In early 2022 the UK National Archives (TNA) suddenly withdrew one of its most sensitive archival collections from public access. There was no warning, and, for a considerable time, no explanation, thus fuelling a decades-long ‘legacy of suspicion’ about the underlying motives of TNA, the Foreign Office and even the entire British government. This article traces that story using early speculations expressed by users (and potential users) of the so-called ‘Foreign and Commonwealth Office migrated archives’, information eventually provided by TNA, and an analysis of some requests submitted under the UK Freedom of Information legislation. It concludes with a discussion of a new TNA programme to open up the collection to the national archives of the countries from which the records were removed at independence.

At the University of Cape Town Libraries, the vast and valuable Special Collections Africana, rare books, government publications, manuscript and audio-visual archives were housed in the historic Jagger Library until 18 April 2021, when the building was razed by a runaway wildfire. With the reading room and galleries gutted by flames, and the basements flooded, the losses to the collection were extensive, representing a tragic and irreparable loss to South African research and historiography. While salvage and recovery efforts are ongoing, this article outlines what was lost by fire. It provides a snapshot of what was in the reading room at the time of the fire, and details the losses as far as possible – these include the prized published collections housed in the reading room and galleries, as well as the miscellany of archival materials situated on the tables and reserve shelving in the building at the time of the fire.

Following the devastating fire in April 2021 which destroyed many of the African Studies books in the Jagger Library at the University of Cape Town (UCT), SCOLMA offered to coordinate the donation, selection and shipping of replacement books, working in liaison with UCT librarians.

SOAS (School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London) Library is one of only five National Research Libraries in the UK and one of the most important academic libraries for the study of Asia, Africa and the Middle East. The African Language Collection at SOAS is unique in the UK and Europe in terms of its linguistic span and significance. The Library seeks to acquire material in and on all languages present on the African continent, not just those taught and researched at SOAS. The range of material within the Main Library collection and the history of the collection will be briefly evoked, before I bring the focus back to the items about African studies and/or from Africa that are held in the Special Collections of the Library. Those collections include archival collections, rare books collections (including discrete sub-collections of published material such as libraries from missionaries’ societies and/or academic scholars) and manuscripts in African languages. After briefly describing those collections, I point to ways of accessing them. I conclude this short overview by highlighting a few of the challenges of curating publications and manuscripts in African languages.

This article sheds light on the scholarly ideal of mutuality in the work of the missiologist, Frans J. Verstraelen, and the historian, Gerdien Verstraelen-Gilhuis. The couple were active in Zambia in the 1970s and devoutly Christian. Stemming from the theology of mission, mutuality refers to mutual assistance between ‘localized’ churches relating to personnel, material resources and, importantly, ideas. The ideal was posited during mission conferences and the Second Vatican Council (1962–65) in an effort to alter the relationship between former colonial metropoles and churches in newly independent countries. By highlighting different types of sources from the Verstraelen Collection, an image emerges of how the ideal of mutuality manifested itself in scholarly practices of fieldwork and knowledge dissemination. This study was inspired by Larissa Schulte Nordholt’s recent doctoral research on the drafting process of UNESCO’s General History of Africa (1964–1998). In scholarly personae and ideals she identified a useful lens through which to explore how processes of knowledge production on the African continent changed along with political decolonization.

Doctoral studies have remained the most advanced training for potential academics and scholars all over the world. Also, the research products of doctoral studies, that is, doctoral theses, are the flagships of original research efforts from universities and research institutes across the globe. Against this background, this paper examines the growth and development of doctoral training in the Department of History of Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife. It also provides bibliographic and historiographical analyses of the twenty-nine doctoral theses submitted to the Department in its sixty years of existence from 1961 to 2021. It shows that doctoral research outputs from the Department are based on oral, ethnographic and documentary evidence on major historical developments in the pre-colonial, colonial and postcolonial Yorubaland, Nigeria, and neighbouring West African states like Benin Republic and the Gambia. The article concludes that doctoral training and theses at Ife have resulted in landmark historical publications and have produced renowned historians who are making scholarly waves within and outside Nigeria.

In September 2022 Samson Kambalu attracted international attention when his 5.5 metre statue of John Chilembwe, who led a brief, bloody and ultimately unsuccessful revolt against British colonial rule in Nyasaland in 1915, was displayed on the fourth plinth in London’s Trafalgar Square. This impressive statue towers above an accompanying statue of British missionary, the Rev. John Chorley, who was then Chilembwe’s only known white friend and confidant. The reason for their disparate heights is stated to be an indicator of their respective relevance and locus each to the other in Malawi’s rich history. The artistic merit of the statues is unquestioned. Unfortunately, an apparent lack of rigour in providing historical context to the statues may have unwittingly detracted from the already well known, powerful and compelling story of John Chilembwe. This article seeks to redress the balance in terms of historical accuracy and provide timely context to Chilembwe’s aspirations, tribulations and untimely death at the hands of African police.