Selim Aga

c.1826-1875  |  Wikipedia

No
known
image Biography: Formerly enslaved person and traveler from Kordofan, Sudan; accompanied British explorer Richard Burton as a valet on various West African journeys in the 1860s; produced accounts of his life and travels.

Incidents Connected with the Life of Selim Aga

Dates(s): 1846

Format: Self-published narrative in book form

“The Niger Expedition”

Dates(s): 24 June 1858, 25 September 1858

Co-Creator(s): Anonymous

Format: Original letters, as combined, edited, and published in a British periodical

“Original Correspondence: West Africa”

Dates(s): 16 November 1863, 1 February 1864

Co-Creator(s): Louis-Alexis Chamerovzow

Format: Original letter, as edited, contextualized, and published by a British writer in a British abolitionist periodical

Mohammed Bogharib

Dates unknown

No
known
image Biography: Swahili trader and formerly enslaved person; traveled widely in nineteenth-century East and Central Africa; although known for the violence of his followers, notably assisted explorer David Livingstone during the latter's final travels in Africa (1866-73).

“History of Warori or Basango”

Dates(s): 16 July 1869

Co-Creator(s): David Livingstone

Format: Original narrative, as translated (possibly with the help of an intermediary) and written down in a notebook by a British explorer

Andries Botha

Dates unknown  |  Wikipedia

Biography: 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).

Letter to [Harry Smith]

Dates(s): 23 June 1850

Co-Creator(s): Anonymous

Format: Handwritten copy of original manuscript letter

Introduction to Andries Botha

Dates(s): 2020

Author(s): Jared McDonald

James Chumah

1834-1906  |  Wikipedia  |  Also see: Visual Materials and Home Page (header image)

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

“To the Editor of the Times”

Dates(s): 9 April 1874, [1874], [1874]

Co-Creator(s): Horace Waller; Lindesay Brine

Format: Original letter, as edited and published (alongside a letter by another British author) in a letter by a British abolitionist in a British periodical

Samuel Ajayi Crowther

c.1809-1891  |  Wikipedia  |  Also see: Visual Materials and Book-Length Works

Biography: 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.

Letter to Henry Venn

Dates(s): 27 February 1867

Co-Creator(s): J.R. Dewring

Format: Manuscript letter in author’s hand with transcription of letter by another author

J.R. Dewring

Dates Unknown

No
known
image Biography: Native pastor and catechist; based at a station along the Nun River in Nigeria; visited Idzŏ communities for missionary purposes.

Letter to Samuel Ajayi Crowther

Dates(s): 4 December 1866

Co-Creator(s): Samuel Ajayi Crowther

Format: Handwritten copy by another author of original manuscript letter

Frederick Douglass

1818-1895  |  Wikipedia |  Also see: Visual Materials

Biography: 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.

Letter to John Scoble

Dates(s): 9 May 1846

Format: Manuscript letter in author’s hand

Letter to Catherine Impey

Dates(s): 9 July 1888

Format: Manuscript letter in author’s hand

“Frederick Douglass Beyond the United States – Transatlantic Activism and Correspondence”

Dates(s): 2021

Author(s): Rene H. Treviño

Sui Sin Far

1865-1914  |  Also Edith Maude Eaton  |  Dictionary of Canadian Biography  |  Wikipedia  |  Also see: Visual Materials and Book-Length Works

Biography: 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.

Bonus Texts: Original Correspondence (New York Public Library site)

Dates(s): 1903-1907

Co-Creator(s): Various

Format: Correspondence collection that includes manuscript letters in author's hand and typewritten letters with signature in author's hand

Caras Farrar

?-c.1906

No
known
image Biography: Traveler from the Yao of East Africa; accompanied explorer David Livingstone during the last two years (1872-73) of the latter's final African journey.

“The History of Caras Farrar of Finding Dr Livingstone, in Central Africa”

Dates(s): 9 September 1874

Co-Creator(s): Anonymous

Format: Manuscript narrative in another hand with signature in author's hand

Apolo Kagwa

1864-1927  |  Wikipedia  |  Also see: Visual Materials and Book-Length Works

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

“The Katikiro of Uganda and His Secretary”

Dates(s): 1906

Co-Creator(s): Benjamin Stone

Format: Verbal quotations, as included in a section of a book by a British author

Semane Setlhoko Khama

1881-1937  |  Wikipedia  |  Also see: Visual Materials (including header image)

Biography: 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.

Letter to A.M. Chirgwin

Dates(s): 5 December 1934

Format: Typewritten letter with signature in author's hand

Philip Cohen Labatt

1823-1854  |  Also see: Book-Length Works

No
known
image Biography: 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.

“Curgy’s Funeral, Or The Old Time Busha”

Dates(s): 1855

Format: Short story, as published in a posthumous collection of the author's works

“An Incident in the Late Rebellion in Jamaica”

Dates(s): 1855

Format: Short story, as published in a posthumous collection of the author's works

Introduction to Philip Cohen Labatt

Dates(s): 2021

Author(s): Heidi Kaufman

Lief Ben Saeid  |  Thomas Wogga

(Lief) Dates unknown  |  (Wogga) Dates unknown

No
known
image Biography: (Lief) Arab trader who traveled in nineteenth-century East Africa.

No
known
image Biography: (Wogga) African traveler and a formerly enslaved person who traveled in nineteenth-century West Africa.

“Notes on African Geography”

Dates(s): 1845

Co-Creator(s): James MacQueen

Format: Summarized data, as published in a British periodical article by a British geographer

Majwara

c.1857-1886

No
known
image Biography: Traveler and formerly enslaved person from the Ndiga clan of the Baganda of East Africa; his father Namujulirwa was killed by Mutesa I, Kabaka of Buganda; accompanied British explorer Henry M. Stanley on two journeys (1871-72, 1874-77), and also traveled with and attended the deathbed of British explorer David Livingstone (1872-83).

“Majwara's Account of the Last Journey and Death of Dr. Livingstone”

Dates(s): 14 March 1874; 13 April 1874

Co-Creator(s): Frederick Holmwood

Format: Original narrative, as translated (possibly with the help of an intermediary) and written down in a British writer's letter, then published in a British geographical periodical

Menelik II

1844-1913  |  Also Sahle Mariam  |  Wikipedia  |  Also see: Visual Materials and Motion Pictures

Biography: 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.

“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”

Dates(s): 15 May 1902; 28 October 1902; 1905

Co-Creator(s): Edward VII; John Lane Harrington; Federico Ciccodicola; Victor Emmanuel III

Format: Treaty drafted with British and Italian representatives and signed in Ethiopia, as as edited by two British individuals and published in a book by a British publisher

“The 1902 Addis Ababa Treaties and the Ardhi Initiative”

Dates(s): 2021

Author(s): Ng’ang’a Wahu-Mũchiri

Moshoeshoe I  •  Nehemiah Sekhonyana Moshoeshoe

(Moshoeshoe I) c.1786-1870  |  Wikipedia  |  Also see: Visual Materials  •  (Nehemiah Sekhonyana Moshoeshoe) 1824-1906

Biography: (Moshoeshoe I) 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.

No
known
image Biography: (Nehemiah Sekhonyana Moshoeshoe) 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).

“The Caffre War”

Dates(s): [1852]; [1852]; 20 December 1852; 21 December 1852; 2 December 1852; 28 February 1853

Co-Creator(s): Anonymous; Abraham Josias Cloëté; William Eyre; George Thomas Napier; George Cathcart; John Ayliff

Format: Original letter, as translated (presumably), edited, and published in a British periodical

“The General and the Caffre Chief”

Dates(s): 13 December 1852; 20 December 1852; 21 December 1852; 1 March 1853

Co-Creator(s): Anonymous; George Cathcart

Format: Discussion with a British colonial official and an original letter, as translated (presumably), edited, and published in a British periodical

“The Cape of Good Hope”

Dates(s): 5 October 1855, 22 January 1856

Co-Creator(s): Anonymous; Jacobus Nicolaas Boshoff; Thomas Arbousset; George Grey

Format: Discussion with Dutch South African interlocutor and a British colonial official, as translated by a French interpreter and as edited and published in a British periodical

Ncwadi

Dates unknown

No
known
image Biography: Nineteenth-century leader (“ngkosi”) of the amaNgwane, a clan of the Zulu in South Africa.

“Gleanings and Glances” (excerpt), “Letter from an African Chief”

Dates(s): 12 June 1893, 1 June 1894

Co-Creator(s): Anonymous

Format: Original letter, as edited and published in a British missionary periodical

Nehemiah Sekhonyana Moshoeshoe

See entry for Moshoeshoe I • Nehemiah Sekhonyana Moshoeshoe

Ranavalona II

1829-1883  |  Also Ranavalonamanjaka  |  Wikipedia  |  Also see: Visual Materials

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

“The Late Mr. James Cameron of Madagascar” (excerpt)

Dates(s): 1875, 1 March 1876

Co-Creator(s): Charles Frederick Arrowsmith Moss

Format: Funeral proclamation, as read by an anonymous representative and as transcribed, translated, and published as part of an obituary by a British writer in a British periodical

James Read, Jr.

c.1811-1894

Biography: 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.

“Kat River Mission, South Africa”

Dates(s): 9 October 1838, 1 April 1839

Co-Creator(s): Anonymous

Format: Original letter, as edited and published in a British missionary periodical

Letter to J.J. Freeman

Dates(s): 23 May 1850

Format: Manuscript letter in author’s hand

Introduction to James Read, Jr.

Dates(s): 2020

Author(s): Jared McDonald

Said Bin Habib

Dates unknown  |  Also see: Bibliography (header image)

No
known
image Biography: Arab trader who traveled widely in nineteenth-century East and Central Africa.

“Narrative of Said Bin Habeeb, An Arab Inhabitant of Zanzibar”

Dates(s): 31 May 1860

Co-Creator(s): [British] Government

Format: Original narrative, as translated, written down, edited, and published in a British geographical journal

Lists of Headmen in Manyema and Urundi

Dates(s): 4 July 1869, [c.1869]

Co-Creator(s): [Unnamed Arab and African Informants?]; David Livingstone

Format: Headman list and narrative data, as translated (possibly with the help of an intermediary) and written down in a notebook by a British explorer

Central African Geographical Data

Dates(s): [c.1869]

Co-Creator(s): David Livingstone

Format: Geographical data, as translated (possibly with the help of an intermediary) and written down on a map by a British explorer

Saleh Bin Osman

Dates unknown

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

Testimony

Dates(s): 12 November 1890

Co-Creator(s): E.J. Glave

Format: Testimony in manuscript form, as translated and written down by a British explorer

“The Story of My Life”

Dates(s): August 1891

Co-Creator(s): E.J. Glave

Format: Autobiographical narrative, as translated, written down, and published by a British explorer in collaboration with British publishers

Sechele I

c.1810-1892  |  Wikipedia  |  Also see: Visual Materials

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

Letter to Robert Moffat 1

Dates(s): [October 1852]

Co-Creator(s): David Livingstone

Format: Original letter, as translated, written down, and annotated by a British explorer

Statement and Attestations; “Statement of Sechele, Paramount Chief of the Bakwaina”; “The Attack on Sechele”

Dates(s): 7 May 1853, 11 May 1853; 21 April 1853, 30 April 1853; 1 December 1852.

Co-Creator(s): Samuel Edwards; Tom Thompson; Anonymous; William F. Webb

Format: Statement with two original signatures, as translated and written down by a British individual and as attested by another British individual; also appended: published version of same statement with an additional letter from a British hunter provided for context

Letter to the London Missionary Society

Dates(s): [c.1852-1853]

Co-Creator(s): Robert Moffat 1

Format: Original letter, as translated, written down, and introduced by a British missionary

Letter to Robert Moffat 1

Dates(s): 31 October 1865

Co-Creator(s): John Smith Moffat

Format: Original letter, as written down and translated by a British missionary

“Sechele and the Record of Intercultural Encounter”

Dates(s): 2021

Author(s): Justin D. Livingstone

NoSuthu Soga Jotelo  |  Tause

(NoSuthu Soga Jotelo) c.1805-1877  •  (Tause) Dates unknown  |  Also see: Visual Materials

No
known
image Biography: (NoSuthu Soga Jotelo) 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); after conversion to Christianity, lived in the Tyumi Valley at the Glasgow African Missionary Station run by William Chalmers.

Biography: (Tause) Daughter of NoSuthu.

“Nosutu, the Mother of Soga” (excerpt)

Dates(s): October 1873, 2 March 1874

Co-Creator(s): John Cumming

Format: Original letter (NoSuthu Soga Jotelo) as dictated (to Tause), then conveyed to and translated by a British missionary and published as part of an essay in a British missionary periodical

“NoSuthu Sends Thanks – Reading Voice in A Letter”

Dates(s): 2020

Author(s): Joanne Ruth Davis

Tiyo Soga

c.1831-1871  |  Wikipedia

Biography: First 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.

“Jubilee of the Venerable Patriarch Brownlee”

Dates(s): 17 January 1867, 14 February 1867

Co-Creator(s): Anonymous

Format: Original speech, as edited and published as part of an article in a British periodical

Tause

See entry for NoSuthu Soga Jotelo • Tause

Tippu Tip

1837-1905  |  Wikipedia  |  Also see: Visual Materials

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

“Tippoo Tib”

Dates(s): 30 March 1887, 17 May 1887

Co-Creator(s): Anonymous

Format: Q&A with an anonymous interlocutor, as translated, written down, edited, contextualized, and published by an anonymous British writer in a British periodical

Jan Tzatzoe

c.1792-1868  |  Also see: Visual Materials

Biography: Also 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.

“Appeal on Behalf of the Hottentots”

Dates(s): July 1837, 24 November 1837, 1 January 1838

Co-Creator(s): Anonymous; J. Monro; John Philip; James Read, Sr.

Format: Original letter, as edited and published (alongside another letter from a British missionary) in an essay in a British missionary periodical

Letter to Directors of the London Missionary Society

Dates(s): 1 September 1838

Format: Manuscript letter in author’s hand

Letter to Directors of the London Missionary Society

Dates(s): 8 October 1845

Format: Manuscript letter in author’s hand

Introduction to Jan Tzatzoe

Dates(s): 2021

Author(s): Jared McDonald

Jacob Wainwright

c.1851/52-1892  |  Wikipedia  |  Also see: Archival Texts (header image), Visual Materials, and Site Map (header image)

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

Addition to David Livingstone's Field Diary XVII

Dates(s): 28 April 1873

Format: Addition in author's hand to a manuscript diary by a British explorer

Inscription on the Tree at the Foot of which David Livingstone's Heart was Buried

Dates(s): 4 May 1873

Format: Original inscription in author’s hand

Extract from Diary

Dates(s): May-June 1873

Co-Creator(s): James Christie; Jacob Wainwright; A. [?] Paterson

Format: Manuscript diary in author’s hand

Letter to William O. Livingstone

Dates(s): October 1873

Format: Manuscript letter in author’s hand

Extract from Diary

Dates(s): [November 1873-February 1874]

Co-Creator(s): James Christie; Jacob Wainwright

Format: Manuscript diary in author’s hand

Letter to Joseph Moore

Dates(s): 23 May 1874

Format: Manuscript letter in author’s hand

Letter to Joseph Moore

Dates(s): 10 July 1874

Format: Manuscript letter in author’s hand

“Jacob Wainwright”

Dates(s): 1 September 1874

Format: Autobiographical narrative, as published in a British missionary periodical

Letter to [Horace Waller?]

Dates(s): 15 September 1875

Format: Manuscript letter in author’s hand

Letter to William Salter Price

Dates(s): 2 May 1876

Format: Manuscript letter in author’s hand

Bye Weah

Dates unknown

No
known
image Biography: Ruler of the Grebo of Liberia.

“The Liberian War. To the Editor of the Times”

Dates(s): 24 January 1876; 7 March 1876

Format: Original letter, as edited and published in a British periodical

Thomas Wogga

See entry for Lief Ben Saeid • Thomas Wogga

Unnamed Central African Informants

No
known
image Biography: Most likely from Manyema (today a region in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo); assisted explorer David Livingstone during the latter's final travels in Africa (1866-73).

“Central African Fables”

Dates(s): [c.1868-70]

Co-Creator(s): David Livingstone

Format: Original stories, as translated (possibly with the help of an intermediary), edited, and written down in a notebook by a British explorer

Unnamed Congo Free State Informants

No
known
image Biography: 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.

“Notes on Refugee Tribes Encountered in July 1903”

Dates(s): [1903], 1904

Co-Creator(s): Roger Casement

Format: Q&A with and statements by a series of unnamed individuals and groups from the Congo Free State, as conveyed by one or more unnamed translators from the Congo Free State to a British government officer and as edited for and published among official British government documents

“Statement in Regard to the Condition of the Natives in Lake Mantumba Region During the Period of the Rubber Wars Which Began in 1893”

Dates(s): [1903], 1904

Co-Creator(s): Roger Casement

Format: Statements by a series of unnamed individual from the Congo Free State, as conveyed by one or more unnamed translators from the Congo Free State to a British government officer and as edited for and published among official British government documents

“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”

Dates(s): [1903], 1904

Co-Creator(s): Roger Casement

Format: Statement by an unnamed individual from the Congo Free State, as conveyed by at least one unnamed translator from the Congo Free State to a British government officer and as edited for and published among official British government documents

“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*”

Dates(s): [1903], 1904

Co-Creator(s): Roger Casement

Format: Q&A with a series of unnamed individuals from the Congo Free State, as conveyed by two unnamed translators from the Congo Free State to a British government officer and as edited for and published among official British government documents