African

'To me black history is everyone’s history. It's the long, often tragic and always surprising story of Britain’s relationship with Africa and her peoples, both here in Britain but also in Africa and across the Caribbean and North America, and most of it is little known. It’s a major part of the story of us all.' —David Olusoga

Zélie Isabelle Colville (1864-1930) was an aristocratic, class-conscious, sheltered woman of her time and place. Accompanied by her husband Major-General Henry E. Colville, she circumnavigated Africa. The trip was marked by hardship, sickness, even danger, but as her husband wrote, “If she is as good at writing as she is at roughing it, we have a treat before us.” Indeed! She describes Africans and Europeans—their clothing and manner, with a close eye for the personal detail and a tolerant sense of humor.

Charles Alphonse Combes (1891-1968), born in Paris, moved to the Côte d’Ivoire in 1925 and never looked back. He began taking art students and in 1937 his studio became the École des Arts Appliques, the first art school in the country. It is now a museum in Abidjan, Musée Charles Alphonse Combes.

Whether through direct influences or broader affinities, African, Pre-Columbian, and Indigenous American objects undoubtedly informed the practice of Western artists throughout the 20th century. This catalog, from the inaugural show at New York’s Pace Primitive Gallery, juxtaposes body objects from African, Pre-Columbian, and Indigenous American cultures with jewelry by Alexander Calder, Ernest Trova, Louise Nevelson, and Pablo Picasso.

Nzima Land was a small, independent state located in the southwest corner of the Gold Coast (now Ghana). Annor Adjaye, a Nzima Paramount Chief, was educated in Britain and understood how the British viewed Ghanaian society. In this book, he attempts to educate British readers about his society and people, and to dispel prejudices and misconceptions. To bridge this cultural divide, Adjaye explains the workings of Nzima government and tribunal judgments, and he shares the wisdom of Fante proverbs.

Controversy and Hope is an immersion into not only the 54-mile Voting Rights marches from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, but also a view into a range of civil rights events from 1960 to 1965. Photojournalist James Karales was also an acquaintance of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

"Droning a drowsy syncopated tune; Rocking back and forth to a mellow croon..." 

This 500-page book is a collection of round postal markings (postmarks) stamped on envelopes, from the Gold Coast region of Africa (modern-day Ghana). The author places these items of philatelic history in the context of the overall history of the region, from the first visit by Portuguese explorers in 1471, through the Republic of Ghana's achievement of independence from British colonial rule in 1957.

This book traces the history of postal services in the Gold Coast region of Africa (modern-day Ghana) from the European "discovery" of the region in 1471, to the end of the Ashanti War in 1901. The book includes beautiful color illustrations of "cancelled covers" (envelopes) throughout.

This limited-edition set of 43 vibrant, color printed cards housed in a custom box is parts that together comprise artist Sanford Biggers’ explorations of identity, rituals, and iconography. Divided into three sections—afronomix, fetico, and fides—the images offer moments of both intimacy and surrealism.

In the early 1900s, wood sculptures from Africa (long regarded as curios in the West) suddenly caught the attention of Picasso and other artists who were intrigued by the stylized treatment—simple yet powerful—of human and animal figures. Their experiments with this “new aesthetic” announced the beginning of Modernism, the shift from realism to increasing abstraction.

African American dental practices were first documented in 18th century when dentistry was a crude trade learned by apprenticeship to perform necessary extractions. Extramural dentistry is the practice of exercising dental expertise outside of the institution and bringing dental care and education into the community. In this book, Clifton Orrin Dummett, D.D.S. and Lois Doyle Dummett, B.A. thread together the dental milestones and contributions in African American history.

The Hampton Album elegantly depicts the industrial and agricultural skills that were taught to students at the Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute (later Hampton Institute in 1930, and finally Hampton University in 1984), the historically black school founded in Virginia in 1868 to educate freed slaves. The original images in this album were part of a series of photographs compiled by W.E.B Du Bois for the exhibition of African American life featured at the sensational world’s fair, the Paris Exposition of 1900.

Robert Charles Dallas (1754-1824), a British writer, was born in Jamaica and returned there after an education in England and Scotland.  In the West Indies, runaway slaves who formed communities independent from white society (often with American Indians) were called “Maroons.”  Those in Jamaica – about whom Dallas provides a first-hand account of their culture and mode of life – were considered the greatest threat to British colonists due to hostilities in the 1730s and again in the 1790s.

John Bigelow (1817-1911), born into a prominent New England family, was a newspaper writer and editor at the New-York Evening Post, under the leadership of William Cullen Bryant. An opponent of slavery in the years leading up to the Civil War, Bigelow travelled to Jamaica in 1850 to study the island’s economics following the abolition of slavery. His book soundly repudiated the assertion that freed slaves were incapable of self-governance and is still considered an authoritative analysis. It has been reprinted more than once in modern times, but this is the original publication. Our

Biologist Ernest Everett Just (1883-1941) is considered to be one of the most brilliant African American scientists of his era.  Born in Charleston, SC, he earned scholarships to attend northern schools, graduating top of his class at Dartmouth. He taught at Howard University where he became head of the new zoology department. He also studied fertilization in marine invertebrates at the Woods Hole Marine Biological Laboratories and eventually earned his Ph.D. in experimental embryology at the University of Chicago in 1916.

In Booker T. Washington’s landmark autobiography Up From Slavery, he gives one of the earliest accounts of the "Black Belt." This term was first used geographically for the band of dark, rich soil that runs through the Deep South.

Maya Angelou (1928-2014) is best remembered as a prominent African American poet and civil rights activist.

Dark Companion chronicles the polar expedition of African American explorer, Matthew Henson. Born in 1866, four years after the Emancipation Proclamation was issued, Henson went on to triumph as one of the first men to “stand on top of the world." On April 6, 1909, Henson along with Robert Peary co-discovered the North Pole. Hundreds had previously attempted and failed to reach the elusive polar ice cap.

"Music is my mistress, and she plays second fiddle to no one." Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington is an American jazz legend – a talented pianist, a composer of over 1,000 songs, and a bandleader who gained national attention through his orchestra’s appearances at the famed Cotton Club in Harlem. In this book, Ellington tells the stories of his life and career. He describes growing up in Washington, D.C. in the early 1900s, when he dreamed of playing baseball, not the piano. He shares photographs of his beloved parents and other family members and friends who influenced him.

This is a new edition of Turner's original 1949 masterpiece, which was a seminal work in Afrocentric linguistics. Arranged like a dictionary, it has Gullah words on the left side of each page and the corresponding West African words on the right side. Gullah is a language spoken by the eponymous people descended from former slaves in the coastal regions of South Carolina and Georgia. Pioneering linguist Lorenzo Dow Turner also uses this book to discuss the distinctively Gullah way of writing.

This children's book is filled with colorful art on every page by artist Daniel Minter. The book consists of 12 short poems, each poem named after a month of the year. The author, Katharine Boling, grew up in the Gullah region of South Carolina, an area on the coast populated with descendants of freed slaves. At the end of the book is a glossary of Gullah terms. Some words in the poems include puntop (on top of), bittle (food), and bex (angry). Each poem describes what life is like during the seasons of the Gullah year, in Gullah country, in Gullah language.

At less than 200 pages, this small paperback book is filled with black and white photographs depicting Gullah life. Gullahs are the descendants of slaves, specifically from the Lowcountry regions of the United States, including Georgia and South Carolina. The author is from South Carolina Gullah country. This book is about roots that can be used for healing, curses, good luck, bad luck, etc. The author’s dad was the county coroner, so he is familiar with death. Folk magic permeates Gullah culture, in a way very similar to voodoo.

Mrs. Sallie Ann Robinson is the Gullah Diva chef. Raised in South Carolina Gullah country on an island only accessible by boat, she is used to eating what can easily be farmed, hunted, or caught. At about one hundred fifty pages, this cookbook is divided into three sections: morning, noon, and night. They correspond with breakfast recipes, lunch recipes, and supper recipes. The beginning of the book has black and white photos of Gullah life. The Gullah are descendants of slaves in the Lowcountry regions of the United States, specifically South Carolina and Georgia.

The book’s purpose is to take us behind-the-scenes so we can see what it’s like to grow up and live life in the Gullah community. Sayings such as “dog got four feet but can’t walk but one road” are uniquely Gullah. This translates to “you can only do one thing at a time.” The book has black adn white photos of Gullah people fishing, riding on horseback, boating, and playing music. One of the co-authors is of South CarolinaGullah heritage: Dr. Emory Campbell, President of Gullah Heritage Consulting Services.