''Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African and African-American Experience'' edited by
Henry Louis Gates
Henry Louis "Skip" Gates Jr. (born September 16, 1950) is an American literary critic, professor, historian, and filmmaker, who serves as the Alphonse Fletcher University Professor and Director of the Hutchins Center for African and African Ame ...
and
Anthony Appiah (
Basic Civitas Books
Basic Books is a book publisher founded in 1950 and located in New York, now an imprint of Hachette Book Group. It publishes books in the fields of psychology, philosophy, economics, science, politics, sociology, current affairs, and history.
H ...
1999, 2nd ed. Oxford University Press, 2005, ) is a compendium of
Africana studies including
African studies
African studies is the study of Africa, especially the continent's cultures and societies (as opposed to its geology, geography, zoology, etc.). The field includes the study of Africa's history (pre-colonial, colonial, post-colonial), demograph ...
and the "
Pan-African diaspora" inspired by
W. E. B. Du Bois
William Edward Burghardt Du Bois ( ; February 23, 1868 – August 27, 1963) was an American-Ghanaian sociologist, socialist, historian, and Pan-Africanist civil rights activist. Born in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, Du Bois grew up i ...
' project of an ''Encyclopedia Africana''. Du Bois envisioned "an ''Encyclopedia Africana''," which was to be "unashamedly
Afro-Centric but not indifferent to the impact of the outside world."
The first edition appeared in a single volume, of which about a third each was dedicated to North American
African-American studies, to
Afro-Latin American topics of Latin America and the Caribbean and to
Africa
Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...
proper. The second edition was published by
Oxford University Press
Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print books ...
in five volumes, including more than 3500 entries on 3960 pages.
[Encyclopedia Africana online](_blank)
The official website
W. E. B. Du Bois and the ''Encyclopedia Africana''
Daniel Alexander Payne Murray was one of the first African-Americans to work as a
librarian
A librarian is a person who works professionally in a library providing access to information, and sometimes social or technical programming, or instruction on information literacy to users.
The role of the librarian has changed much over time, ...
at the
Library of Congress
The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The library ...
in 1871. In 1899 Murray organized an exhibit at the
1900 Paris Exposition
The Exposition Universelle of 1900, better known in English as the 1900 Paris Exposition, was a world's fair held in Paris, France, from 14 April to 12 November 1900, to celebrate the achievements of the past century and to accelerate developme ...
on
Negro
In the English language, ''negro'' is a term historically used to denote persons considered to be of Black African heritage. The word ''negro'' means the color black in both Spanish and in Portuguese, where English took it from. The term can be ...
authors. Under his direction, his award-winning exhibit became the core of the Library of Congress's Colored Author Collection. Murray planned to expand his collection and create an
encyclopedia
An encyclopedia (American English) or encyclopædia (British English) is a reference work or compendium providing summaries of knowledge either general or special to a particular field or discipline. Encyclopedias are divided into articles ...
of
African-American
African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ensla ...
achievement. Although he never completed the project, the idea of an encyclopedia that explored the black experience was revived and expanded by
W. E. B. Du Bois
William Edward Burghardt Du Bois ( ; February 23, 1868 – August 27, 1963) was an American-Ghanaian sociologist, socialist, historian, and Pan-Africanist civil rights activist. Born in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, Du Bois grew up i ...
. In 1901 Du Bois widened the scope of the project to encompass the entire
African diaspora
The African diaspora is the worldwide collection of communities descended from native Africans or people from Africa, predominantly in the Americas. The term most commonly refers to the descendants of the West and Central Africans who were ...
. He suggested that the encyclopedia be called the ''Encyclopedia Africana'' in a similar fashion to the ''
Encyclopædia Britannica
The (Latin for "British Encyclopædia") is a general knowledge English-language encyclopaedia. It is published by Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.; the company has existed since the 18th century, although it has changed ownership various time ...
''. Du Bois envisioned a scientific and comprehensive work on Africa and peoples of African descent that would refute the
Enlightenment notion of blacks as devoid of civilization and the hallmarks of humanity. Due to lack of support from the established philanthropies, the project died.
[''W. E. B. Du Bois and the Encyclopedia Africana, 1909-63'' HENRY LOUIS GATES, JR. The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, Vol. 568, No. 1, 203-219 (2000)]
See also
*
Afrocentricity
Afrocentricity is an academic theory and approach to scholarship that seeks to center the experiences and peoples of Africa and the African diaspora within their own historical, cultural, and sociological contexts. First developed as a systemat ...
*
Africana studies
*
African studies
African studies is the study of Africa, especially the continent's cultures and societies (as opposed to its geology, geography, zoology, etc.). The field includes the study of Africa's history (pre-colonial, colonial, post-colonial), demograph ...
*
African American studies
*
Encarta
''Microsoft Encarta'' is a discontinued digital multimedia encyclopedia published by Microsoft from 1993 to 2009. Originally sold on CD-ROM or DVD, it was also available on the World Wide Web via an annual subscription, although later article ...
(distributed and later incorporated the on-line version, ''Encarta Africana'')
References
*Jay Spaulding, ''The International Journal of African Historical Studies'' (2001), 147f.
External links
Oxford University PressInformation about the five-volume set from the publisher.
{{Authority control
African studies
1999 non-fiction books
Books about Africa
Encyclopedias of culture and ethnicity
African encyclopedias
20th-century encyclopedias
21st-century encyclopedias