PROJECT  REPORTS

THE  ARABIC  COLLECTION

15

In  1961  the  Institute  of  African  Studies  initiated  the  collection

of  Arabic  manuscripts  from  Ghana.  The  work  Was greatly  facilitated  by  the
appointment  to  its staff  in  1962  of  al-Hajj  Osmanu  Eshaka  Boyo,  whose  wide
range  of  contacts  among  the  Muslims  of  Ghana  has been  of  great  advantage.
The  Institute  has come  into  possession  of  a  number  of  original  manuscripts,  but
in  general  its  policy  for  the  present  has been  to  make  photographic  or  Xerox
copies,  returning  the  originals  to  their  owners.  The  work  of  reproduction
has  been  greatly  assisted  by  a  grant!from  the  Rockefeller  Foundation  towards
the  purchase  of  equipment. 

\

In  addition  to  the  work  of  collection  and

A  descriptive  check-list  of  the  collection  is  in  course  of  preparation.
At  present  some  400  items  have  been  provisionally  catalogued,  while  some
further  100  items  have  not  as yet  been  examined. 
It  is clear  that  the  works
so far  accessioned  constitute  only  a  small  fraction  of  the  total  body  of  material
in  the  libraries  of  Ghana  ma lams. 
cataloguing,  a  number  of  transl ations  have  been  prepared  or  are  in  course
of  preparation.  While  the  majority  of  Hie  works are  in  Arabic  language,  some
50  items are  in  Hausa,  and  it  has  been  a  matter  of  considerable  interest  to
find  a  few  manuscripts  in  Ghanaian  languages,  Dagbane,  Mamprule,  and
Guan.  The  majority  of  the  works  in  the  Institute's  collection  are  of  local
West  African  authorship.  Of  particular  interest  is  the  tarikh  tradition,  -
that  is,  the  tradition  of  historical  writing  -  which  appears  to  have  been  well
developed  within  Ghana  by  at  least  the  early  18th Century.  The  most  important
of  these  historical  works  so far  recovered  is therKitob  Ghunja,  compiled Jn
its  present  form  in  1751/2  by  Muhammad  ibn  Mustafa  of  Gonja.  This  h  a
chronicle  of  Gonja  history  from  the  later  16th  century  to  the  middle  of  the
18th  century,  but  also  includes  important  references  to  Dagomba,  Ashanti,
Takyiman,  Bonduku,  etc.  The  collection  also  includes other  histories of  Gonja,
and  of  Dagomba,  Mamprusi,  Wa,  Namasa,  etc.  Histories  of  the  Hausa,  Bornu,
and  Fulani  have  also been  accessioned.

A  different  tradition  is that  of  the  poets.  Particularly  noteworthy  are

the  works,  of  which  the  Institute  now  has over  fifty/  of  al-Hajj  Imoru  Ibn  Abi
Bakr  of  Salaga  and  Kete  Krachi,  who  was  born  in  Kano  c.  1850,  and  died  in
Kete  Krachi  in  1934.  Many  of  his  poems deal  with  contemporaneous  events
such as the  Salaga  civil  war  of  1892,  the  colonial  take-over  of  around  1900,
the  influenza  epidemic  of  1918,  e t c .,  and  these  form an  invaluable  source  for
the  social  historian  of  the  period.