During the summer holidays and September the Postal Cabinet hasn’t stopped running. During these months we have largely extended the digital fund with more than 2,500 new records. Thus, we start the new course with 38,724 stamps available for consultation in the web section “Discover the fund”.
The fine studied pieces have allowed us to travel, through space and time, to colonial Africa. We have studied stamps of ancient British colonies such as Gambia and South Africa; we have been in the old French domains of Gabon and the Comoros, through the old “Spanish Guinea”. The documented stamps bring us images of exoticism and adventure making us feel like an explorer that leaves behind the western world to get into a continent full of warm colours and extraordinary landscapes.
We have met the figure of the Italian explorer Pierre-Paul Savorgnan de Bazza, who went up the course of the Ogooué River and found out a new trade route that connects the ocean with the basin of the High Congo. At the end of this adventure we will also meet the king Mokoko of Téké, who signed an agreement with Savorgnan de Bazza, in order to establish the French control in the region.
We have enjoyed evocating images of another time, such as the sights of Libreville, or those of the Santa Isabel Governor’s Palace. We’ve seen the folkloric portraits of men and women of different ethnics, of warriors and kings. However, as we have already seen when exploring the Asian continent, the occupation by colonising powers such as the United Kingdom will leave their traces in countries such as Gambia. We will find again stamps of the English monarchy overloaded by the correspondence from the African territories.
Maybe the clearest representation of the hegemonic vision of the European powers on the African native nations is reflected by the stamps dedicated to the International Colonial Exhibition of Paris in 1931, coming from Gabon. These exhibitions became fashionable during the 19th century until the beginning of the first half of the 20th century.
The progress achieved this summer brings us closer to the aim of offering the complete digitalisation of the Ramon Marull’s Collection, as a pedagogical query tool available for everyone. Thus, we start September looking forward to offering new “Singular” stories and new suggestions that will sure surprise you. We also encourage you to visit our new entries to the web and to let us know your impressions and comments on it.
September 24, 2013
