GLAM/Newsletter/August 2022/Contents/Netherlands report

This Month in GLAM – Volume XII, Issue VIII, August 2022

Netherlands report

West Africa in the Van der Kraaij Photo Collection 1972-1987

By Hans Muller, Wikipedian in residence at the African Studies Centre Leiden, Leiden University

West Africa in the complete Van der Kraaij Photo Collection 1972-1987

This year Dutch economist and photo donor Fred van der Kraaij more or less completed his donation of now 1407 images of West and North Africa to Wikimedia Commons. In his Introduction he highlighted some events he witnessed, which are shown below. Van der Kraaij views his photographs as notes and historical records and mentioned three themes in his pictorial work: people, their housing and their economic activities. Some of his photographs of the 1976 inauguration of president William Richard Tolbert (1913 – 1980) in Monrovia, Liberia, are included here as well.

Events

Tolbert inauguration. A crowd celebrates William Richard Tolbert, 20th President of Liberia, Monrovia, Liberia, 1976.
Tolbert inauguration. Ugandan dictator Idi Amin.
Ceremonial Grebo War Dances. Women of Half Graway, Liberia, 1978.
Ceremonial Grebo War Dances. A grimacing man in a decorated cap.
Ceremonial Grebo War Dances. Women in colourful lappa cloth dresses.
The Hanging of the Harper Seven, Harper, Liberia, convicted of ritual murders, 16 February 1979.
State visit of President Carter, Monrovia, Liberia, 3 April 1978. Banner "The residents of Monrovia extend a warm welcome".
State visit of President Carter, waving from his car.
State visit of President Carter. Young spectators.
Visit of Pope John Paul II to Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso 1980. Local archbishop Paul Zoungrana to the right.
Visit of Pope John Paul II, with Zoungrana.
Visit of Pope John Paul II. A well dressed crowd.

People, their housing and their economic activities

A crowd at a pottery market on the bank of the Niger River, Mopti, Mali, 1972.
View of Mamba Point from the Ducor Hotel, Monrovia, Liberia, 1975.
People at the shop of Hidar Hammam on the main road, Ganta (Gompa City), Nimba county, Liberia, 1976.
Interior of the Firestone latex factory, Harbel, Liberia, 1976.
A water vendor with his donkey, Mossi Plateau, Burkina Faso, 1981.
Men drilling a well, Mossi Plateau, Burkina Faso, 1981.
Men with their zebus on a market, Pouytenga, Burkina Faso, 1981.
A local smith with tools and a transistor radio, Ziga, Burkina Faso, 1981.
A Burkina agricultural extension officer with Van der Kraaij, program officer, Plateau-Central Region, Burkina Faso, 1982.
Banque Ouest-Africaine de Développement (BOAD), Lomé, Togo, 1981.
Young men transport the cotton harvest, Mogtédo, Burkina Faso, 1981.
An IVECO truck crosses a steel bridge over the Black Volta/Mouhoun River, Burkina Faso, 1984.
A Fulani mother with her daughter, Boucle du Mouhoun, Burkina Faso, 1984.