White Fathers Records Records relating to Table d'enquète sur les moeurs et les coutumes indigènes [An Enquiry into the Indigenous Traditions and Customs of Peoples of West and Central Africa], 1950-1960, bulk 1951-1952

Printable guide [HTML]
Request items

Summary

Creators:
White Fathers
Abstract:
The White Fathers (a Catholic society also known as the Society of Missionaries of Africa) was founded in 1868 by Charles M. Lavigerie, Archbishop of Algiers. The members of the White Fathers are bound by an oath to the establishment of the Catholic Church on the African continent. The collection consists of a typed carbon set of responses to a 1950 inquiry sent by the White Fathers to its missions in West and Central Africa. The inquiry's purpose was to gather ethnographic data from each mission and to increase priests' familiarity with the customs of the indigenous people.
Extent:
11 boxes (5.5 linear ft.)
Language:
English.

Background

Scope and content:

Collection consists of a typed carbon set of responses to a 1950 inquiry sent by the White Fathers to its missions in West and Central Africa. The inquiry's purpose was to gather ethnographic data from each mission and to increase priests' familiarity with the customs of the indigenous people.

Expanded Scope and Content

The purpose of the enquiry was two-fold: first, to gather ethnographic data from each mission or stations; and second, to increase the familiarity of the priests with the traditional customs of the indigenous people of their flock through the process of gathering the data. A sample of a blank enquiry/questionnaire is included (see Box 11, Folder 6)

The enquiry is divided into 6 parts with 12 sub-chapters (see the Questionnaire Outline at the beginning of the container list for further information on the break-down of the enquiry). The responses to the enquiry are filed with the enquiry questions. They comprise the bulk of the records and vary significantly in both length and content from mission to mission. They are mostly dated 1951-1952, the few later dates are indicated in the finding aid.

In a few cases there are papers supplementing the responses, and manuscript notations in ink and pencil to the typed record. The supplemental papers have been noted in the finding aid, as have the minority of instances where the return has been made by a named individual.

Following the arrangement of the bound set in the White Fathers Archives noted above, the records have been arranged generally by area: West Africa, which includes Mali, Burkina Faso, northern Guinea, northern Ghana and a small section of Nigeria; and Central Africa which includes eastern Zaire, Rwanda, Burundi, Uganda, western Tanzania, western Zambia, parts of Malawi and Mozambique. Within the geographical areas, the arrangement follows that of the organizational structure of the White Fathers missions The organizing entities for the White Father's missions are the Apostolic Vicariate (V.A.) and the Apostolic Prefecture(P.A.). The answers to the enquiry are collected by V.A. or P.A. Within each V.A. or P.A. the answers are sorted by ethnicity and then a listing of the parts answered.

Biographical / historical:

Founded in 1868 by Charles M. Lavigerie, Archbishop of Algiers, the White Fathers is a Catholic society also known as the Society of Missionaries of Africa; after Lavigerie died in 1892, Léon Livinhac became superior general of the White Fathers; in 1908, the Holy See approved the society's constitutions; members of the White Fathers are bound by an oath to the establishment of the Catholic Church on the African continent.

Acquisition information:

Gift of Archives of the White Fathers, 1993.

Another set of carbon copies of these records is in the Archives of the White Fathers (Padri Bianchi) in Rome, Italy. The location of the original typescripts is unknown.

Arrangement:

Arranged in the following series:

  1. West Africa.
  2. Central Africa.

The records comprise a typed carbon set of responses to an enquiry sent in 1950 by the White Fathers, a Roman Catholic Church missionary order, to its missions in West and Central Africa, with related materials. The extent of records is estimated at 18,000 pages.

Languages

French, except for one paper and one part (see Cewa, Box 9, Folder 2) in English.

Ethnicity

The ethnicities have been Anglicized and standardized by Dr. Christopher Ehret, UCLA. The standardized ethnicity is followed by the ethnicity indicated in French on the records, put in brackets [], when they differ significantly. In the cases of Bantu-speaking people, the Bantu prefix of Wa, Ba etc. has almost always been omitted, unless necessary for identification. For less well-known ethnicities there are linguistic identification in italics, based on George Murdock's The Peoples of Africa, New York, McGraw-Hill, 1959.

Physical location:
Stored off-site at SRLF. Advance notice is required for access to the collection. Please contact the UCLA Library, Department of Special Collections Reference Desk for paging information.

Access and use

Location of this collection:
A1713 Charles E. Young Research Library
Box 951575
Los Angeles, CA 90095-1575, US
Contact:
(310) 825-4988
AskLSC@library.ucla.edu
Website