Concerning the Status of the Encyclopaedia Africana

by David Graham Du Bois
and Gamal Gorkeh Nkrumah
August, 19, 1998

Accompanying the announcement of the formation of the:  Du Bois Encyclopaedia Africana Committee by the Advisory Board of the Race Relations Institute at Fisk University, Nashville, Tennessee, USA, Advisory Board members David G. Du Bois, son of W.E.B. Du Bois and Gamal Gorkeh Nkrumah, son of the first President of Ghana, Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah issued the following statement:

The Du Bois Encyclopaedia Africana Committee has been created to facilitate the realization of the dream of scholar, activist, Father of Pan Africanism W.E.B. Du Bois.  That dream envisioned a scientific and authentically African Compendium of the known facts concerning African Life, History and Culture; essentially a work of and by Africans, situated on the African continent, directed by Africans that welcomes the participation of those non-Africans whose work has contributed to an accurate interpretation of African Life, History and Culture. 

To realize this dream W.E.B. Du Bois was persuaded by the first President of independent Ghana, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, to permanently relocate in Accra, Ghana in 1961, as Director of the Secretariat for an Encyclopaedia Africana®™, a post he actively executed up to his death in Accra, in August 1963. 

Despite the devastating 1966 coup that overthrew the government of Kwame Nkrumah, followed by a series of political upheavals and changes of government over the years, near economic collapse in Ghana, economic and political difficulties throughout the African continent, and charges of internal corruption, the Secretariat of the Encyclopaedia Africana Project, executor of the dream of W.E.B. Du Bois, has survived.  Under the leadership of its Editorial Board Chairman, Nigerian scholar, Dr. S.O. Biobaku and the Directorship of Ghanaian administrator Mrs. Grace Bansa, the Secretariat has produced three (3) handsome volumes of the Encyclopaedia Africana®™ . 

Recognizing the vastness of the task to correct four centuries of omissions, distortions, bias  interpretations and the bald face lies of most European “scholarship” and popular image making of Africa and its peoples, on the continent and throughout the Diaspora, we welcome all genuine attempts to provide the truth, both for scholarship and for popular consumption.  But, we assert unequivocally, that it is Secretariat of the Encyclopaedia Africana Project, located in Accra, Ghana, under the direction of Africans that is carrying forward the long held dream of  W.E.B. Du Bois. 

Unfortunately, the Secretariat's work has been severely curtailed by the years of political uncertainty and turmoil in Ghana and on the African continent, and an extreme lack of resources.  This situation has been so serious that in order to survive the Secretariat has had to temporarily alter the original plan of the Encyclopaedia Africana®™, drawn up under the direction and guidance of W.E.B. Du Bois, President Nkrumah, and carried forward after the death of Dr. Du Bois by U.S. scholar, Dr. W. Alpheus Hunton.  

It is the objective of the Du Bois Encyclopaedia Africana Committee of the Race Relations Institute to assure that the original vision of W.E.B. Du Bois and Kwame Nkrumah for an authentic Encyclopaedia of Africa is realized.  Toward this end, we hereby appeal to those of the world community committed to truth, to the final removal of the Color Line and to the oneness of the Human Family, to support this effort.

Signed: