The Leo Stappers Archive (LSA) offers insights into the research library of Leo Stappers (*June 6, 1919 – †April 18, 1977), Professor of African Philology, who was formerly employed at the Department of Anthropology and Africa Studies.
The online image archive “African Independence Celebrations” contains over 28,000 image files (photographs, newspaper articles, documents and objects) from twelve African countries: Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Gabon, Cameroon, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Madagascar, Mali, Namibia, Nigeria and Tanzania.
The archive was migrated to a new JGU Mainz website in 2022 and can now be found under “Gutenberg Images”: Gutenberg Images – Research. Unfortunately, access is still restricted at present. However, you can gain an overview of the available documents, images, and videos by consulting the material directories (see links on this page). If you wish to consult specific materials mentioned in the lists, please contact Dr. Anne Brandstetter. We hope to be able to restore direct access to the materials in the near future.
Head: Prof. Dr. Carola Lentz
The archive contains interviews on the settlement history of the Dagara, Sisala, Pwo, Birifor and Dyan people in North-western Ghana and South-western Burkina Faso; interviews in Dagara on Dagara proverbs and culture; colonial documents on South-western Burkina Faso; master theses; maps and aerial photographs.
The West African Settlement Archive is part of the archives of the Department of Anthropology and African Studies, Johannes Gutenberg University, Mainz. It consists of a (1) comprehensive collection of interviews on the settlement history, land rights and early political history in North-western Ghana and South-western Burkina Faso as well as interviews on Dagara proverbs and culture in this region. Furthermore, the archive contains a broad variety of documentary material, such as (2) relevant documents copied from the colonial archives in Mali, Côte d’Ivoire, Aix en Provence, Ouagadougou and Léo (Burkina Faso), (3) thematically related master theses, as well as (4) maps, aerial photographs and miscellaneous materials. Comprehensive lists of the interviews and the stored documents can be consulted online (see links under “further information“) while the materials themselves are only available on paper in the departmental archives.
Head: Prof. Dr. Carola Lentz
