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School of Oriental and African Studies

Green, Margaret Mackeson


IDENTITY STATEMENT

Reference code(s): GB 0102 PP MS 15

Held at: School of Oriental and African Studies

Title: Green, Margaret Mackeson

Date(s): Created 1937-1987

Level of description: Collection (fonds)

Extent: 29 boxes

Name of creator(s): Green | Margaret Mackeson | 1895-1979 | anthropologist and linguist

CONTEXT

Administrative/Biographical history:

Margaret Mackeson Green was born in Eltham, Kent, on 14 July 1895. Although the First World War interrupted her studies, she gained a double first in history at Cambridge. She then went to Nigeria with a friend, where her interest in and love of Africa began. During this first visit, she helped to establish the first school in Kano.

She returned to Cambridge to read anthropology and was awarded a Leverhulme Grant to research the lives of Ibo women, among whom she lived for several years. She assisted with the production of the first published grammar of the Igbo language. Two of her own anthropological works were also published: Land Tenure in an Ibo Village (1941) and Ibo Village Affairs (1947). She was appointed Lecturer and Reader in West African Languages and Cultures at the School of Oriental and African Studies, 1939-1951.

Margaret Mackeson Green played an active role in seeking to alleviate the suffering of refugees during the Nigerian Civil War, and took a keen interest in the work of the Division of Inter-Church Aid Refugee World Service (DICARWS) of the World Council of Churches (WCC). She never married, and died in March 1979.

CONTENT

Scope and content/abstract:

Papers, 1937-1987, of and relating to Margaret Mackeson Green, comprising personal correspondence (1946-1973); Igbo material, including her original field notes and work on the Igbo language, preparatory drafts of the Igbo Language Course, notes on Igbo texts, vocabulary lists intended for inclusion in an Igbo/English dictionary, and a few miscellaneous items of anthropological significance; material relating to the Division of Inter-Church Aid Refugee World Service (DICARWS) (1968-1969); and miscellaneous material on other African languages.

ACCESS AND USE

Language/scripts of material: English and Igbo

System of arrangement:

The collection has been arranged into three sections: personal correspondence; Igbo material; other (non-Igbo) material.

Conditions governing access:

Unrestricted.

Conditions governing reproduction:

No publication without written permission. Apply to archivist in the first instance.

Physical characteristics:

Finding aids:

Unpublished handlist.

ARCHIVAL INFORMATION

Appraisal, destruction and scheduling information:

Accruals:

Archival history:

Immediate source of acquisition:

Donated in 1979.

ALLIED MATERIALS

Existence and location of originals:

Existence and location of copies:

Related material:

Anthropological papers of Margaret Mackeson Green are held at Cambridge University Library, Manuscripts Department, West Road, Cambridge, CB3 9DR.

Publication note:

DESCRIPTION NOTES

Note:

Date(s) of descriptions: 15 May 2000


INDEX ENTRIES
Subjects
African literature | National literatures
Anthropologists | Social scientists
Christians | Religious groups
Dialects | Colloquial language | Spoken language | Languages
Field work | Research work
Grammar | Linguistics
Linguists | Social scientists
Refugees | Migrants
Religious organizations | Religious institutions
Second language instruction | Language instruction
Spelling | Linguistics
Vocabularies | Lexicography
Women teachers | Teachers | Educational personnel | Personnel | People by occupation | People
African languages
Cultural anthropology

Personal names
Green | Margaret Mackeson | 1895-1979 | anthropologist and linguist

Corporate names
World Council of Churches | Division of Inter-Church Aid Refugee World Service

Places
Nigeria | West Africa | Africa