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The Encyclopaedia Africana
Du Bois had long advocated and pursued this encyclopedia project. I also have listed relevant secondary sources which can be freely accessed online.
Robert W. Williams [Bio] LATEST LINK (As of 20 May 2008)
A Secondary Source on the Encyclopaedia Africana
"WEB Du Bois, Encyclopedia Africana and Nelson Mandela", written by Henry Louis Gates Jr., is an essay within The Meaning of Mandela: A Literary and Intellectual Celebration, edited by Xolela Mangcu (Cape Town: HSRC Press, 2004). Gates discusses Du Bois' long-term goal of an Encyclopedia project and relates it to Gates' Africana Encyclopedia project; along the way Gates details various aspects of their respective lives and endeavors. In the last sentence of the essay Gates mentions Mandela by name. Gates writes that his Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African and African American Experience is "dedicated to the memory of William Edward Burghardt Du Bois, and in honour of Nelson Mandela." The essays by Cornel West and Wole Soyinka, also included in this anthology, discuss Mandela more directly and extensively.
At the HSRC Press [Download page for the entire anthology]www.hsrcpress.ac.za/downloadpdf.php?pdffile=files%2FPDF%2F2156
[PDF: ~104 KB]
PRIMARY SOURCES
"A Statement Concerning the Encyclopaedia Africana Project." As Director of the Secretariat for the project, DuBois issued this statement on 1 April 1962 in Accra, Ghana.
Encyclopaedia Africana Project (Accra, Ghana)http://www.endarkenment.com/eap/legacy/620401duboisweb.htm
"Opening Address: A Proposed Conference on the Encyclopedia Africana." Du Bois made this address on Encyclopaedia Africana Project (Accra, Ghana)http://www.endarkenment.com/eap/legacy/621218duboisweb.htm
SECONDARY SOURCES ON THE ENCYCLOPAEDIA AFRICANA
"A Brief History - Encyclopaedia Africana: Dictionary of African Biography®™" by Raymond A. Winbush.
INFLUENCE EXERTED BY THE ENCYCLOPAEDIA AFRICANA
"Introduction" to the First Edition of Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African and African American Experience, edited by Kwame Anthony Appiah and Henry Louis Gates, Jr. (First Edition: NY: Basic Civitas Books, 1999. Second edition -- Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005.) In this introduction, the editors detail The publication of Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African and African American Experience as a one-volume print edition aspires to belong in the grand tradition of encyclopedia editing by scholars interested in the black world on both sides of the Atlantic. It also relies upon the work of thousands of scholars who have sought to gather and to analyze, according to the highest scholarly standards, the lives and the worlds of black people everywhere. We acknowledge our indebtedness to these traditions of scholarly endeavor -- more than a century old -- to which we are heirs, by dedicating our encyclopedia to the monumental contribution of W. E. B. Du Bois.
At the Oxford African American Studies Center [home page]http://www.oxfordaasc.com/public/books/t0002/t0002_intro_1st.jsp
[The New York Times provides an online copy (free registration required).]
[Another copy -- one which is accessible at BlackPast.org.]
Encarta Africana.
Encarta Africana is an encyclopedia project, prompted by Du Bois's Encyclopaedia, which was edited by Henry Louis Gates, Jr. and Kwame Anthony Appiah. Below are various links to different aspects of the Encarta Africana as they relate to Du Bois' project. Please note that the Encarta Africana, as discussed herein, is actually available as Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African and African American Experience [web site].
"The making of Henry Louis Gates, CEO" by Craig Offman. Posted on www.salon.com, 16 June 1999http://archive.salon.com/books/it/1999/06/16/gates/index.html
"W.E.B. Du Bois and the Encyclopedia Africana." A speech by Henry Louis Gates, Jr. delivered at Calvin College in January 2002. [This is a link to an audio file in RealAudio format, which requires the free RealPlayer program.]http://www.calvin.edu/january/2002/gates.htm
"The Making of Encarta Africana and the Digital Divide." A transcript of a speech by Henry Louis Gates, Jr. at Harvard Graduate School of Education, 9 April 2001http://www.edletter.org/past/issues/2001-mj/forum.shtml
"Encarta Africana: W.E.B. Du Bois to John Coltrane." Henry Louis Gates, Jr. delivered this speech at the Berklee College of Music (Boston) on 13 February 2003. The speech is available in audio and video formats.http://forum.wgbh.org/wgbh/forum.php?lecture_id=1166
* The announcement for Gates' speech
* Gates' speech in a Berklee News story by Sarah Murphy (posted 8 April 2003): "The Good Book: Henry Louis Gates, Jr, and Encarta Africana"
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