WRITTEN CULTURE IN A COLONIAL CONTEXT, Africa and the Americas, 1500-1900

364 pp., maps, illus., paperback, Cape Town, 2011

A collection of essays that focuses on writing during the colonial period in Africa and the Americas.

Contributions include:
"From Travelling to History: an outline of the VOC writing system during the 17th century" by Adrien Delmas,
"Written Culture and the Cape Khoikhoi: from travel writing to Kolb's 'Full Description'" by Nigel Penn,
"Nothing New Under the Sun: anatomy of a literary-historical polemic in colonial Cape Town circa 1880-1910" by Peter Merrington,
"To My Dear Minister: official letters of African Wesleyan evangelists in the late 19th century Transvaal" by Lize Kriel,
"Literacy and Land at the Bay of Natal: documents and practices across spaces and social economies" by Mastin Prinsloo,
"On Not Spreading the Word: ministers of religion and written culture at the Cape of Good Hope in the 18th century" by Gerald Groenewald.

Adrien Delmas teaches history at Sciences-Po, Paris.
Nigel Penn is Associate Professor in the Department of Historical Studies at the University of Cape Town. He is also the author of "Rogues, Rebels and Runaways" (1999) and "The Forgotten Frontier" (2006).