College and Research Libraries MARY DARRAH HERRICK Bibliographical Problems from New Countries in Africa This is a brief presentation of the problems (bibliographical) that are present or toill occur due to the changing nomenclature of African States, cities and their organs of government. T HE RAPID POLITICAL developments and changes in African countries are hav- ing an effect on bibliography that will be of concern to the research scholar as he moves from retrospective to current bibliography and finds countries and their materials being variously recorded. At the national level the scholar will find the former colonial areas represented by one or more names as they progress from the control of the metropolitan powers. Some of these variations are well known · and have been in common usage long enough to present no problems. German East Africa and Tanganyika, Portuguese East Africa and Mozambique, Tripoli and Libya, even the Gold Coast and Ghana are well known. Newer are the two Congos, that are now distinguished by their respective capitals and were, of course, previously the Congo Free State, later Belgian Congo; and the Mid- dle Congo. One of the real problem areas is, and will be, the Rhodesias, especially since Southern Rhodesia's choice of new name is identical with the commonly used subject heading entry for material on this area of former British Africa. In subject bibliographies the terms "north- em" and "southern" in the Rhodesias and N yasala.nd, as well as "Central African Federation," "Zambia," "Rhodesia," and Miss Herrick is Assistant Director for Bibliographic Organization, Boston Univer- sity Libraries. "Malawi" all may be used to refer to areas as well as political divisions, de- pending on the period covered in the bibliography and the date it was printed. The short-lived amalgamation of Egypt and Syria created the term United Arab Republic. Egypt continues to use this in its official publications thereby continu- ing two names under which subject ma- terial and official publications may be expected to be found listed. The same problem occurs with Tanzania; in retro- spective bibliographies the two names Tanganyika and Zanzibar are used, and material on the separate areas of these two countries will probably continue to be recorded under the two names while the official name Tanzania will also be used. Material on Basutoland, Bechuana- land, and Swaziland can be found listed under their former designation of "High Commission Territories" as well as each colony having its separate designation, and now material is appearing under Bechuanaland' s new name, Botswana, and Basutoland' s new designation as Lesotho. The French territories have undergone numerous variations and amalgamations, and while some of the established names such as Chad, Ivory Coast, Dahomey, Niger, and Gabon are still used, the Middle Congo, French Equatorial, French Soudan, French Guinea, French West Africa, an Uban- gui-Chari have either disappeared or are now represented by new names. These I 341 348 I College & Research Libraries • September, 1967 changes are also occurring at the local level, and new city names are appearing in many areas. For example, Kinshasa is the new name for the former Belgian Congo's capital, Leopoldville. The adoption of the name Mali by the former French Soudan is an inter- esting example of African nationalism in- fluencing the choice of a name that his- torically represented an area whose boundaries were not the same as the modern country. This could create con- fusion if some designation were not adopted to distinguish the two. (The Li- brary of Congress is using "Mali Empire" for the ancient area and "Mali" for the new country.) The brief period of the Mali Federation when the Soudan and Senegal were united will also have to be noted and distinguished. Among these bibliographical problems the accolade for utter confusion is prob- ably won by the Cameroons, variously British, French, German; N orthem, Southern, East, and West; protectorates, colonies, and republics. We now have the Cameroun as an independent repub- lic, an amalgamation of the former French area, including the British South- em Cameroons. Nigeria now has the British Northern Cameroons and the former area designation, British, is no more. The genealogy of the Cameroons presents the scholar with a bibliographic labyrinth as he attempts to locate publi- cations and subject materials. In these bibliographical problems oc- casioned by political changes there are authoritative sources available for veri- fication of names, but this is not as true for the many conflicting tribal designa- tions of Mrican peoples. To the present there is no generally accepted standard list. This is .an area in which Africanists could contribute substantially to bibliog- raphy if they would clarify and standard- ize the names of the various peoples of Mrica. Inasmuch as scholars using research li- braries encounter materials for the most part in the Library of Congress Classi- fication, it may be useful to mention how African material is arranged and how the LC is providing inner structuring for these new countries. Just as any Af- rican bibliography is out of date as soon as it is published, so any classification scheme lags behind the quick-moving events in the political scene today. The rapidity with which the changes can be noted will depend on the number of the bibliographers available in an institu- tion or in a bibliographic service organi- zation. There is no one place for African ma- terial per se in the Library of Congress Classification, for it is a classification of knowledge by subjects, not by area. The major designations for African history and politics are in the D schedules for history and in the J schedules for polit- ical administration and government. DT is the special class for African history and it is here that the majority of the new developments are noted. The de- velopment of African history in the LC subject schedule follows the usual pat- tern starting with generalia for the whole continent. The first large divisions re- flect the former colonial partitions of the continent, so .after Egypt, North Africa, and the Barbary States are provided for, the user comes to areas for British West Africa, French Equatorial, French West, Portuguese West, etc. Within these areas each colony was given a number or range of numbers for material on its history. Although sovereignty in some. cases changed, it was not always re- flected in this classification, as Tangan- yika is still listed under German Mrica with the designation "former" inserted. Important changes have, however, been made, reflecting the need for more space to record the rapidly expanding ma- terials on the different countries. The LC has now assigned tables for use under each former colony (a device for Bibliographical Problems from New Countries in Africa I 349 geographic and political expansion that can be adopted by an institution without undue costs in revising earlier records). So for example, Gabon, which under French West Africa had been given only DT546.1 now has a range of thirteen numbers providing for the several as- pects of that country's history, antiqui- ties, descriptive works, ethnographic works, biography, etc. Even the short- lived Central African Federation has been provided for, and especially inter- esting is a device that is being used for amalgamations such as that of Tangan- yika and Zanzibar. Tanganyikan material already had a number range from DT436 to DT449 with not all the numbers with- in the range being currently used (this is one of LC' s methods to allow for fur- ther expansions ) . Recently DT 448 was assigned for material on Tanganyika for 1961-1965 and DT448.2 was assigned to cover 1965-date, to be used for Tanzania and to include publications on both Tanganyika and Zanzibar. Material on Zanzibar alone may continue to be re- corded with other publications on that area. In addition there is another large area in which these changes in nomenclature may be troublesome. In serial subject bibliographies such as a publication on Comparative Agriculture, Conservation of Natural Resources, Juvenile Delin- quency, Electric Power Development, Public Health, and the like, where the arrangement is usually in sections with geographical subdivisions, the research worker unfamiliar with Africa who wishes to trace his topic over a period of years through several areas for a com- parative study will need to be guided both from the colonial names to the new and from the new back to the former names. Complex as these problems of subject bibliography may be, and as frustrating as the changing nomenclature of gov- ernments may be, the larger difficulties lie in the field of official governmental publications. There the bibliographer has not only to watch and revise the names of countries, but also to watch for and to catch the frequent changes of names of departments and ministries. _Again, the Rhodesias are a prime example of the complexities that have occurred through political changes. In each of the colonies of Northern and Southern Rhodesia material was published from their various governmental departments. At the inception of the Central African Federation, many of these publications were taken over by the newly created federal ministries that assumed the func- tions of the heretofore separate depart- ments. With the breakup of the Federa- tion, Southern Rhodesian and Northern Rhodesian departments resumed publi- cation, sometimes with the same names, sometimes not. Countless other small problems-the introduction of "Federal" into national names as the Federal Republic of the Cameroon, the same term applied and then dropped with Ministries, the change from departments to Ministries, the use of "Division" as synonymous with "De- partment," the joining of two or more services into a ministry, then their sep- aration, re-designations-all plague the careful bibliographer and all must be recorded, linked when necessary, and distinguished from services with similar names, but not necessarily having had similar responsibilities or having issued similar reports. Government publications being of paramount importance, es- pecially in the developing countries, it is of primary concern to the bibliogra- pher to keep his records accurate and up-to-date. As they move from one in- stitution to another in their research scholars will find that institutions' rec- ords may vary in reflecting these changes, for this is an unprecedented situation. It is almost impossible to keep abreast of it (in our own experi- 350 I College & Research Libraries • September, 1967 ence, for example, in one day's mail from Zambia every document that came re- quired revision of bibliographical entry). This is mentioned only to remind schol- ars, as they probably already know, that these changes make an African litera- ture search today almost a guessing game. The guides to African documen- tation published by the Library of Con- gress have been of important assistance especially in the linking of varying de- partmental designations, and one of the most useful general references sources for national names and dates of political change is volume II of the Europa Year- book. Otherwise current newspapers are the best source for catching official changes of national names, and every shipment of government documents from Africa is eagerly scanned to see what has happened or will be happening next. This condition can be expected to exist for several years as more interior ser- vices are developed in these countries. Some services now carried practically as governmental functions will be separated into semi-autonomous, extra-governmen- tal agencies, or become completely au- tonomous, while new services and new departments will be added, and minis- tries that now include two or more major functions will split as the work load grows and be redesignated. This will mean in the future that accurate and exhaustive research will be depend- ent on careful historical notes in bibli- ographies that will draw attention to these many changes involving names and services of governments and will distinguish the interrelationships of vary- ing departmental designations. ••