Gates Discusses New Encarta Africana Project

DuBois Professor of the Humanities Henry Louis "Skip" Gates Jr. spoke about the motivation and tribulation behind his "Encarta Africana" encyclopedia to a packed room at the sigma Chi fraternity house last night.

Gates spoke first on the history of the idea of a "black encyclopedia," which originated with W.E.B. DuBois in the early part of this century. DuBois, who became the first black man to receive a Ph.D. from Harvard in the late 1800s, was unable to see the project through to its conclusion in his lifetime.

Gates then related his own experiences "carrying the torch" for DuBois' idea.

"DuBois was the man," said Gates, who is also director of the DuBois Institute for Afro-American Studies. "He was the smartest black intellectual in American history."

According to Gates, "DuBois decided what we needed was an Encyclopedia Africana," he said. His hope was to combat racism by eliminating ignorance about black culture around the world.

DuBois raised $125,000 for such an encyclopedia, but the idea was ultimately cancelled when he was labeled too radical. Bitter at this and other failed enterprises, DuBois emigrated to Ghana at the end of his life.

Gates then discussed his own experiences producing a black encyclopedia.

"I heard about [DuBois'] idea as an undergraduate at "I've always loved encyclopedias, so I wanted to edit an encyclopedia and do something good for black people."

As a graduate student at the University of Cambridge, Gates said he met now-Professor of Afro-American Studies and of Philosophy K. Anthony Appiah and future Nobel Laureate Wole Soyinka.

While at Cambridge, Gates and Appiah agreed to someday publish their own version of DuBois' dream.

Gates first approached the Encyclopedia Britannica for assistance on his project, which he termed "a black Encyclopedia Britannica."

He also sought held from Random House, which said it would publish a black encyclopedia if Gates responded, "Of course."

Immediately afterwards, however, Gates called Appiah to report the good news. "'I've got a question,' I said. 'What's a CD-ROM?'"

Though Gates' relationship with Random House fell through, House fell through, he said that he kept the idea of a CD-ROM format while offering the idea to other publishers.

Gates said he then turned to Microsoft, the producer of the CD-ROM Encarta.

"I wanted to do a black version of Encarta," Gates said.

Microsoft granted Gates the necessary funding and stipulated that Gates produce two million words in 15 months.

For the "bread and butter" articles, Gates used a research team working in Vanserg Hall. Longer, more interpretive articles were solicited from academics around the world.

Gates then showed the audience an audio-visual sampling of the final Encarta Africana, released several weeks ago.

The Encarta Africana includes video footage of riots both in the Los Angeles and South Africa's Soweto township, as well as videotaped lectures from celebrities ranging from Fletcher University Professor Cornel R. West '74 to Whoopi Goldberg.

The CD-ROM also, includes "the flora and fauna of Africa," Gates said.

Encarta Africana features video tours of important sites in black culture, including Timbuktu and Harlem.

"We want to use projects like this," said Gates, "to get our [African-American] community into learning."

Gates added that one goal is to give blacks a sense of their own history, dating as far back as black pharoahs from the Kush empire near Egypt, all of whom can be found in Encarta Africana.

"It should be part of every high school, every American history course," Gates said.

Gates predicted that the Encarta Africana will help fight racism by educating people from an early age. A second edition of the encyclopedia will be released this fall.

Sigma Chi invites speakers from the Harvard community to speak at its house on a semi-annual basis.