John Donnelly Fage

John Donnelly Fage (1921-2002) was a British historian noted for his work on African history.

He went to Cambridge University (Magdalene College) [cite web
title = John D. Fage
publisher = School of Oriental and African Studies
url = http://www.aim25.ac.uk/cgi-bin/search2?coll_id=6033&inst_id=19 Mentions the British Library "Who's Who" as a source for biography.] for his undergraduate, Master's and Ph.D. (1949, "The achievement of self-government in southern Rhodesia, 1898-1923"). After his Ph.D. he joined the newly founded University of Gold Coast (now University of Ghana) at Accra, which was formed under the Asquith Commission and had a 'scheme of special relationship' with the University of London. [cite web
title = The universities in Ghana
author = G. F. Daniel, Registrar, University of Ghana
publisher = Commonwealth Universities Year Book 1997-98; Vol.1; pp 649-656
url = http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~univghana/ghanahed.htm
date = December 1996
accessdate = 2007-08-13] He spent a decade here (1949-1959), developing his interest in the history of Western Africa, and particularly the African Slave Trade, on which he was to publish extensively over the coming decade. The University started facing funding problems after 1955, [cite web
title = David Balme at the University College of the Gold Coast
author = John Fage
url = http://www.207squadron.rafinfo.org.uk/balme/fage_balme.htm
accessdate = 2007-08-13] and many of the senior Cambridge staff left. In 1957, after Ghana gained independence, he was appointed its Deputy Principal. However, in 1959 he returned to Britain to join the School of Oriental and African Studies (1959-1963) and then the University of Birmingham, where he founded the Centre of West African Studies (CWAS).cite web
title = John Donnelly Fage, 1921-2002
author = P.F. de Moraes Farias
url = http://www.hf.uib.no/i/smi/sa/14/14Fage.pdf] Here he spent two very productive decades (1963-1984), holding several senior administrative posts including Vice-Principal (1981–1984).

Fage's early work includes "Introduction to the History of West Africa" (Cambridge University Press 1955, three editions), which was rewritten as "A History of West Africa: An introductory survey" (Cambridge U.P. 1969). His"An Atlas of African History" (London: Edward Arnold 1958) is a widely known reference (2nd ed. 1978). The ambitious 600-page "A History of Africa"(London: Hutchinson 1978), covers the entire continent from the Neolithic to the late twentieth century, was widely referenced (3d ed. Routledge 1995).

In a long collaboration with Roland Oliver (who was his contemporary at Cambridge and visited him in Ghana), he founded the "Journal of African History", and also edited the authoritative eight volume "Cambridge history of Africa", (1975 to 1986).Their "Short History of Africa" (Penguin 1962) ran to six editions (1988), and has been translated into twelve languages.

Other works

*Fage, John. 1969. "Slavery and the slave trade in the context of African history," "Journal of African History" 10:393-404.
*Fage, John. 1975. "The effect of the slave trade on African Population," in R.J.A.R. Rathbone and R.P. Moss, "The Population Factor in African Studies", p.15-23.
*Fage, J.D., and Maureen Verity. An Atlas of African History. 2nd ed. London: E. Arnold, 1978.
*Fage, J.D., Ghana: A Historical Interpretation, 1983.
*Fage, J.D., A Guide to Original Sources for Precolonial Western Africa Published in European Languages, May 1987.
*J. Desmond Clark, J. D. Fage, Roland Oliver, and Richard Gray, The Cambridge History of Africa (8 vols.), Nov 1986.
*Fage, J.D., A History of West Africa : An Introductory Survey (1969)

References