British West Africa / Liberia

BRA 210

The Youth of Liberia in the inaugural celebrations of his excellency William R. Tolbert Jr. nineteeth President of the Republic of Liberia, January 1972. Presented and prepared by Lt. Col. Mordechai Lev youth advisor. A rare and uniqe photo album with 15 original black and white photographs, (4 of which are captioned in Hebrew) and 22 original-colored photographs. The demonstrations were prepared by the BUREAU OF YOUTH, assisted by two experts from ISRAEL, Mr AVRAM GINO and Mr. JACOB SHEMER. The album ends with hebrew newspaper article and 5 photos of politicians from Israel and Liberia, and the presidents of the Supreme Court of Israel and Liberia.

Price: $600.00

NOTE: On 9 April 1959, Israel made its first agreement with an independent African nation in its treaty of friendship with Liberia. Between 1959 and 1973, Israel and Liberia would make five more agreements. In this same period, Israel would receive one state visit from Liberia in June 1962, when President Tubman visited Jerusalem. Liberia would receive two state visits from Israel, one from President Yitzhak Ben-Zvi to Monrovia in August 1962, and one from Prime Minister Levy Eshkol in June 1966.BRA 210

Israel helped to contribute to President Tubman's Open Door Policy in the late 1950s. This policy's goal was to bring economic development to Liberia's interior. This involved foreign financial investment, as well as development of its mining and agricultural industries. In the late 1950s, two surveys were conducted by Israeli experts in regard to the agricultural possibilities of Liberia. Private Israeli businesses also provided both large scale construction projects, such as with the Ducor Hotel and a new Executive Mansion, in addition to smaller projects. Israel also helped develop Liberia's medical capabilities.

BRA 210President William Tubman was a proponent of Israel, and throughout his term in office, he resisted pressure from the Organisation for African Unity (OAU) to oppose Israel. In 1967, after the Six-Day War, Liberia was the first African country to move its embassy in Israel to Jerusalem. It was shown in declassified documents from the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs that diplomatic officials in the Tubman administration, including representatives to the UN, were bribed by Israel in the form of cash and gifts in exchange for diplomatic support.

Upon Tubman's death in 1971, he was succeeded by Vice President William Tolbert. Tolbert was not as supportive of Israel or the Western Bloc as his predecessor. He sought more relations and economic ties with Asian countries, such as the People's Republic of China, and Arab countries. Tolbert also increased Liberian identification with the Non-Aligned Movement. During the OAU summit in Rabat in June 1972, Liberia supported a resolution calling for Israel to withdraw from occupied territories acquired in the Six-Day War. On 2 November 1973, the Tolbert administration severed ties with Israel in response to the Yom Kippur War, along with 28 other African countries. While their formal relations were undone, Liberia maintained some contact with Israel through intermediates, such as private Israeli businesses and international organizations like the United Nations. While Israel–Liberia relations were worsened, Tolbert continued to support the existence of the Israeli state, and supported the continuation of Israel's status as a member state of the United Nations.

BRA 203

6 photos of Sir Ahmadu Bello inspecting a research facility in Northern Nigeria.

Price: $140.00

Note from Wikipedia: Ahmadu Ibrahim Bello famously known as Sardauna of Sokoto (12 June 1910 – 15 January 1966), knighted as Sir Ahmadu Bello, was a conservative Nigerian statesman who masterminded Northern Nigeria through the independence of Nigeria in 1960 and served as its first and only premier from 1954 until his assassination in 1966, in which capacity he dominated national affairs for over a decade. He was also the leader of the Northern People's Congress, the ruling party at the time consisting of the Hausa–Fulani elite. He had previously been elected into the regional legislature and later became a government minister. A member of the Sokoto Caliphate dynasty, he made attempts at becoming Sultan of Sokoto before later joining politics.

BRA 202German press photo of Alexander Priestly Camphor.

Price: $40.00

Note from Wikipedia: Alexander Priestly Camphor (1865–1919) was born to slave parents on a Louisiana sugar plantation. When he was a young child, he was adopted by a white Methodist preacher, Stephen Priestly. Priestly sent Alexander to Methodist Freedman's Aid schools during Reconstruction. He graduated from New Orleans University in 1887 and later taught mathematics there for four years while also organizing the Friends of Africa Society. After graduating from Gammon Theological Seminary in 1895, he completed postgraduate work at Columbia University and Union Theological Seminary in New York." "Alexander married Mamie Anna Rebecca Camphor (née Wheathers or Weathers) in 1893. Mamie Camphor was born November 27, 1869, in Woodville, Mississippi. By all accounts, she was an educated woman and well-versed in terms of her vocabulary. She was Alexander's active partner in missionary work, raising interest and support for their joint work.

In 1896, the Camphors were assigned to the Methodist Monrovia Seminary in Liberia. Within a year, they had reorganized the seminary, increased enrollment, and proposed an expanded organization and facility. Its charter included providing high school education. a degree-granting courses in ministry, and dormitory facilities for male and female students. The name was also changed to the College of West Africa Monrovia. Camphor served as its President from 1897 – 1907.

In May 1916, he was made Bishop of Africa by the General Methodist Episcopal Conference and served in this capacity until 1919 at which time the Camphors returned to the U.S. They intended to return to Liberia. However, Alexander became ill from pneumonia in October 1919 and died at his home in South Orange, New Jersey the following December. After the death of her husband, Mamie Camphor spent two months with relatives in New Orleans, Baton Rouge, and Jackson, Mississippi, before returning to her home in Orange, New Jersey. In March 1920, she began visiting cities in the American south to recruit students for the ministry as a member of a team under the auspices of the Interchurch World Movement. Her 1927 voter registration card indicates that she was living in Orange, New Jersey; however, the souvenir program of the Sixty-second Session of the Louisiana Annual Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church held in 1929 noted that she was living in Philadelphia. Articles that appeared in The Baltimore Afro-American in the early 1940s described her active public and social life in Philadelphia and she was mentioned in a 1942 column in the same newspaper as having attended an Urban League dinner in Newark. Although she lived for another ten years, there is little information on that period. An obituary in the New York Times indicated that she had been living in Orange, New Jersey, and was actively involved at St. John's Methodist Church and several other local institutions. She was survived by a sister, Ruth Spellman, who lived in New Orleans, and two foster daughters. The place of her interment is unknown.

Bishop Camphor had several achievements during his lifetime. In addition to being the namesake of the church in Minnesota, there are three other United Methodist churches named in his honor, located in Baton Rouge, Philadelphia, and Monrovia, Liberia.

BRA 201BRA 201

10 colonial postcards of Sierra Leone: home building, Royal Sappers in a canvas boat, the police station at Freetown, playing warri, making cotton, a muslim village, local minstrels, canoe making, local produce.

Price: $300.00

BRA 199

1920 postcard of the Benin Mission and the Royal West African Frontier Force.

Price: $60.00

BRA 198

Early postcard of a view of Bathurst, Gambia.

Price: $30.00

BRA 197

Press photos of William Tubman in France inn 1956, and a crowd in Monrovia awaiting a foreign dignitary.

Price: $140.00

BRA 196

2 French press photos: NASA satellite station at Kano (1962) and Sir Ahamadou Bello, prime minister of Northern Nigeria (1963).

Price: $80.00

BRA 195

Two 1908 postcards of the villages of Idah and Oshogbo on the Niger river in Nigeria.

Price: $50.00

BRA 194

5 postcards of colonial Nigeria. Shown are the court house at Lakoja, a Bakuba village, caravan at Kano, King Marmoa of Itibu, catholic church at Lagos.

Price: $150.00