Africa at the Internet Archive: Missionary Story Sketches

Yesterday I wrote about an African American diplomat in Liberia, George Washington Ellis, and his collection of Vai folktales, and today I want to write about one of Ellis's contemporaries, an African American missionary in Liberia, Alexander Priestley Camphor, and his book, Missionary Story Sketches and Folklore from Africa. Just a click away at the Internet Archive!

Here is a link to the specific stories in the book: Fembar's Curiosity / A Woman Transformed into a Leopard / A Melusine Story from the Gold Coast / How Dispositions are Given / Plant Life and Animal Life / Seddee / Why the Natives do not Wear Clothes / War with the Baboons / The Leopard and the Dog / Elephant, Hippopotamus, and Tortoise / The Tortoise and the Pig / Tortoise's Creditors / The Spider and the Pweh / The Foolish Sheep / The Elephant and the Goat / Woore's Tale / Seah's Tale / Keah's Story / Djuabi's Story / The Frog and there is also a selection of proverbs.

Dr. Camphor was born in 1865 to parents who had been slaves on a sugar-plantation in Jefferson Parish, Louisiana. They died when he was very young, and he was adopted and raised by a Methodist minister named Stephen Priestley; you can read Camphor's own account of his early life. He attended a Freedmen's Aid School, and then went on to graduate from New Orleans University in 1889, later continuing his studies at Gammon Theological Seminary and Union Theological Seminary. He ultimately went to Africa, together with his wife, Mamie Weathers Priestley, serving as superintendent of the Methodist schools in Liberia from 1896 until 1907, the first Black missionaries sent to Africa from the U.S. Camphor and his wife later returned to Liberia in 1916 and spent another 3 years there before his death in 1919. Missionary Story Sketches, published in 1909, provides an account of Camphor's time in Liberia along with the traditional stories and proverbs that he collected.  This portrait comes from the National Cyclopedia of the Colored Race:

I also found this portrait of Camphor and his wife together with two of their fellow missionaries at an auction house sale of a set of photographs and other documents belonging to Camphor: I hope some school will buy these materials to archive and preserve for the future!

Here are some of the documents included in the auction lot (click for a larger view):

Camphor's book is not a systematic study with anthropological ambitions like Ellis's book about the Vai people of Liberia, but it is nevertheless a great folktale source. Enjoy!

Missionary Story Sketches and Folklore from Africa

by Alexander P. Camphor