The Carnegie Corporation and South Africa: Non-European Library Services

The grants provided by the Carnegie Corporation of New York to South Africa through the British Dominions and Colonies Fund in the 1920s and 1930s provided for Non-European Library Services to provide library services to Blacks in the four provinces. The following aspects of these library services will be addressed: the organization and the delivery of the services, book selection, and reading interests. Ideas were gathered from the library services for African Americans in the United States, and African American literature, particularly of the Harlem Renaissance, was included in the collections. South Africa was a federation of four provinces when the Carnegie Corporation of New York (CCNY) became interested in the 1920s in providing grants to South Africa through the British Dominions and Colonies Fund. One of the library programs funded by grants from the Carnegie Corporation in South Africa in the 1920s and 1930s will be examined, a program to set up Non-European Library Services in the four provinces of Natal, the Transvaal, the Cape, and the Orange Free State. Black people had no access to library services provided by and for White people. The organization and delivery of these services, book selection, and reading interests will be examined. Brief information on the Carnegie Corporation of New York and its British Dominions and Colonies Fund is given, followed by some background information on South Africa and the development of its library services.