Event Courses and Workshops Building Africana Collections: A Visit to the Nairobi Field Office

Join us for our event, "Building Africana Collections and Connecting to Researchers: Interviews with James Armstrong, Field Director, Library of Congress Office, Nairobi, Kenya, 1977-1990 --Window on Africa: A Visit to the Library of Congress Nairobi Field Office" on January 6. This is the first webinar in a two-part series. 

These interviews highlight the work conducted for the Library of Congress through its Field Office in Nairobi, Kenya.  James Armstrong served as field director in Nairobi from 1977-90, with a one-year temporary duty travel in Washington 1983-84.  In 1992, he moved to the Library’s Field office in Rio de Janeiro, and from there, he went on to Islamabad and Jakarta, retiring in 2005.  During his tenure in Nairobi, he made over 100 acquisitions trips to countries in Eastern and Southern Africa.  Armstrong is the author of scholarly works on Africa who made multiple archival research trips to Cape Town, Colombo and Goa, primarily to research the Malagasy slave trade and the early history of the Chinese in South Africa.