24
The critical intersection of colonialism,
royal prerogative, individual life-histories,
social mores, and an explosion of artistic
creativity is examined against a specific artistic
"Weltanschauung" and an ongoing interest
in reshaping cultural identity through
visual form. The rich and diverse textual
archives and artistic forms housed in the
Museum of Foumban (the former palace of
Bamun King Njoya, himself a key figure
in this project) offer a unique opportunity to
examine anew the extraordinary art history
of this area. The participants in this project
represent key African scholars working on this
and related art materials from fields as
diverse as anthropology, archaeology, cultural
history, and art and architectural history.
Black Patriots Project
Co-Directors: Jane Ailes and Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
Funded by the Sons of the American
Revolution (SAR) and the Du Bois Institute,
the Black Patriots project was established to
identify African Americans who fought in the
Revolutionary War. The project’s beginnings
are rooted in the revelation of Professor
Gates’s own ancestors who fought for liberty
during this bloody chapter in America’s
history. Using old-fashioned genealogical
sleuthing, the project’s goal is to transform the
historical understanding of the African
American contribution to the American struggle
for independence. As a result of the
research conducted by Jane Ailes of Research
Consultants, the project has been able to
identify 5,000 African Americans by survey-
ing the 80,000 pension applications of
Revolutionary War veterans and comparing
these names to Federal Census records from
1790 to 1850. To date, the testimony in
the pension files has proved to be fascinating
reading and includes stories of battles, troop
movements, whom a man served under, his
transfers amongst regiments and commanders,
when he married and whom he married,
place of birth, place of enlistment, and where
he lived after the war. With this information,
the Du Bois Institute and the SAR will
encourage descendants of these individuals to
apply for membership in the SAR or the
Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR).
Black Periodical and Literature Project
Director: Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
The Black Periodical Literature Project
(BPLP) is devoted to the study of black
imaginative literature published in America
between 1827 and 1940. This archive has been
collected on microfiche, and an index to
these items on CD-ROM has been available
in most university libraries for a decade.
Most recently, the archive was transferred to
PDF files. The balance of the database is
being collated and organized for publication
online and in print form for researchers,
scholars, genealogists, and students.
Central Africa Diaspora to the
Americas Project
Co-Directors: Linda M. Heywood and John K.
Thornton (Boston University)
The two main avenues of inquiry for this
project include research on, “The Kingdom
of Kongo in the Wider World, 1400–1800” and
Research Projects and Outreach