Africa and African languages in the SOAS Library’s Special Collections

Abstract 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.