George M. Houser collection, 1954-1999 | Amistad Research Center

The George M. Houser collection consists of 1634 slides and approximately nine hours of film taken by Houser during trips to various African countries due to his association with the American Committee on Africa. The trips spanned a period of time from 1954 to 1999. Some of the notable events and personages included in the collection are: the first election of an independent Ghana (1954); three All African Peoples Conferences in Ghana (1958), Tunis (1960), and Cairo (1961); the founding of the Organization of African Unity (1963); Self-Government Day in Kenya with pictures of Jomo Kenyatta (1963); a hiking trip in Angola during the war against Portugal (1962); independence celebrations in Malawi and Zambia (1964); Houser's flight into Namibia in keeping with a United Nations resolution, but without a South African visa (1957); two weeks in the Sahara desert with the liberation group Polisario (1979); the twentieth anniversary of the founding of the African Party for Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde; the twentieth anniversary of the beginning of the struggle for Algerian independence; elections before independence in Zimbabwe after the civil war (1980); and the elections and independence in Namibia (1989-1990).

The collection provides a capsule view of Africa during and following independence movements across the continent. Houser's close association with many African leaders is seen in images and footage of Julius Nyerere, Kwame Nkrumah, Nnamdi Azikiwe, Joshua Nkomo, Robert Mugabe, Tom Mboya, Patrice Lumumba, Albert Luthuli, Thabo Mbeki, Nelson Mandela, Walter Sisulu, and Haile Selassie. Organizations include: National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroons (NCNC), Mouvement Populaire Rassemblement (MPR), Uniao das Populacoes de Angola (UPA), African National Congress (ANC), United National Independence Party (UNIP), Organization of African Unity (OAU), Tanganyika African National Union (TANU), African Party for Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde (PAIGC), Frente de Libertacao de Mocambique (FRELIMO), Zimbabwe African Peoples Union (ZAPU), Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU), Zimbabwe Democratic Party (ZDP), and South West Africa People's Organization (SWAPO).