Tree segment with faded inscription on inner bark that begins “Dr. Livignston[e] / May 4, 18[73].”

Recovered Texts

  • Date (publication and updates): 2020-22
  1. Overview
  2. Authors & Contributors
    1. Northern and Northern-Central Africa
      1. Selim Aga
      2. Apolo Kagwa
      3. Majwara
      4. Menelik II
      5. Saleh Bin Osman
    2. Eastern and Central Africa
      1. Mohammed Bogharib
      2. James Chumah
      3. Caras Farrar
      4. Lief Ben Saeid
      5. Ranavalona II
      6. Said Bin Habib
      7. Tippu Tip
      8. Jacob Wainwright
      9. Unnamed Central African Informants
      10. Unnamed Congo Free State Informants
    3. Southern Africa
      1. Andries Botha
      2. Semane Setlhoko Khama
      3. Moshoeshoe I
      4. Ncwadi
      5. Nehemiah Sekhonyana Moshoeshoe
      6. James Read, Jr.
      7. Sechele I
      8. NoSuthu Soga Jotelo
      9. Tiyo Soga
      10. Andries Stoffels
      11. Tause
      12. Jan Tzatzoe
    4. Western Africa
      1. Samuel Ajayi Crowther
      2. J.R. Dewring
      3. Bye Weah
      4. Thomas Wogga
    5. North America and Caribbean
      1. Frederick Douglass
      2. Philip Cohen Labatt
      3. Sui Sin Far
  3. Page Citation
  4. Lead Image Details

Overview

One More Voice publishes a selection of critically-encoded recovered texts (manuscripts, periodical press articles, and other materials) alongside a set of curated visual materials. Each edited text and object is presented in a form ready for educational use, as noted on our home page. Additionally, the project helps contextualize these primary materials by providing an extended list of Victorian-era, book-length published works by authors of color (mostly Anglophone), a small collection of relevant motion pictures, and a variety of critical essays.

Each entry below provides dates for the individuals of interest to the project, a link to the corresponding Wikipedia entry (if available), a short biographical statement, and links to one or more recovered items published by One More Voice plus any associated visual materials, films, or critical essays published by the project. Finally, each entry also includes an image of the given creator or, if no image is known, the entry explicitly marks the gap in the historical record with an empty image frame.

The recovered texts are available for viewing online in facsimile versions that approximate the textual, structural, and material characteristics of the originals. Users can also download corresponding TEI XML files for all critically-edited recovered texts from the One More Voice GitHub repo. Emphasis on materiality in the facsimiles seeks to establish a degree of continuity between the originals and their digital surrogates. This strategy of representation – alongside the overall format of the entries – is also rooted in an ethos of care that recognizes the individuality of each creator and seeks to overturn long-standing practices in western discourse of minimizing, eliding, or otherwise failing to acknowledge the work of such individuals.

Selim Aga

No
known
image

Formerly enslaved person and traveler from Kordofan, Sudan; accompanied British explorer Richard Burton as a valet on various Western African journeys in the 1860s; produced autobiographical accounts and travelogues.

Recovered Text(s)
  1. Incidents Connected with the Life of Selim Aga (1846)
  2. “The Niger Expedition” (24 June 1858, 25 Sept. 1858)
  3. “Original Correspondence: West Africa” (16 Nov. 1863, 1 Feb. 1864)

Northern Africa

Apolo Kagwa

Head and shoulders portrait of Apolo Kagwa.

Served as the chief minister (Katikiro) of Buganda (now part of Uganda) for over thirty years; also a prominent intellectual, ethnographer, and author.

Recovered Text(s)
  1. “The Katikiro of Uganda and His Secretary” (1906)

North-Central Africa

Majwara

No
known
image
  • c.1857-1886

Traveler and formerly enslaved person from the Ndiga clan of the Baganda of Central Africa; his father Namujulirwa was killed by Mutesa I, Kabaka of Buganda; accompanied British traveler Henry M. Stanley on two journeys (1871-72, 1874-77), and also traveled with and attended the deathbed of British traveler David Livingstone (1872-83).

Recovered Text(s)
  1. “Majwara's Account of the Last Journey and Death of Dr. Livingstone” (14 Mar. 1874; 13 Apr. 1874)

North-Central Africa

Menelik II

Head and shoulders portrait of Menelik II, facing to his left.

King of Kings and Emperor of Ethiopia (1889-1913), a role in which he expanded Ethiopia's territory and engaged in large-scale modernization in the areas of economy, education, communication, and transportation; the defeat of Italian forces by his army at the Battle of Adwa (1896) marked a key milestone in the history of African resistance to European colonialism and led Italy and other European nations to recognize Ethiopia's independence.

Recovered Text(s)
  1. “Treaties Between Great Britain and Ethiopia, and Between Great Britain, Italy, and Ethiopia, Relative to the Frontiers Between the Soudan, Ethiopia, and Eritrea. Signed at Adis Ababa, May 15, 1902” (15 May 1902; 28 Oct. 1902; 1905)

Northern Africa

Saleh Bin Osman

Head and shoulders portrait of Saleh bin Osman, looking down.
  • Dates unknown

Arab traveler who worked as a personal assistant to British traveler Henry M. Stanley during the Emin Pasha Relief Expedition (1886-89).

Recovered Text(s)
  1. Testimony (12 Nov. 1890)
  2. “The Story of My Life” (Aug. 1891)

North-Central Africa

Mohammed Bogharib

No
known
image
  • Dates unknown

Swahili trader and formerly enslaved person; traveled widely in nineteenth-century Eastern and Central Africa; although known for the violence of his followers, notably assisted British traveler David Livingstone during the latter's final travels in Africa (1866-73).

Recovered Text(s)
  1. “History of Warori or Basango” (16 July 1869)

Eastern and Central Africa

James Chumah

Head and shoulders portrait of James Chuma.

Traveler from the Yao of Eastern Africa; formerly enslaved person who accompanied British traveler David Livingstone on his final travels (1866-73); provided Horace Waller, editor of Livingstone's posthumous journals, with information related to those travels.

Recovered Text(s)
  1. “To the Editor of the Times” (9 Apr. 1874, [1874], [1874])

Eastern Africa

Caras Farrar

No
known
image
  • ?-c.1906

Traveler from the Yao of Eastern Africa; accompanied British traveler David Livingstone during the last two years (1872-73) of the latter's final African journey.

Recovered Text(s)
  1. “The History of Caras Farrar of Finding Dr Livingstone, in Central Africa” (9 Sept. 1874)

Eastern Africa

Lief Ben Saeid

No
known
image
  • Dates unknown

Arab trader who traveled in nineteenth-century Eastern Africa.

Recovered Text(s)
  1. “Notes on African Geography” (1845)

Eastern Africa

Ranavalona II

Head and shoulders portrait of Ranavalona II in regal attire, facing to her right.

Queen of Madagascar (r.1868-83); played a central role in promoting Christianity among the Malagasy people and in westernizing Madagascar through work with British missionaries.

Recovered Text(s)
  1. “The Late Mr. James Cameron of Madagascar” (excerpt) (1875, 1 Mar. 1876)

Eastern Africa

Said Bin Habib

No
known
image

Arab trader who traveled widely in nineteenth-century Eastern and Central Africa.

Recovered Text(s)
  1. “Narrative of Said Bin Habeeb, An Arab Inhabitant of Zanzibar” (31 May 1860)
  2. Lists of Headmen in Manyema and Urundi (4 July 1869, [c.1869])
  3. Central African Geographical Data ([c.1869])

Eastern and Central Africa

Tippu Tip

Head and shoulders portrait of Tippu Tip.

Arab-African ivory and slave trader who traveled widely in nineteenth-century Eastern and Central Africa; played a major role in shaping the history of the region; supported the work of British travelers like David Livingstone and Henry M. Stanley; for a time served as Governor in the Stanley Falls District of the Congo Free State.

Recovered Text(s)
  1. “Tippoo Tib” (30 Mar. 1887, 17 May 1887)

Eastern and Central Africa

Jacob Wainwright

Head and shoulders portrait of Jacob Wainwright.

Traveler and explorer from the Yao of Eastern Africa; accompanied British traveler David Livingstone during the last two years (1872-73) of the latter's final African journey.

Recovered Text(s)
  1. Addition to David Livingstone's Field Diary XVII (28 Apr. 1873)
  2. Inscription on the Tree at the Foot of which David Livingstone's Heart was Buried (4 May 1873)
  3. Extract from Diary (May-June 1873)
  4. Letter to William O. Livingstone (Oct. 1873)
  5. Extract from Diary ([Nov. 1873-Feb. 1874])
  6. Letter to Joseph Moore (23 May 1874)
  7. Letter to Joseph Moore (10 July 1874)
  8. “Jacob Wainwright” (1 Sept. 1874)
  9. Letter to [Horace Waller?] (15 Sept. 1875)
  10. Letter to William Salter Price (2 May 1876)

Eastern Africa

Unnamed Central African Informants

No
known
image

Individuals most likely from Manyema (today a region in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo); assisted British traveler David Livingstone during the latter's final travels in Africa (1866-73).

Recovered Text(s)
  1. “Central African Fables” ([c.1868-70])

Central Africa

Unnamed Congo Free State Informants

No
known
image

Individuals that conveyed their experiences of atrocities under Congo Free State officers and soldiers to Roger Casement, a British government official tasked with investigating Belgian-led conduct in the colony.

Recovered Text(s)
  1. “Notes on Refugee Tribes Encountered in July 1903” ([1903], 1904)
  2. “Statement in Regard to the Condition of the Natives in Lake Mantumba Region During the Period of the Rubber Wars Which Began in 1893([1903], 1904)
  3. “Notes in the Case of V V, a Native of L L* in the Mantumba District, both of whose Hands Have Been Hacked or Beaten Off, and with Reference to Other Similar Cases of Mutilation in that District” ([1903], 1904)
  4. “Note of Information Taken in the Charge of Cutting Off the Boy I I’s Hand, Preferred to Mr. Casement by the People of E*” ([1903], 1904)

Central Africa

Andries Botha

Head and shoulders portrait of Andries Botha, looking to his left.

Gonaqua Khoe and appointed colonial official in South Africa's Kat River Settlement; served with British and Cape colonial forces against the amaXhosa in Hintsa's War (1834-35) and the War of the Axe (1846-47).

Recovered Text(s)
  1. Letter to [Harry Smith] (23 June 1850)

Southern Africa

Semane Setlhoko Khama

Head and shoulders portrait of Semane Khama, facing to her right.

Queen or queen mother (“mohumagadi”) of the BaNgwato people of the Bechuanaland Protectorate (now Botswana); played a regional key role in promoting Christianity, advocating for temperance and women's education, and expanding the role of women in the church.

Recovered Text(s)
  1. Letter to A.M. Chirgwin (5 Dec. 1934)

Southern Africa

Moshoeshoe I

Head and shoulders portrait of Moshoeshoe I in tophat.

Son of a minor chief of the Koena clan of Southern Africa's Basotho people; rose to prominence as a strategic leader, diplomat, and military tactician; became the first king of Basutoland (modern-day Lesotho) in 1822.

Recovered Text(s)
  1. “The Caffre War” ([1852]; [1852]; 20 Dec. 1852; 21 Dec. 1852; 2 Dec. 1852; 28 Feb. 1853)
  2. “The General and the Caffre Chief” (13 Dec. 1852; 20 Dec. 1852; 21 Dec. 1852; 1 Mar. 1853)
  3. “The Cape of Good Hope” (5 Oct. 1855, 22 Jan. 1856)

Southern Africa

Ncwadi

No
known
image
  • Dates unknown

Nineteenth-century leader (“ngkosi”) of the amaNgwane, a clan of the Zulu in South Africa.

Recovered Text(s)
  1. “Gleanings and Glances” (excerpt), “Letter from an African Chief” (12 June 1893, 1 June 1894)

Southern Africa

Nehemiah Sekhonyana Moshoeshoe

No
known
image
  • 1824-1906

Son of Moshoeshoe I and Mosula ‘MaSekhonyana Molise Kata; served as secretary, envoy, and warrior for Moshoeshoe; tried and acquited of treason in 1877; published “A Little Light from Basutoland” in the Cape Monthly Magazine (1880) and detailed Basotho history and traditions in two letters to Joseph M. Orpen (1905).

Recovered Text(s)
  1. “The Caffre War” ([1852]; [1852]; 20 Dec. 1852; 21 Dec. 1852; 2 Dec. 1852; 28 Feb. 1853)
  2. “The General and the Caffre Chief” (13 Dec. 1852; 20 Dec. 1852; 21 Dec. 1852; 1 Mar. 1853)
  3. “The Cape of Good Hope” (5 Oct. 1855, 22 Jan. 1856)

Southern Africa

James Read, Jr.

Head and shoulders portrait of James Read, Jr. in half profile, facing to his right.

Eldest son of prominent London Missionary Society missionary James Read, Sr., and close associate of Jan Tzatzoe; missionary and evangelical campaigner in the Cape Colony; vocal activist for Khoe civil rights and an influential figure in the establishment of schooling in South Africa's Kat River Settlement.

Recovered Text(s)
  1. “Kat River Mission, South Africa” (9 Oct. 1838, 1 Apr. 1839)
  2. Letter to J.J. Freeman (23 May 1850)

Southern Africa

Sechele I

Head and shoulders portrait of Sechele I.

Leader of the BaKwena in southern Africa; played a key regional role in extending commercial routes, spreading Christianity, and forming the Bechuanaland Protectorate.

Recovered Text(s)
  1. Letter to Robert Moffat 1 ([Oct. 1852])
  2. Statement and Attestations; “Statement of Sechele, Paramount Chief of the Bakwaina”; “The Attack on Sechele” (7 May 1853, 11 May 1853; 21 Apr. 1853, 30 Apr. 1853; 1 Dec. 1852)
  3. Letter to the London Missionary Society ([c.1852-53])
  4. Letter to Robert Moffat 1 (31 Oct. 1865)

Southern Africa

NoSuthu Soga Jotelo

No
known
image

Great Wife of Soga, counsellor to Ngqika (leader of the AmaGcaleka Xhosa); mother of six children, including the Tiyo Soga (ordained missionary of the United Presbyterian Church) and Tause; after conversion to Christianity, lived in the Tyumi Valley at the Glasgow African Missionary Station run by William Chalmers.

Recovered Text(s)
  1. “Nosutu, the Mother of Soga” (excerpt) (Oct. 1873, 2 Mar. 1874)

Southern Africa

Tiyo Soga

Head and shoulders portrait of Tiyo Soga.

Son of Nosuthu Soga Jotelo and Soga; ordained Xhosa missionary to the Xhosa people in South Africa; educated at Glasgow University and ordained in the United Presbyterian Church; penned newspaper articles, letters, reports, and translations of The Pilgrim’s Progress and the Bible into Xhosa.

Recovered Text(s)
  1. “Jubilee of the Venerable Patriarch Brownlee” ( 17 Jan. 1867, 14 Feb. 1867)

Southern Africa

Andries Stoffels

Head and shoulders portrait of Andries Stoffels.

Gonaqua Khoe and deacon of the church at Philipton in the Kat River Settlement, South Africa; worked as a missionary and was closely connected to the superintendent of the London Missionary Society in Southern Africa, John Philip.

Recovered Text(s)
  1. “Minutes of Evidence” (excerpt) (27 June 1836; 5 Aug. 1836)
  2. “Special General Meeting of the London Missionary Society” (excerpt) (10 Aug. 1836; Sept. 1836)

Southern Africa

Tause

Head and shoulders portrait of Tausé Soga.

Daughter of Nosuthu Soga Jotelo and Soga.

Recovered Text(s)
  1. “Nosutu, the Mother of Soga” (excerpt) (Oct. 1873, 2 Mar. 1874)

Southern Africa

Jan Tzatzoe

Head and shoulders portrait of Jan Tzatzoe (Dyani Tshatshu).

Xhosa leader who became a prize African convert of the London Missionary Society; had close connections to its missionary James Read, Sr., and his son James Read, Jr.; worked as a missionary and evangelical-humanitarian campaigner in the Cape Colony and the neighboring Xhosa chieftaincies.

Recovered Text(s)
  1. “Special General Meeting of the London Missionary Society” (excerpt) (10 Aug. 1836; Sept. 1836)
  2. “Appeal on Behalf of the Hottentots” (July 1837, 24 Nov. 1837, 1 Jan. 1838)
  3. Letter to Directors of the London Missionary Society (1 Sept. 1838)
  4. Letter to Directors of the London Missionary Society (8 Oct. 1845)

Southern Africa

Samuel Ajayi Crowther

Samuel Ajayi Crowther in half profile, seated, looking slightly down and to his right.

Yoruba clergyman, linguist, and formerly enslaved person; ordained as the first African Anglican bishop; based in Lagos, Nigeria, but traveled extensively with his son Dandeson along the Niger River for missionary purposes.

Recovered Text(s)
  1. Letter to Henry Venn (27 Feb. 1867)

Western Africa

J.R. Dewring

No
known
image
  • Dates unknown

Native pastor and catechist; based at a station along the Nun River in Nigeria; visited Idzŏ communities for missionary purposes.

Recovered Text(s)
  1. Letter to Samuel Ajayi Crowther (4 Dec. 1866)

Western Africa

Bye Weah

No
known
image
  • Dates unknown

Leader of the Grebo of Liberia.

Recovered Text(s)
  1. “The Liberian War. To the Editor of the Times” (24 Jan. 1876; 7 Mar. 1876)

Western Africa

Thomas Wogga

No
known
image
  • Dates unknown

African traveler and a formerly enslaved person who traveled in nineteenth-century Western Africa.

Recovered Text(s)
  1. “Notes on African Geography” (1845)

Western Africa

Frederick Douglass

Head and shoulders portrait of Frederick Douglass.

Abolitionist and civil rights activist; drew on his skills as a writer and orator and on his story as a formerly enslaved person to become one of the most renowned and politically influential Black Americans of the nineteenth century.

Recovered Text(s)
  1. Letter to John Scoble (9 May 1846)
  2. Letter to Catherine Impey (9 July 1888)

North America

Sui Sin Far

Head and shoulders portrait of Edith Maude Eaton.

Chinese-Canadian author and journalist; daughter of a formerly enslaved Chinese mother and a British father; sister of recognized author Onoto Watanna; wrote widely, with her work focused on exploring and documenting the Chinese experience in North America.

Recovered Text(s)
  1. Original Correspondence (New York Public Library site) (1903-07)

North America

Philip Cohen Labatt

No
known
image

Jamaican-Jewish writer and editor from Kingston, Jamaica, founded The Echo, a weekly periodical and contributed to The First Fruits of the West; and, Monthly Jewish Magazine (1844) before serving as editor of the Daily Gleaner, a prominent Jamaican newspaper still published today.

Recovered Text(s)
  1. “Curgy’s Funeral, Or The Old Time Busha” (1855)
  2. “An Incident in the Late Rebellion in Jamaica” (1855)

Caribbean