and
South Africa, which will gather
and record information for these
geographical sections of the
continent.
The
Encyclopaedia is concerned with
Africa as a whole...
Many of you who have gathered
here from distant lands can, and
I believe will, make valuable
contributions to this
undertaking. And you can assist
us in finding capable African
men and women who can carry the
responsibilities of this work in
their own country and to their
people. For it is African
scholars themselves who will
create the ultimate Encyclopaedia Africana
.
My interest in this
enterprise goes back to 1909
when I first attempted to launch
an Encyclopaedia Africana
while
still teaching history at
Atlanta University in Georgia,
U.S.A. Though a number of
distinguished scholars in the
United States and various
Europeans countries
consented to serve as sponsors,
the more practical need of
securing financial backing for
the projected Encyclopaedia was
not solved and the project had
to be abandoned. Again, in 1931,
a group of American scholars met
at Howard University and agreed
upon the necessity of preparing
an Encyclopaedia of the Negro,
using this term in its broadest
sense. There was much
organizational work and research
done in the preparation, but
once again, the undertaking
could not be carried through
because money could not be
secured. Educational foundations
had doubts about a work of this
kind being accomplished under
the editorship of Negroes.
We are deeply grateful to the
President of Ghana and to the
Government of this independent
African state for inviting us to
undertake this important task
here where the necessary funds
for beginning this colossal work
have been provided.
After all, this is where the
work should be done - in Africa,
sponsored by
Africans,
for Africa. This Encyclopaedia
will be carried through.
Much has happened in Africa
in the last twenty years. Yet,
something of what I wrote in the
Preparatory Volume of the
Encyclopaedia of the
Negro, published in 1945,
will bear repeating now. I
quote:
"... Our knowledge
of Africa today is not, of
course, entirely complete; there
are many gaps
where further information and
more careful study is needed;
but this is the case in almost
every branch of knowledge.
Knowledge is never complete, and
in few subjects does a time
arrive when an Encyclopaedia is
demanded because no further
information is expected. Indeed,
the need for an Encyclopaedia is
greatest when a stage is reached
where there is a distinct
opportunity to
bring together and set down a
clear and orderly statement of
the facts already known and
agreed upon, for the sake of
establishing a base for further
advance and further study."
For these reasons and under
these circumstances it would
seem that an Encyclopaedia Africana
is of vital importance
to Africa as a whole and
to the world
at large.
..
W.E.B. Du Bois (1868-1963)
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William Edward Burghardt Du Bois
"When once the Blacks of
the United States, the West Indies and Africa work and think together, the future of the
Black man in the world is safe." --
Dr. William Edward Burghardt Du Bois,
Founding Director and Secretariat,
Encyclopaedia Africana Project,
April 1962
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