GB 0102 MS 380714 - Nafka Documents

Identity area

Reference code

GB 0102 MS 380714

Title

Nafka Documents

Date(s)

  • 1887-1902 (Creation)

Level of description

Extent and medium

1 volume

Context area

Name of creator

Biographical history

In the late 19th century European powers including Italy sought to extend their influence in east Africa. Italy extended its influence sufficiently to proclaim the colony of Eritrea in the 1880s. Dispute over the meaning of a treaty signed by Menelik II (d 1913) of Ethiopia with Italy (1889), whereby Italy claimed it had been given a protectorate over Ethiopia, led to an Italian invasion in 1895 which resulted in Italy being defeated. Under the Treaty of Addis Ababa (1896) Italy recognized the independence of Ethiopia, but retained its Eritrean colonial base.

Nafka is a town in north-western Eritrea, a commercial centre of the Habab people and the site of an Italian Residenza.

Archival history

The documents appear to have been collected together and bound into a volume by an unidentified Italian officer. They were located by Anthony D'Avray in 1943 in the archives of the Italian Residenti of the Nafka district (the last of whom had left his post following Italian defeat in 1941).
GB 0102 MS 380714 1887-1902 Collection (fonds) 1 volume Unknown
In the late 19th century European powers including Italy sought to extend their influence in east Africa. Italy extended its influence sufficiently to proclaim the colony of Eritrea in the 1880s. Dispute over the meaning of a treaty signed by Menelik II (d 1913) of Ethiopia with Italy (1889), whereby Italy claimed it had been given a protectorate over Ethiopia, led to an Italian invasion in 1895 which resulted in Italy being defeated. Under the Treaty of Addis Ababa (1896) Italy recognized the independence of Ethiopia, but retained its Eritrean colonial base.

Nafka is a town in north-western Eritrea, a commercial centre of the Habab people and the site of an Italian Residenza.

The documents appear to have been collected together and bound into a volume by an unidentified Italian officer. They were located by Anthony D'Avray in 1943 in the archives of the Italian Residenti of the Nafka district (the last of whom had left his post following Italian defeat in 1941).

Deposited in SOAS Library by Anthony D'Avray in 2000.

Volume of 83 collected documents, 1887-1902, comprising notes, reports, memoranda and dispatches, relating to the Habab and related societies of the Red Sea littoral, Italian colonization, and colonial administration during the period of Italian rule of Eritrea.

Closed pending conservation. Readers should use the published version.

Not permitted during closure.
Italian

Database.

Published unabridged, with commentary, as The Nakfa documents: the despatches, memoranda, reports and correspondence describing and explaining the stories of the feudal societies of the Red Sea littoral from the Christian-Muslim wars of the sixteenth century to the establishment 1885-1901 of the Italian colony of Eritrea, ed Anthony d'Avray in collaboration with Richard Pankhurst (Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden, 2000). The documents were also among the sources for Anthony D'Avray, Lords of the Red Sea: the history of a Red Sea Society from the sixteenth to the nineteenth centuries (Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden, 1996).

Compiled by Rachel Kemsley as part of the RSLP AIM25 project. Source: http://www.encyclopedia.com Compiled in compliance with General International Standard Archival Description, ISAD(G), second edition, 2000; National Council on Archives Rules for the Construction of Personal, Place and Corporate Names, 1997. Aug 2002 African cultures Asian cultures Colonial administration Colonial countries Colonization East Africa Eritrea Europe Italy Middle East Nafka National cultures Political systems Western Europe

Immediate source of acquisition or transfer

Deposited in SOAS Library by Anthony D'Avray in 2000.

Content and structure area

Scope and content

Volume of 83 collected documents, 1887-1902, comprising notes, reports, memoranda and dispatches, relating to the Habab and related societies of the Red Sea littoral, Italian colonization, and colonial administration during the period of Italian rule of Eritrea.

Appraisal, destruction and scheduling

Accruals

System of arrangement

Conditions of access and use area

Conditions governing access

Closed pending conservation. Readers should use the published version.

Conditions governing reproduction

Not permitted during closure.

Language of material

  • English

Script of material

  • Latin

Language and script notes

Italian

Physical characteristics and technical requirements

Finding aids

Database.

Allied materials area

Existence and location of originals

Existence and location of copies

Related units of description

Related descriptions

Publication note

Notes area

Note

Alternative identifier(s)

Access points

Place access points

Name access points

Genre access points

Description control area

Description identifier

Institution identifier

School of Oriental and African Studies

Rules and/or conventions used

Compiled in compliance with General International Standard Archival Description, ISAD(G), second edition, 2000; National Council on Archives Rules for the Construction of Personal, Place and Corporate Names, 1997.

Status

Level of detail

Dates of creation revision deletion

Language(s)

  • English

Script(s)

    Sources

    Accession area