Graphical version

School of Oriental and African Studies

International Committee on Christian Literature for Africa (Christian Literature Bureau for Africa)


IDENTITY STATEMENT

Reference code(s): GB 0102 ICCLA

Held at: School of Oriental and African Studies

Title: International Committee on Christian Literature for Africa (Christian Literature Bureau for Africa)

Date(s): 1920-1963

Level of description: Collection (fonds)

Extent: 45 boxes

Name of creator(s): Christian Literature Bureau for Africa
International Missionary Council | International Committee on Christian Literature for Africa

CONTEXT

Administrative/Biographical history:

Missionary literature work in Africa was stimulated by the International Missionary Council conference on the Christian mission in Africa, held at Le Zoute in 1926. The Christian Literature Bureau for Africa was founded in 1929, with a full-time secretary and three sectional committees: British, Continental and American. It had close relations with both the International Missionary Council and the Conference of Missionary Societies of Great Britain and Ireland (CBMS). It had its office in Edinburgh House (no 2 Eaton Gate, London, near Sloane Square station), the premises of the CBMS. The Christian Literature Bureau became part of the International Missionary Council as the International Committee on Christian Literature for Africa in 1953. In 1957-1958 its operations were transferred to Africa, although activities which could not then be transferred passed to the CBMS, for instance the periodical Books for Africa (1931-1963), which listed and reviewed publications of potential usefulness in Africa.

CONTENT

Scope and content/abstract:

Records, 1920-1963, of the Christian Literature Bureau for Africa and its succession by the ICCLA (International Committee on Christian Literature for Africa, part of the International Missionary Council), comprising early papers, 1920-1929, including correspondence; minutes, 1929-1958; records of the American Section, 1924-1959; accounts and related papers, 1928-1958; finance papers, 1948-1959; policy papers, 1929-1959, including its winding-up; papers relating to personnel, 1947-1956; papers relating to Secretarial travel by Margaret Wrong and C de Mestral in Africa, Europe and north America, 1933-1959; photographs of West Africa, 1933, and Southern Africa [1936]; papers of Margaret Wrong (Secretary), 1935-1947, including notes for addresses, reviews, articles on subjects including colonial development, personal photographs, letters, and papers, 1949-1965, relating to her death (c1949) and memorial fund; reports, surveys, etc, 1923-1957; papers relating to Books for Africa series and to Listen, 1931-1963; papers relating to the publication Daystar, 1948-1957; lists of books received, especially vernacular, 1930-1957; African language publications, 1930-1951; papers relating to Christian literature for Muslims, 1932-1959; papers relating to school service book, 1938-1953; manuscripts received, 1933-1957; papers relating to hymns publication, 1957-1963; papers relating to literacy [1935]-1959; papers on territorial series, 1927-1959; complete set of Books for Africa series, 1931-1963; complete set of Listen, 1932-1957; series (some incomplete) of published works: Little Books for Africa, African Home Library (comprising texts on the Bible and Christian faith, biography, allegories and stories, family, health and land, government and industry, countries and customs, science and education), and the French edition Bibliotheque de la Famille Africaine, and African Features; specimen periodicals published in Africa, 1950s; card index to titles for Books for Africa books reviewed and card index to titles and authors in the ICCLA library.

ACCESS AND USE

Language/scripts of material: English

System of arrangement:

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 and database.

ARCHIVAL INFORMATION

Appraisal, destruction and scheduling information:

Accruals:

Archival history:

Immediate source of acquisition:

Deposited in 1979.

ALLIED MATERIALS

Existence and location of originals:

Existence and location of copies:

Related material:

The School of Oriental and African Studies holds records of the Conference of British Missionary Societies (Ref: CBMS); joint archives of the International Missionary Council/Conference of British Missionary Societies relating to co-operative missionary endeavours in Africa (original files) and India (microfiche copy) (Ref: IMC/CBMS); and microfiche copy of the archives of the International Missionary Council (Ref: IMC).

Publication note:

DESCRIPTION NOTES

Note:

Archivist's note: Compiled by Rachel Kemsley as part of the RSLP AIM25 project. Sources: Rosemary Seton, Guide to Archives and Manuscript Collections (School of Oriental and African Studies, 1994), p 9; J T Hardyman and R K Orchard, Two Minutes from Sloane Square: a Brief History of the Conference of Missionary Societies in Great Britain and Ireland 1912-1977 (CBMS, London, 1977), pp 28-9.

Rules or conventions: Compiled in compliance with General International Standard Archival Description, ISAD(G), second edition, 2000; National Council on Archives Rules for the Construction of Personal, Place and Corporate Names, 1997.

Date(s) of descriptions: May 2002


INDEX ENTRIES
Subjects
Accounting | Financial administration | Finance
Books | Publications | Communications media | Information sciences
Catalogues | Secondary documents
Christianity | Ancient religions | Religions
Colonial countries | Political systems
Developing countries | International economic relations | Economic relations | Interdependence
Educational missionary work | Missionary work | Religious activities
European literature | National literatures
Fiction | Literary forms and genres | Literature
Indexes | Secondary documents
Literacy | Basic study subjects
Mission administration | Mission policy | Missionary societies | Religious organizations | Religious institutions
Moslems | Religious groups
Nonfiction | Prose | Literary forms and genres | Literature
Periodicals | Publications | Communications media | Information sciences
Personnel management | Organization and administration | Health services administration | Public administration | Government
Photographs | Visual materials
Publishing | Publishing industry
Reading materials | Educational publications
Religious movements | Religious institutions
Religious texts | Religious doctrines | Theology
Travel abroad | Travel
Vernacular languages | Languages
African languages

Personal names
Mestral | C | De | fl 1952-1959 | Secretary of the Christian Literature Bureau for Africa x De Mestral | C
Wrong | Margaret | d c 1949 | Secretary of the Christian Literature Bureau for Africa

Corporate names
Christian Literature Bureau for Africa x International Missionary Council | International Committee on Christian Literature for Africa x International Committee on Christian Literature for Africa
Daystar | publication of the Christian Literature Bureau for Africa
Listen | publication of the Christian Literature Bureau for Africa

Places
West Africa | Africa
Europe
North America
Southern Africa