Quakers of Color International Archive

00:20

Kenneth Akito Oye (Preview)

Interview with Dr. Kenneth Akito Oye. MIT Political Scientist, Member of the AFSC Board, and member of Wellesley Friends Meeting.

01:08

Dancan Sabwa (Preview)

Interview with Kenyan Quaker, Dancan Sabwa. Born into a Quaker family in Kaimosi, Kenya.

01:28

Joan Countryman (Preview)

Interview with Joan Countryman, the first African American graduate of Germantown Friends School, longtime teacher of mathematics and head of academic planning there, lecturer at the Graduate School of Education, University of Pennsylvania, and co-founder of the Oprah Winfrey Leadership School for Girls in South Africa.

01:07

Emma Condori Mamani (Preview)

Interview with Bolivian Quaker, Emma Condori Mamani, a member of Santidad Amigos Yearly Meeting.

01:33

James Varner (Preview)

Interview with James Varner, President and CEO of the Maine Human Rights Coalition, and a long-time member of the Orono Monthly Meeting.

01:21

Jean Zaru (Preview)

Interview with Palestinian Quaker Jean Zaru, a proponent of non-violent resistance, a founding member of Sabeel, the Ecumenical Liberation Theology Center in Jerusalem, and co-founder of the Friends International Center in Ramallah.

Mission

The Quakers of Color International Archive (QCIA) is a multi-media study-and-research collection. It is intended as the first centralized, comprehensive collection of videos, writings, films, and audio resources by and about Quakers of Color worldwide.

History

We began with a pilot project in spring 2019, interviewing outstanding Quakers of Color from Africa, the Middle East, and the USA. Our first interviewees were Palestinian Friend Jean Zaru, Kenyan Friend Dancan Sabwa, Bolivian Friend Emma Condori Mamani, and African American Friends: pioneering educator Joan Countryman, community activist James Varner, and scholar-activist Harold D. (Hal) Weaver. It has now grown to include South African politician-diplomat Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge, MIT Political Scientist Kenneth Oye, physicist Lawrence M. Jordan, educator Carolyne Lamar Jordan, and Swarthmore academic administrator Maurice Eldridge. Further interviews await posting

Availability

The QCIA is accessible to scholars, educators, and students who wish a better understanding of the lives, achievements, and contributions of Quakers of Color worldwide to the Society of Friends and to the broader community.

Our Advisory Committee

Expertise in the selection and preservation processes, to complement the more than 50 years of experience of the Project director in Black history and culture, is already being utilized from the following experts in bibliography, preservation, Africana Studies, Quakerism, and Black Quaker Studies:

The late Rob Cox, Director of Special Collections, UMass/Amherst Library and Overseer, NEYM Archives, UMass/Amherst Library. We are forever grateful for his enduring work without which this archive would probably not exist.

Emma Lapsansky, Prof. of History and Curator of the Quaker Collection, Emerita, Haverford College
Mary Craudereuff, Current Curator of the Quaker Collection, Haverford College Library
Aaron Rubinstein, Head of the Robert Cox Special Collections and University Archives at University of Massachusetts Amherst.

Professor Emma Lapsansky-Werner	Aaron Rubinstein
Mary Craudereuff