 EAP Editorial Board Archive
1997 August 28
Statement
from the Chairman of the EAP Editorial Board
by
Dr. Saburi O. Biobaku
Chairman of the Board of Directors
Encyclopaedia Africana Project
Accra, Ghana, West Africa
August 28, 1997
Dr. W.E.B. Du Bois, championed by Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, the
first President of Ghana, established the Secretariat for the: Encyclopaedia Africana Project in Accra, in 1962, under the auspices of the Ghana Academy of
Sciences as the first Director and after his death, in 1963, it became a Pan-African
Project in accordance with his wish.
It was present at the transformation in Accra in 1963 and
from a foundation member of the International Editorial Board and Standing Committee I
later became the third Chairman of the Board in succession, on to a Ghanaian and a
Tunisian scholar respectively.
We owe it to the foresight and tenacity of purpose of
successive Ghanaian Governments. Since then the Secretariat has been wholly
supported financially by the Government of Ghana.
The
Encyclopaedia Africana Project was accorded observer status by the
Organization of African Unity (OAU), replaced by the African
Union (AU) (as of July 9, 2002) which gave us a small annual subvention for a time, as well as
circularised all the member states to grant us financial assistance.
Only the Governments of Nigeria and Sierra Leone responded
once but we all know that most African States are battling now-a-days with acute budgetary
problems.
Nevertheless, we have succeeded in
producing three magnificent volumes of African Biographies and three more are in
progress.
A new problem has, however,
arisen: writers
now demand to be paid for their contributions and the Secretariat cannot cope with this,
in addition to its chronic under funding. We are, not withstanding, determined to
keep alive Dr. W.E.B. Du Bois' dream, as we press on with the task of ensuring that all
African countries have their own volumes of African Biographies before long.
It is in this regard that we welcome the fruitful
cooperation, which we are receiving from the Fisk University Race Relations
Institute, the National Council for Black Studies, our other friends in the
United States as well as Dr. David
Graham Du Bois and Dr. Gamal
Gorkeh Nkrumah, sons of
the grand founders of the Encyclopaedia Africana Project.
We appeal to all
African Americans, who cherish the
African Heritage, which they share with us, to come to our aid with funds to enable us
purchase modern equipment and to pay for articles from all parts of Africa.
Now is the
time to ensure that Dr. Du Bois dream is truly alive, not to substitute it with
another!
Sincerely,
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