Black History Month 2022: Heinemann African Writers Series

By Special Collections|21st October 2022|Collections & Research|0 comments

In 2022, we celebrate the 35th Anniversary of the founding of the Black History Month movement in the UK. As part of the many activities and events that SOAS has brought to its students, staff and general audience during October 2022, SOAS Library is hosting a display of important, original materials from the Heinemann African Writers Series, which is held by our Special Collections department. The display has been curated by SOAS

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Locating Voices of Black, Indigenous and People of Colour in 19th Century Missionary Periodicals

By Special Collections, SOAS Library|29th October 2021|Collections & Research|0 comments

Today’s blog comes from Dr Joanne Davis, Research Associate with the Centre of World Christianity at SOAS.  Following on from her last piece, Jo reflects on a period of research in SOAS Special Collections for a new project, ‘Recovering BIPOC Voices from the Victorian Periodical Press’, which establishes a publishing partnership between SOAS Special Collections, an open access digital humanities initiative One More Voice (onemorevoice.org) which is focused on recovering non-European contributions from Victorian-era British colonial archives, and

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Part 2/ Cook Islander missionaries: recovering hidden histories from missionary archives

By Special Collections, SOAS Library|18th October 2021|Collections & Research|2 comments

This week’s blog marks celebrations of the bicentenary of the arrival of the Christian gospel in the Cook Islands taking place in Aitutaki this month, and picks up from our previous blog which looked at the instrumental and largely forgotten role of indigenous Cook Islanders in the evangelisation of the Pacific region from the early 19th century, and new research which is rediscovering evidence of the personal histories of these men and women

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Cook Islander missionaries: recovering hidden histories from missionary archives

By Special Collections, SOAS Library|2nd October 2020|Collections & Research|6 comments

This week’s blog looks ahead to the bicentenary of the arrival of the Christian gospel in the Cook Islands which will take place in October 2021, and the instrumental and largely forgotten role of indigenous Cook Islanders in the evangelisation of the region from the early 19th century. New research is rediscovering the histories of these men and women, highlighting their personal commitment to what began as a foreign mission

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Black History Month 2019: Thomas Birch Freeman

By Special Collections, SOAS Library|4th October 2019|Collections & Research|0 comments

As SOAS marks Black History Month we continue to hi-light historical materials held by Special Collections, which reveal the long-standing Black presence in the UK, as well as the contributions and achievements of Black peoples in local, national and international arenas. This week we look at papers relating to Thomas Birch Freeman (1809-1890), an Anglo-African Wesleyan Methodist minister, missionary, botanist and colonial official in West Africa. Freeman was born in Twyford, Hampshire, England, on 6th

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Black History Month 2018: Harold Moody

By Special Collections, SOAS Library|26th October 2018|Collections & Research|0 comments

As SOAS marks Black History Month we continue to hi-light historical collections held by SOAS Archives, which reveal the long-standing Black presence in the UK, as well as the contributions and achievements of Black peoples in local, national and international arenas. This week we look at papers relating to Harold Moody (1882-1947), founder and President of the League of Coloured Peoples and active social campaigner for black migrants in London in the 1930s and 1940s. Harold

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Black History Month 2016: Seretse Khama

By Special Collections, SOAS Library|19th October 2016|Collections & Research|0 comments

As SOAS marks Black History Month we continue to hi-light historical collections held by SOAS Archives, which reveal the long-standing Black presence in the UK, as well as the contributions and achievements of Black peoples in local, national and international arenas. This week we look at papers in the archives relating to Seretse Khama (1921-1980), the first President of Botswana, who spent some of his early life in Britain. He is also the subject of a

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Black History Month 2015: Malagasy art in the archives

By Special Collections, SOAS Library|15th October 2015|Collections & Research|4 comments

To mark Black History Month 2015, this week’s blog highlights the presence of art works by two renowned Malagasy artists, Emile Ralambo and James Rainimaharosoa, in the collections at SOAS Archives, and reflects more broadly on the strength of the Madagascar collections at SOAS, which have attracted the interest of academic researchers from around the world and also the Malagasy community within Britain, through our contact with the Anglo-Malagasy Society.

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Archives & Special Collections Open Day, October 2014

By Special Collections, SOAS Library|11th November 2014|Teaching & Learning|0 comments

On 8th October 2014, SOAS Archives opened its’ doors to all SOAS staff and students for the second Open Day of this year. Aimed particularly at reaching out to those who are new to SOAS, the Open Day followed fast on the heels of Welcome Week and saw 60 visitors who came on behind-the-scenes tours of the archive store rooms and took the opportunity to see the extensive display of

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Black History Month 2014: Archives of africa95

By Special Collections, SOAS Library|31st October 2014|Collections & Research|0 comments

As SOAS marks Black History Month we continue to highlight historical collections held by SOAS Archives, which reveal the long-standing Black presence in the UK, as well as the contributions and achievements of Black peoples in local, national and international arenas. This week we look at the archives of africa95, a registered company with charitable status founded in 1992 to organise a nationwide season of the arts of Africa to be held in the UK in the last

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