The German Maps at the East Africana Collection, University Library of Dar Es Salaam

2006 ◽  
Vol 33 ◽  
pp. 495-498
Author(s):  
Karin Pallaver

The documents originated by the German colonial administration in German East Africa are located in two main archives: the Tanzania National Archives in Dar es Salaam, where they are identified under the name “German Records,” and the Bundesarchiv in Berlin, where they are collected under the classification R 1001. This note aims to provide some general information regarding a part of the German Records, referred to as “German Maps,” which is collected at the University Library of Dar es Salaam.The German Records are a part of the holdings of the Tanzania National Archives, which also include the records of the British administration and various documents of the post-independence period. The German Records are a very well-known source for the history of the German presence in East Africa and they can be divided in two main categories: the documents of the Central Administration, cataloged with the numbers G 1-G 65, and the Private Archives, with the classification G 66-G 86. These records are very well cataloged and easily accessible thanks to the work of archival reorganization done by Peter Geissler between 1967 and 1969. His work was published in 1973 in a two-volume guide with the title Das Deutsch-Ostafrika-Archiv: Inventar der Abteilung “German Records” in Nationalarchiv der vereinigten Republik Tansania, Dar es Salaam. This guide offers a very useful overview of the records of the German colonial administration and is available for consultation in the Reading Room of the Tanzania National Archives. Also available in the Reading Room is a manual catalog which, in some cases, could be helpful in finding some documents that, owing to print errors in the edited catalog, have become difficult to find.

1997 ◽  
Vol 24 ◽  
pp. 413-429
Author(s):  
Jeffrey C. Kaufmann

The Malagasy proverb “You can't catch a locust if your armpit is not close to the ground” (Ny valala tsy azo raha tsy andrian'elika) perhaps characterizes archival research in Antananarivo, the capital of Madagascar. There are at least eight research facilities with archival materials in town: the National Archives (Foiben'ny Arisivam-Pirenena Malagasy); the Academie Malgache; CIDST (Centre d'Information et de Documentation Scientifique et Technique); the National Library (Tranomboky-Pirenena); the University Library; and three church archives (American Lutheran, Norwegian Lutheran, and Catholic). In this paper I give some background information on the collections in the National Archives, outline how to use the facilities, provide an annotated bibliography of the finding aids there, and give some tips for one's stay in Antananarivo.Madagascar's National Archives inherited many documents from the monarchical period. At the beginning of the colonial administration, the French deposited royal documents at the Queen's Palace (Rova) in Antananarivo. During their occupation they added documents from the territorial and central administrations. The whole collection was transferred to French headquarters before the Malagasy direction of Civil Affairs was created. On 1 March 1958 the Service des Archives de Madagascar was instituted. From then on, the archives have been under the jurisdiction of the head of government.The National Archives are remarkable for their materials on the following topics: the history of the Malagasy people; their customs and practices; and their way of thinking that distinguishes them from the majority of other people. Moreover, the National Archives have collections that do not exist in other libraries, such as the Academie Malagasy and CIDST.


1931 ◽  
Vol 25 (3) ◽  
pp. 700-703
Author(s):  
Joseph S. Roucek

The law for the reorganization of central administration and the law on local administration (July 20, 1929) sponsored by the National Peasant government of Roumania have recently been put into effect. Both measures were drafted by Professors Negulescu, of the University of Bucharest, and Alexianu, of the University of Cernauţi. Their adoption comprises one of the most thorough governmental reforms in the history of the Balkans.The structure of the Roumanian government was, until very recently, almost completely copied from the French system. Roumania was a typical example of a unitary organization. The whole power of government was centralized in Bucharest. Practically all powers of local government were derived from the central authority, and were enlarged and contracted at the will of Bucharest. The whole system lent itself admirably to the domination of the National Liberal party, guided up to 1927 by Ion I. C. Brǎtianu, and after his death by his brother, Vintilǎ I. C. Brǎtianu, who died last year.Since the strength of the National Peasant party, which assumed the reins in 1928, lies largely in the provinces acquired at the close of the World War, a decentralization of government was to be expected. The bitter resentment of Maniu and his associates toward the over-centralization which favored the policies of the Bratianus forced the recent overhauling of the governmental structure, tending toward federalism—a form which takes cognizance of the differences of the past and present between the old kingdom and the new provinces and attempts to extend democratic features of self-rule to the electorate. At the same time, it attempts to secure bureaucratic expertness.


2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 55-75
Author(s):  
Agnieszka Gołda

This article describes the didactic activities of Stefan Vrtel-Wierczyński, a lecturer in the Faculty of Humanities at the University of Poznań. Between 1928 and 1937, the director of the University Library also gave classes in the history of Polish literature, bibliography, bibliology and librarianship, supporting the seminar of the history of Polish literature by Tadeusz Grabowski, Stanisław Dobrzycki and Roman Pollak. The content of his classes is characterised and the most important elements of their organisation are indicated.


1995 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 7-11 ◽  
Author(s):  
András Riedlmayer

Three years have passed since the beginning of the war in Bosnia. Amidst the reports of human suffering and atrocities, another tragic loss has gone largely unnoted—the destruction of the written record of Bosnia’s past.On 25 August 1992, Bosnia’s National and University Library, a handsome Moorish-revival building built in the 1890s on the Sarajevo riverfront, was shelled and burned. Before the fire, the library held 1.5 million volumes, including over 155,000 rare books and manuscripts; the country’s national archives; deposit copies of newspapers, periodicals and books published in Bosnia; and the collections of the University of Sarajevo. Bombarded with incendiary grenades from Serbian nationalist positions across the river, the library burned for three days; it was reduced to ashes with most of its contents. Braving a hail of sniper fire, librarians and citizen volunteers formed a human chain to pass books out of the burning building. Interviewed by ABC News, one of them said: “We managed to save just a few very precious books. Everything else burned down. And a lot of our heritage, national heritage, lay down there in ashes.” Aida Buturovic, a librarian in the National Library’s exchanges section, was shot to death by a sniper while attempting to rescue books from the flames.


2010 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Noor Iqbal

The Glyde mural in the University of Alberta’s Rutherford Library is a testament to the history of Alberta as it was understood by white society in the 1950s. A contemporary viewer described the painting as depicting “the civilizing influences in the early life of the Province.” The prominent historical heroes in the mural represent the main institutions that were involved in this process of ‘civilizing the savages'. An artefact of modern colonial racism, it has overshadowed the threshold of the library’s South reading room since 1951. This article brings the ideas of several historical theorists to bear on the impact and implications of the historical memory invoked by the mural.


2003 ◽  
Vol 30 ◽  
pp. 253-282
Author(s):  
Carol Sicherman

Once upon a time, in the euphoric 1960s, a new generation of historians of Africa undertook to write the history of Africa and Africans through the ages, overturning previous Western suppositions that Africa had no precolonial history worth investigating. As J.D. Hargreaves has written, they were “excited by the challenge to apply their craft to the continent which Hegel had judged ‘no historical part of the world’.” Among the explorers of the largely unmapped territories of prccoloniai history were members of the Makerere Department of History and their students, many of whom were to become professional historians. This essay sketches the construction of a modern Department of History at Makerere, a task requiring a new curriculum and a new staff.Makerere began in 1922 as a government technical school for Africans. Courses in medicine and teacher training soon replaced the original more “vocational” instruction in carpentry, surveying, mechanics, and the like. The next several decades saw an evolution into a “higher college,” preparing students from all over East Africa for examinations leading to university degrees. By the late 1930s, a top-level commission recommended fulfilment of an early forecast that Makerere would one day become a university college. In the meantime, as World War II put off any substantial changes, it loomed ever greater as the legendary “mountain” that only the best could ascend. In 1950, finally fulfilling the forecast, Makerere joined in a Special Relationship with the University of London to become the University College of East Africa.


1968 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 104-106
Author(s):  
John Lonsdale

This year it was the turn of Dar es Salaam to act as host to the social scientists, now numbering nearly 200, from the three constituent colleges of the University of East Africa, together with visitors from the Universities of Malawi and Zambia, from Tanzanian government ministries, and places as widely separated as Kinshasa and Leeds. As at last year's conference (reported by Martin Lowenkopf in The Journal of Modern African Studies, IV, 4, 1966), the discussions were trans-disciplinary, even if the tight timetable of parallel disciplinary panels prevented delegates from taking full advantage of this. This reporter was unable to range far beyond the history meeting-room.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document