Nola Reporter

Elisabeth McMahon, associate professor of History and Africana Studies in the School of Liberal Arts at Tulane, in collaboration with the Amistad Research Center and Tulane students, created a database of letters written between  Americans and Africans called the African Letters Project (ALP). The  letters in the ALP highlight the connections between the two regions  during the era of decolonization, while making that history accessible  to all.

The African Letters Project is a free database that consists of over 5,600 letters written between  1945 to 1994, during the decolonization era in many African countries.  McMahon’s initial idea for the database was to highlight more African  American activists who supported independence movements throughout  Africa during that period of history. 

“Often when we think of the connections, during decolonization, it’s  often white activists that are highlighted, the white American  activist,” she said.

“A history that so often  gets ignored (is) the role of African Americans in the United States  pushing against apartheid and pushing for decolonization.”

Elisabeth McMahon, associate professor of History and Africana Studies

McMahon pulled part of her inspiration for the project from the  documentary film “Have You Heard from Johannesburg?,” which chronicles  African American anti-apartheid activism leading up to the signing of  the Comprehensive Anti-Apartheid Act of 1986.

“A history that so often gets ignored (is) the role of African  Americans in the United States pushing against apartheid and pushing for  decolonization,” she said. “I want to have that history more widely  known.”

Through its partnership with the Amistad Research Center, the  database includes collections of letters written by Maida Springer Kemp,  the first African American labor union organizer hired by the American  Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations to work in  Africa. Throughout the 1950s, Kemp supported the emergence of African  unions, often challenging colonial laws in those countries. Documents of  the American Committee on Africa, which was dedicated to supporting the  anti-colonial and anti-apartheid movements across Africa during the  mid-to-late 20th century, are also included. The next  collections that will be added come from two leading African Americans,  including that of Dr. Marguerite Cartwright, an actress, journalist,  sociologist and diplomat, and Dr. James H. Robinson, founder of  Operation Crossroads Africa, a nonprofit volunteer organization that  builds connections between Africans and Americans through cross-cultural  experiences and service projects and was the prototype for the Peace  Corps.   

The collection also includes links to photos of scanned letters along  with useful historical information such as the names and genders of the  letter writers, dates, the topics of the letters, individuals and  organizations mentioned, and the countries from which the letters were  sent and received. Student researchers and those pursuing service  learning through McMahon’s Africana Studies courses have contributed to  the database by adding this essential information.

The website on which the database is housed was built by students in Newcomb Institute’s Digital Research Internship Program.

McMahon said students from all disciplines have contributed, offering  non-history majors the opportunity to also learn historical research  skills. Along with academic support, students gain emotional  intelligence skills, too.

“When you start to read other people’s letters, which can be so  personal in ways that they (students) get really excited about, it can  help them build empathy as they go into their future careers,” McMahon  said.

The database also serves as a form of restitution to African  scholars, she said, making archival material related to African history  globally available.

“Americans go to African countries; we work in the archives and we  use those materials, and we make our careers. Yes, there are history  books written now for various African locations and places, but it  doesn’t quite help those scholars all the time.”

In addition to working with letters from other archives in the  future, McMahon hopes to eventually add letters from local community  members who might have “letters from an uncle or an aunt, or even their  parents, who wrote letters with somebody in Africa.”

The website includes data visualization tools to help scholars, new and seasoned, in their research.

“(It’s) trying to give people some possibilities for open access  materials,” she said. “A piece of this project has always been about  using it as a teaching tool for digital humanities work for other  scholars to be able to support their students.” 

To access the African Letters Project, click here.

         

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A letter  written to Maida Springer Kemp, the first African American labor union  organizer hired by the American Federation of Labor and Congress of  Industrial Organizations to work in Africa, is one of the many letters  available through the database. (Photo by Rusty Costanza) 

Original source can be found here.