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The Transcription Centre:

An Inventory of Its Records in the Manuscript Collection at the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center



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Repository: The University of Texas at Austin, Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center
Creator: The Transcription Centre, circa 1962-1977
Title: The Transcription Centre Records
Dates: 1931-1986 (bulk 1960-1977)
Extent: 25 boxes (10.50 linear feet)
Abstract: The records of the Transcription Centre comprise scripts and manuscripts, correspondence, legal documents, business records, ephemera, photographs, and clippings spanning the years 1931 to 1986.
Languages: English, Hausa, Swahili, German, French, and Italian.

Administrative Information

Acquisition:

Purchase, 1990 (R12142)

Processed by:

Bob Taylor, 2008


Restrictions

Access:

Open for research


Organizational History

The Transcription Centre began its brief but significant life in February 1962 under the direction of Dennis Duerden (1927-2006), producing and distributing radio programs for and about Africa. Duerden was a graduate of Queen’s College, Oxford and had served as principal of the Government Teachers’ College at Keffi, Nigeria and later as producer of the Hausa Service of the BBC. As an artist and educator with experience in West Africa, as well as a perceptive critic of African art he was a natural in his new post.

The Transcription Centre was created with funding provided initially by the Congress for Cultural Freedom (CCF) to foster non-totalitarian cultural values in sub-Saharan Africa in implicit opposition to Soviet-encouraged committed political attitudes among African writers and artists. Much of the CCF’s funding and goals were subsequently revealed to have come from the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency. The stress between the CCF’s presumed wish to receive value for their investment in the Transcription Centre and Duerden’s likely belief that politically-based programming would alienate the very audience it sought permeated his activities throughout his years with the radio service.

The center’s first effort in broadcasting was Africa Abroad, a fifteen-minute weekly program of interviews and news edited by Lewis Nkosi, a South African expatriate journalist and scholar. Africa Abroad was produced from 1962 through 1966, along with other occasional programming. In the years between 1966 and 1970 programs were funded by and produced for Deutsche Welle in Germany. African Writers Talking, a collection of interviews conducted between 1962 and 1968 and edited by Duerden and Cosmo Pieterse, was published in 1972 by Heinemann.

Beginning in 1964 a mimeographed periodical, Cultural Events in Africa, was published, carrying news items of cultural activities in Africa. As the Transcription Centre’s activities wound down in the mid-1970s, Cultural Events was for a time produced at the African Studies Centre of the University of Cambridge, with publication eventually ceasing in 1975, the year the Transcription Centre closed its final home in London at 6 Paddington Street.

Over the dozen years of its active existence under Duerden’s management, the Transcription Centre enjoyed the services of a remarkable array of writers and scholars, including Frene Ginwala, Alex La Guma, John Nagenda, Lewis Nkosi, Donatus Nwoga, Cosmo Pieterse, Richard Rive, Andrew Salkey, and Robert Serumaga.


Sources:

Moore, Gerald. “The Transcription Centre in the Sixties: Navigating in Narrow Seas,” Research in African Literatures, vol. 33, no. 3, Fall 2002.

Price, Derrick. “Dennis Duerden,” The Guardian, 30 January 2007.

Whiteman, Kaye. “Remembering Dennis Duerden, 1927-2006,” ASAUK Newsletter, no. 46, January 2007.


Scope and Contents

The records of the Transcription Centre comprise scripts and manuscripts, correspondence, legal documents, business records, ephemera, photographs, and clippings. The collection, which spans the years 1931 to 1986, is arranged partly in original order and partly in a devised order. The material is organized in four series: I. Initiatives, Events, and Sponsorships, 1961-75; II. Correspondence, 1961-86; III. Administrative Records, 1960-77; and IV. Other Papers, 1931-74. Languages present include English, Hausa, Swahili, German, French, and Italian.

Series I., Initiatives, Events, and Sponsorships, constitutes the largest group of records and probably contains the most complete representation of the Transcription Centre’s many activities. The series includes files on conferences, festivals, music, publications, radio programs, scholarship and research, television projects, and theater and film projects.

Africa Abroad, the prime broadcast vehicle for the center in its early years, is represented by a fairly complete collection of scripts, along with scripts of other radio series produced by the center, such as Oral Traditions in Hausa and Swahili, Men and Space, and People on the Move (the latter two in English and Swahili versions). There is also much additional documentation of broadcasting efforts in the form of program logs, tape catalogs, and correspondence regarding the ultimately successful effort to place the audio tapes at the Center for Research Libraries in Chicago.

Particularly noteworthy is a large file of scripts and script fragments arranged topically as a broadcast and publishing resource, including material not represented elsewhere in the papers. An index to the names, titles, and subjects represented in this file is included in this finding aid.

For Cultural Events in Africa, the center’s periodical newsletter, slightly more than half of the issues published (primarily from the later period) are present. A gathering of news items, press releases, and minor published materials from which short and long pieces in Cultural Events were often based is also present. Much of this original source material is fugitive in nature and likely difficult to locate elsewhere.

Other projects supported by the Transcription Centre include the ethnological work of Gerhard Kubik, the Ijinle Theatre Company, and a film version of Wole Soyinka’s The Swamp Dwellers. The series also demonstrates various efforts to assist African musicians and encourage interest in African musical performance. Materials relating to conferences and festivals of African art and culture in the 1960s and early 1970s are located in the series, of which those concerned with the 1965 Commonwealth Arts Festival in Cardiff, Wales are the most extensive.

Comprising about a quarter of the papers, Series II. Correspondence, contains significant evidence of the Transcription Center’s efforts on behalf of African art, writing, and scholarship through broadcasting, conferences, and cultural festivals. Though the correspondence spans 1961 to 1986, the period before 1970 is strongest.

Dennis Duerden’s tireless efforts to draw attention to Africa’s mind and soul at the beginning of the post-colonial era are documented in the center’s correspondence with artists (Jimo Akolo, Julian Bienart) and writers (Chinua Achebe, Ezekiel Mphahlele, Rajat Neogy, David Rubadiri), as well as academics and other scholars (Ulli Beier, Sillaty K. Dabo, Gerhard Kubik, Margaret Laurence, Ivan van Sertima). The extensive body of correspondence with Wole Soyinka is especially noteworthy.

Substantial additional correspondence with publishers, contributors, and client radio stations and networks is also found in the series. A complete index of correspondents is available in this finding aid.

Series III. Administrative Records, also represents about a quarter of the Transcription Centre records. The materials here include documents concerned with rent, insurance, utilities, legal matters, and the like, along with a substantial group of subscription records for Cultural Events in Africa.

Fully half of the series, however, demonstrates via regular correspondence the roles of the Congress for Cultural Freedom and the Farfield Foundation in the creation and continued funding of the Transcription Centre and Dennis Duerden’s plans for the broadcasting service. This correspondence appears to have survived substantially complete.

Series IV. Other Papers, embraces in its box-and-a-half extent a group of Transcription Centre reports on social policy in and about Africa, materials on African art and culture, and a collection of papers concerned with non-African film projects in which Duerden involved himself at various times. This latter group is as varied in its emphases as a projected study of the English pub, the art and literature of India, British stage classics generally and Shakespeare specifically. Related promotional records in Series III. contain descriptive material and some correspondence concerned with Dennis Duerden’s work in physiological and medical cinematography in the early 1970s.

Other collections at the Ransom Center holding material related to the Transcription Centre include the records of Research in African Literatures and the papers of Peter Glenville.

The Archival Sound Recordings service of the British Library holds sound recordings produced by the Transcription Centre and makes them available online to those with proper licensing. The Center for Research Libraries in the U.S. holds the collection of audio materials acquired from the Transcription Centre in the 1970s.


Related Material

Research in African Literatures

Peter Glenville Papers



Index Terms

People

Achebe, Chinua
Akolo, Jimo Bola, 1935-
Beinart, Julian
Bown, Lalage J.
Duerden, Dennis
Kubik, Gerhard, 1934-
Laurence, Margaret
Mphahlele, Ezekiel
Soyinka, Wole

Organizations

Commonwealth Arts Festival. (1965 : London, England)
Transcription Centre

Subjects

Culture--Africa.

Titles

Africa Abroad
Cultural Events in Africa

Container List

Series I. Initiatives, Events, and Sponsorships, 1961-1975

Subseries A. Conference Files
Container
1.1 Broadcasting in Africa (proposed), draft programs and correspondence, 1962-63
 
1.2 Inter-university Co-operation in West Africa, Freetown, 1961
 
1.3 Mbari Writers Conference, Kampala, 1961
 
1.4 Sweden and Denmark (proposed), 1966
Subseries B. Festival Files
Container
1.5 Berlin festival, 1964
 
1.6-7 Commonwealth Arts Festival, 1965, Cardiff
 
1.8 Commonwealth Arts Festival, 1965, London
 
1.9-10 World Festival of Negro Arts, 1st, 1966, Dakar
Subseries C. Music, Musicians, and Musicology
Container
2.1 Brand, Dollar (Abdullah Ibrahim), 1965-69
 
2.2 Brand, Dollar, divorce and other topics, 1964-65
 
2.3 Brand, Dollar, Home Office documents, 1965
 
2.4 Kubik, Gerhard, ethnological work, 1962-72
 
2.5 McGregor, Chris, autobiographical notes
 
2.6 Masuka, Dorothy, 1965
 
2.7 Music and musicians, correspondence, 1961-74
 
2.8 Sowande, Fela, 1963-64
Subseries D. Publications
Cultural Events in Africa
Container
2.9 Issue drafts, editorial notes, and source notes circa 1966-75
 
2.10-11 Published issues 3, 8, 18, 56, 71-78, 80-91, 92-95, 99-103, 105-117; 1964-75
Information and source materials for
Container
3.1 African dance and African drama, clippings, programs, correspondence, etc.
 
3.2 Ghana, pamphlets
 
3.3-6, 4.1-3 Press releases, news clippings, pamphlets, correspondence
 
4.4-5 Oral Traditions, published issues 3, 5-6, 8-11, other mimeos, various drafts
 
4.6, 5.1-2 Various publications, drafts and notes
Subseries E. Radio Programs
Transcriptions
Container
5.3-7 Africa Abroad, numbers 1-3, 6, 8-42, 45-48, 50, 52, 54, 56, 61-81, 83-97, 99, 101- 112, 114-120, 121-158, handwritten, typed, mimeo
 
6.1 Hausa Oral Traditions; other Hausa mimeos
 
6.2 Human Rights and Paying for Government, Hausa editions
 
6.3 People on the Move, English and Swahili editions; Men and Space, English and Swahili editions
 
6.4 Pieterse, Cosmo. Once upon a Holiday and so to Bed in Swahili; various handwritten drafts in Swahili
Swahili interview mimeo series
Container
6.5 Mabadiliko na Vizuizi, Uhamaji wa Binadamu, Namna za Uhuru, and Haja ya Sharia
 
6.6 Swahili Oral Traditions and Swahili Human Rights
 
7.1 Mimeo sheets, stapled and unstapled; Hausa handwritten drafts on music
 
7.2-4 Mimeo sheets, various; mostly unstapled and with some handwritten notes; various handwritten drafts
Numbered mimeos, drafts, fragments arranged by handwritten item numbers (topics prevalent in each folder indicated)
Container
7.5 Items 1.2 through 8.4, interviews, includes Zondo, episode 5 without item number
 
7.6 Items 9.3 through 21.1, interviews
 
8.1 Items 21.2 through 25.1, interviews and biography
 
8.2-3 Items 25.2 through 29.3, biography and criticism of playwrights
 
8.4 Items 29.11 through 38.1-4, essays on music
 
8.5 Items 40.2 through 56.1, criticism of African writing
 
8.6-9.1 Items 57.2 through 91.2, politics and social issues; playscripts
 
9.2 Items 92.1 through 118.1, essays on art and literature
 
9.3 Items 119.1 through 186.4, Africans outside Africa
Tape catalogs and report
Container
9.4 Catalog of tapes recorded, 1962-70
 
9.5 Catalogs of tapes sent to Indiana University, 1970
 
9.6 Cue sheets for Deutsche Welle and other radio stations, 1965-67
 
9.7 Distribution of Transcription Centre radio broadcasts, 1962-65
Program cover sheets for Deutsche Welle
Container
10.1 June 1966-February 1968
 
10.2 March 1968-July 1970
 
10.3 Transcription Centre recording reports, 1968-70
Tape distribution to collections
Container
10.4 Catalog of tapes sent to Northwestern University, undated
 
10.5 Center for Research Libraries, re sale, 1974
 
10.6 Northwestern sale of tapes, etc., 1967-73
 
10.7 Rex Collings, sale of tapes, 1971
 
10.8 Schomburg Collection, New York Public Library, re tapes, 1972
 
10.9 Tape archives, various institutions, 1968-73
 
11.1 University of California, Los Angeles (John Povey) re sale of tapes, 1967-72
Subseries F. Scholarship and Research
Container
11.2 African Writers Talking (Heinemann, 1972), forematter text and layout designs
 
11.3 André Deutsch Ltd. and children’s book project, 1962-63
 
11.4 Embassies in London, correspondence, 1964-67
 
11.5 European Community Information Service, correspondence, 1964
 
11.6 Ginwala, Frene, proposed book on African nationalism and other topics, 1965-67
Subseries G. Television Projects
The Africa project ["Entertainment in Africa"], Leon Gluckman for ABC Television Network
Container
11.7 Background notes
 
11.8 Correspondence, 1966-67
 
11.9 National Educational Television and Radio Center, correspondence re “African writers of today” project, 1963-67
 
11.10 Television project on African theater films, 1964?
Subseries H. Theater and Film Projects
Ijinle Theatre Company
Container
11.11 Charter, minutes, etc., 1966-67
 
11.12 Correspondence, 1964-69
 
11.13 Fund raising, 1966-67
 
11.14 Theatre workshop, 1966
 
11.15 Theatre workshop presentation, 1964-67
The Swamp Dwellers (1965 film version)
Container
12.1 Editing and finish, 1964-65
 
12.2 Film crew, 1964
 
12.3 Production, auditions, etc., 1964-67
 
12.4 Projected showing of, 1965
 
12.5 Robert Gardner re, 1966-75
Various
Container
12.6 Institute of Contemporary Arts, 1964
 
12.7 Outlined projects, 1961-69
 
12.8 Poetry at the Royal Court Theatre, 1965-66
 
12.9 Soyinka, Wole. The Road, 1965, correspondence re



Series II. Correspondence, 1961-1986

African artists and artists in Africa, 1961-74
Container
12.10 African artists, re exhibitions of, 1963-74
 
12.11 Akolo, Jimo, 1961-68
 
12.12 Alarape, Susanne Wenger, 1966
 
12.13 Beinart, Julian, 1962-74
 
13.1 Cardew, Michael, correspondence re, 1962-74
Exhibitions, correspondence re
Container
13.2 1963-65
 
13.3 1965-70
 
13.4 Shipping and delivery questions
African studies institutions and publications
Container
13.5 African Studies Association, 1969-75
 
13.6 Deutsche Afrika-Gesellschaft, 1968-70
 
13.7 Journal of African Languages, 1964-68
Contributors
Container
13.8 A-E
 
13.9 F-N
 
13.10 Green, Gillian E. (Gill), 1975-78
 
13.11 Hoyt, Emily, 1972-73
 
14.1 O-S
 
14.2 Shils, Edward, 1962-65
 
14.3 T-Z, third party, forenames
 
14.4 Outgoing
Cultural Events in Africa
General, 1964-72
Container
14.5 A-G
 
14.6 H-L
 
14.7 Heinemann, 1964-70
 
14.8 Longmans, 1964-68
 
15.1 M-R
 
15.2 S-Z; unidentified
 
15.3 With periodicals, 1964-65
 
15.4 Outgoing
 
15.5 Publicity and promotion, 1965
Radio stations and networks, 1961-79
Container
15.6 Australia, 1962-65
 
15.7 British Broadcasting Corporation, 1962-67
 
15.8 Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, 1964-67
 
15.9 Caribbean, 1964-67
 
15.10 France, 1963
Germany
Container
15.11 Deutsche Welle, 1966-68
 
15.12 Radio Deutsche Welle (Gerd Meurer), 1966-79
 
15.13 Ghana, 1962-67
 
15.14 India, 1962-64
 
15.15 Kenya, 1962-65
 
15.16 Malawi, 1963-67
 
15.17 Nigeria, 1962-67
RTV International
Container
16.1 The Swamp Dwellers and other projects, 1963-68
 
16.2 Swahili programme for RTV International, 1965
 
16.3 Sierra Leone, 1962-68
Sweden
Container
16.4 Other than Sveriges Radio, 1964-66
 
16.5 Sveriges Radio, 1963-65
 
16.6 Tanganyika / Tanzania, 1961-67
 
16.7 Uganda, 1962-69
 
16.8 United States, 1962-70
 
16.9 Zambia, 1964-67
Writers
Container
16.10 Abraham, W. E.
 
16.11 Achebe, Chinua
 
16.12 Aidoo, Ama Ata
 
16.13 Awoonor, Kofi
 
16.14 Awoonor, Kofi and John Wiley (Firm)
 
16.15 Barrett, Lindsay
 
16.16 Bart-Williams, Gaston
 
16.17 Beier, Ulli
 
17.1 Clark-Bekederemo, J. P.
 
17.2 Crosland, Anthony
 
17.3 Dipoko, Mbella Sonne
 
17.4 Ekwensi, Cyprian
 
17.5 Ezekiel, Nissim
 
17.6 Figueiredo, Antonio de
 
17.7 Hughes, Langston
 
17.8 Hutchinson, Alfred
 
17.9 La Guma, Alex
 
17.10 Laurence, Margaret
 
17.11 Ludwig, Jack
 
17.12 Mazrui, Ali
 
17.13 Mbiti, John
 
17.14 Modisane, Bloke
 
17.15 Mphahlele, Ezekiel
 
17.16 Nakasa, Nathaniel
 
17.17 Neogy, Rajat
 
17.18 Nkosi, Lewis
 
17.19 Nwoga, Donatus
 
17.20 Oduneye, Bayo
 
17.21 Ogot, Grace
 
17.22 Okigbo, Christopher
 
17.23 Peters, Lenrie
 
17.24 Pieterse, Cosmo
 
17.25 Rive, Richard
 
17.26 Rubadiri, David
 
17.27 Salkey, Andrew
Script writers
Container
17.28 Campbell, Barry; Schafer, Mary, 1966-71
 
17.29 Re radio program, 1962
 
17.30 Serumaga, Robert
Soyinka, Wole
Container
18.1 1963-67
 
18.2 1968-76
 
18.3 Undated correspondence and clippings, 1965-86
 
18.4 Van Sertima, Ivan



Series III. Administrative Records, 1960-1977

Administrative and business files, 1961-76
Facilities, rent, utilities, etc.
Container
18.5 4 & 5 Norfolk Street, 38 Dover Street, 1961-68
 
18.6 6 Paddington St., 1968-77
Financial
Container
19.1 Accounts, 1962, correspondence with Eric Webber (Encounter) re expenses
 
19.2 Abdullahi, Aminu, business affairs, 1962-68
 
19.3 Lloyds Bank Ltd., 1973-76
 
19.4 Mbari, correspondence with Begum Hendrickse, 1962-65
 
19.5 Price Waterhouse & Co., audits, 1966-71
 
19.6 Receipts, 1966-73
 
19.7 Records (production of phonodiscs), 1964-72
Legal
Container
19.8 Copyright, re use of commercial recordings, 1962-65
 
19.9 Legal representation (F. Holdaway), 1966-74
 
19.10 Memoranda of association, 1962-77
Solicitors
Container
19.11 Contracts, 1962-67
 
19.12 Correspondence, 1962-66
Library
Container
20.1 Documentation of periodical subscriptions and books sought, 1962-68
 
20.2 Transcription Centre reference library, 1962-67
Miscellaneous
Container
20.3 Administrative, 1962-71
 
20.4 African cultural events, etc., 1962-72
 
20.5 Extra Mural Departments, 1962-67
 
20.6 Miscellaneous correspondence, 1961-70
Staff
Container
2.7 Ademola, Frances, correspondence, 1962-64
Staff appointments, etc.
Container
20.8 A-R
 
20.9 S-W, forenames, notes, fragments
Congress for Cultural Freedom, 1960-67
Container
21.1 Broadcasting in Africa, a report prepared for the Congress for Cultural Freedom by Dennis Duerden, September 1961
 
21.2 Correspondence, financial, 1961-66
 
21.3 Correspondence, general, 1961-66
 
21.4-5 Financial records, 1961-67
 
21.6 Hunt, John, confidential correspondence, 1960-67
 
22.1 Pakistan Committee for the CCF
Cultural Events in Africa, subscription records
Container
22.2-3 Correspondence re, 1964-72
 
22.4 Invoices, 1976-77
 
22.5 Orders 1-200, 1965-66
 
22.6 Orders and inquiries, 1970-73
 
22.7 Queries, 1964-74
 
22.8 Subscription list
Funding files, 1961-73
Container
23.1 African trip, 1961
Farfield Foundation
Correspondence
Container
23.2-3 Platt, Frank, 1965-73, undated
 
23.4 Thompson, John, 1963-67
 
23.5 Payments, 1962-68
 
23.6 Stralem, Donald, 1964-73
 
23.7 U.S. foundations and funding, 1963-67
Promotional, 1962-75
Container
23.8 Fund raising (Frene Ginwala), 1965-67
 
23.9 Miscellaneous, important, 1962-66
 
24.1 Promotional material, including Dennis Duerden’s production of science films, 1964-75



Series IV. Other Papers, 1931-1974

Africa and African culture
Container
24.2 African and Afro-American writers, materials re
 
24.3 African poetry, including works by Gaston Bart-Williams and others
 
24.4 African writers, biographies, etc.
 
24.5 Photographs of African authors
 
24.6 Présence Africaine cocktail party, 1966
 
24.7 Requests for photographs; cultural events, scripts, etc., 1963-74
 
24.8 Scrapbook of Nigerian art and writing, circa 1963-66
Appeals, protests and social policy
Container
24.9 Anti-apartheid message for radio, 1964-65
 
24.10 Brutus, Dennis, correspondence re detention, 1963-66
 
24.11 Reports by Aminu Abdullahi, Lalage Bown, Dennis Duerden, 1964-66
 
25.1 Taverne, Dick, correspondence re Amihyia affair, 1964
 
25.2 Volta River Authority, interview conducted by Dennis Duerden, 1963?
Non-African literature and art
Container
25.3 The English Pub, with Stanley Holloway, Dennis Duerden documentary film project, 1965
 
25.4 India, notes on Indian artists and writers "as proposals for film," 1964?
 
25.5 Royal Shakespeare Theatre project, Dennis Duerden projected series of filmed Shakespeare performances, 1965-69
 
25.6 Untitled play
 
25.7 Welbourne, F. B., typescript poems from periodicals, 1931-46
 
25.8 Williams, Clifford, notes for an intended partnership with Dennis Duerden to film British stage classics, 1966



Index of Correspondents


Index to Radio Program Transcriptions

This index lists names, titles, and subjects from the radio program transcriptions located in folder 7.5 through 9.3 ONLY. Each item within the folder bears a number assigned by the Transcription Centre, which is cited here to aid in finding particular items within the folder.