The Colonial Library, Pamphlet Collecting and a Seminal African Printing Press
As part of a shared digital co-curation project the RCS has digitised a selection of pamphlet material relating to southern Africa. Highlighted in this selection are publications from the foundational Lovedale Press.
The Royal Commonwealth Society (RCS) library and archive collection has existed since the foundation of the society in 1868 as the Colonial Society (later the Royal Colonial Institute, the Royal Empire Society and, finally, the Royal Commonwealth Society). The RCS collection is an enormous repository of information, pictorial and written, print and manuscript, on the Commonwealth and Britain's former colonial territories.
Historically, the library was an open collection with nearly all books, periodicals and pamphlets available to browse on open shelving. From modest beginnings - in 1872 the library held only 273 items - the collection grew rapidly. By 1886, there were over 7,000 items, including 1,600 pamphlets, and by the 1930s, the library had grown to 244,000 items. About 5,000 pamphlets were among the material destroyed when the RCS premises in Northumberland Avenue were badly damaged by a bomb in April 1942. The library was acquired by Cambridge University Library in 1993 following a public campaign and is now housed in closed-access stacks.
The pamphlet collection is one of the most underappreciated sections of the RCS library. In total the collection contains something in the region of 72,225 pamphlets, occupying 644 boxes and filling approximately 107 linear metres of shelving.
The term ‘pamphlet’ is used here in the widest possible sense. Typical material could be a single newspaper cutting, a whole magazine issue, a published booklet, an abstract or extract from another publication, photocopied material, publicity leaflets, single newsletters, broadsheets, exhibition guides, reports, tracts and related ephemera. Topically, the collection ranges from ‘popular’ to ‘specialist academic’.
The pamphlets were acquired through a combination of purchase and donation. Additions to the collection include items gifted by RCS members such as Killie Campbell, a noted collector of Africana, complimentary copies presented by publishers and authors as well as surplus stock of other collecting societies or university libraries. The RCS card catalogue remains the main point of entry into the collection as only a fraction of the pamphlets have been catalogued online.
Because of the breadth of the pamphlet collection, the material offers a unique insight into the changing nature of the society and the regions it represented, from colony to commonwealth.
Objects of the Royal Commonwealth Society from a pamphlet of 1930
- To promote the preservation of a permanent union between the Mother Country and all other parts of the Empire, and to maintain the power and best traditions of the Empire…
- To encourage and facilitate the trade and industry of the Empire; especially by the collection and distribution of Information and statistics regarding the openings for trade and natural resources possessed by the various parts of the Empire…
- And generally, as a non-sectarian, non-party organization, to work for the good of the Empire in every possible way.
The Lovedale Press
One of the highlights of the RCS pamphlet collection is a series of short books published by the Lovedale Press.
The Lovedale Press was established by the Lovedale Missionary Institute in Alice, Eastern Cape, South Africa. The press formally opened in 1861 but the Institute had been printing isiXhosa texts at the mission station from as early as 1823. 2023 thus marked the 200th anniversary of printing activities at Lovedale. Lovedale Press was foundational in publishing work by black African writers and developed a reputation for publishing emerging literature in isiXhosa and other southern African languages.
“[t]he earliest record of anything written by any Bantu-speaking African in his own language in South Africa, was made at the small printing press at Old Lovedale”
A.C. Jordan, South African novelist and literary historian
Significant authors who published with Lovedale Press include Tiyo Soga, S.E.K. Mqhayi, R.R.R. Dhlomo, Sol Plaatje, H.I.E. Dhlomo, J.J.R. Jolobe, A.C. Jordan, and Victoria Swaartbooi. The Press also published works by African composers such as John Knox Bokwe, Reuben T. Caluza and Benjamin Tyamzashe. Lovedale was responsible for publishing numerous newspapers in both isiXhosa and English, including Ikwezi, which was begun before the formal opening of the Press, and is significant as one of the earliest known examples of written isiXhosa.
With its history of championing African voices and highlighting vernacular languages, the Lovedale Press is an important institution in South African and Southern African history. Unfortunately, the Press has fallen into disrepair in recent years and faces closure. A group of artists, activists, and academics in South Africa are appealing to the public to help save Lovedale. In April 2020, artists Athi-Patra Ruga and Lesoko Seabe co-founded Victory of the Word as a fundraising endeavour to obtain National Heritage Object status for the Press.
The publications of the Lovedale Press are of immense significance in the pantheon of South African literature and society. Some of these publications are difficult to find owing to their limited print runs. The digitisation of a small selection of Lovedale Press material from the RCS pamphlet collection allows these items to be preserved and made accessible to a broader audience. This means more eyes on the Press, and hopefully a renewed interest in preserving this important history.
Spotlight: Influential Lovedale authors
Solomon Tshekisho Plaatje
Sol Plaatje was a South African intellectual, author, and politician. He was a founding member of the South African Native National Congress, the forebear to the African National Congress. He was the first black South African to write a novel in English, Mhudi. The novel was written in 1919, but was only published a decade later in 1930 by the Lovedale Press.
Davidson Don Tengo Jabavu
D.D.T. Jabavu was a Xhosa educationist and politician. He was a founder and the first president of the All African Convention. He was also a founding member of the University of Fort Hare in 1916, and worked as a professor of African languages until 1944. His book The Influence of English on the Bantu Language was published by the Lovedale Press in 1943.
Herbert Isaac Ernest Dhlomo
H.I.E. Dhlomo was a seminal figure in South African literature. He was a prolific playwright and poet. He was active in politics, and frequently wrote articles and poems for newspapers such as Ilanga Lase Natal, where he also worked as an assistant editor in his latter years. His drama, The Girl Who Killed to Save, was published by the Lovedale Press in 1935.
Cambridge Digital Library
A selection of print and pamphlet material relating to southern Africa has been added to the digital library. The selection, which represents a fraction of the RCS pamphlet collection, broadly covers the following: vernacular language material; publications of the Lovedale Press; material relating to the early history of the colony of Natal [KwaZulu-Natal] and the Zulu Kingdom.
Project team
The text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License
Collection items featured:
- 'General view of Lovedale from the Black Hill' (RCS/Y3055J/55)
- Selection of pamphlets from the RCS library (various classmarks)
- The Library, Northumberland Avenue (RCS/RCS/IIh/28)
- Images from Lovedale, South Africa (Lovedale Press, [1931]) by R.H.W. Shepherd (RCS.C.59.8)
- Mhudi (Lovedale, 1930) by Sol T. Plaatje (RCS.C.59.8)
- The influence of English on Bantu Literature (Lovedale, 1943) by D.D.T. Jabavu (RCS.Pam.5d)
- The girl who killed to save (Lovedale, 1935) by H.I.E. Dhlomo (RCS.Pam.5d)
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