Hostname: page-component-77c89778f8-9q27g Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-16T11:01:42.629Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Obscured if Not Hidden: Records Relating to Africa in the National Archives of the Uk (TNA)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 April 2022

Mandy Banton
Mandy Banton*
Affiliation:
Institute of Commonwealth Studies, University of London.
Get access

Extract

In August 1841 twelve little boys boarded the British steam ship Albert. They were sons of the village chief at Aboh on the River Niger. The ship's surgeon, James McWilliam, noted that they were about the same age, and had been circumcised. He added: “many of them had the hair cut close or shaved leaving tufts and lines describing diamonds and other angular figures …” The drawing in figure 1 is by John Duncan, the ship's master at arms. McWilliam describes the chief and his wives - their physical appearances, clothing and ornamentation, commenting in particular on their coral jewellery. He writes about a ceremony marking the signing of a treaty.

Type
Articles
Information
African Research and Documentation , Volume 123 , 2013 , pp. 3 - 13
Copyright
Copyright © African Research & Documentation 2013

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Notes

1 This article is based on a paper delivered at the 2013 SCOLMA Conference, ‘Hidden Archives in African Studies’

2 Rush, Jill & Mandy, Banton, ‘Improving access to modern African sources at the National Archives of the United Kingdom’, African Research & Documentation No. 93 2003, pp. 39-46.Google Scholar

3 Foreign Office Correspondence 1906, Part 1, Africa Department (FO 367/1-35), (The List and Index Society, No. 338, 2010), ISBN 978-1-906875-23-7

4 Banton, Mandy (2012): ‘Destroy? “Migrate“? Conceal? British Strategies for the Disposal of Sensitive Records of Colonial Administrations at Independence’, Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History, 40:2, 321-335.CrossRefGoogle Scholar