The volume under review happily coincides with the 50th anniversary of Ghana's independence. The history of Ghana, however, is linked to not only Great Britain, the country from which independence was gained in 1957, but also to The Netherlands. In a far‐sighted policy to establish The Netherlands as a major trading nation in competition with the Spanish and Portuguese, the Dutch government created the first multinational trading organisations, the Dutch East India Company in 1602 and the West India Company in 1621. This latter assumed responsibility for Dutch interests in Africa as well as in the Caribbean.
Relations between Ghana and The Netherlands started with what initially seemed to be an unfortunate quest for trade and fortune. A Dutch seaman called Barend Erickszoon became stranded on the island of Principe in the year 1590 and was captured by the Portuguese, the sole masters of the area at that time. During his captivity he learned that the Gold Coast was a good area for profitable trade. After his release and return to The Netherlands he managed to persuade fellow‐merchants in Enkhuizen to invest in a trading voyage to the Gold Coast. After a nine‐month expedition Erickszoon and his companions returned home with a rich cargo of gold, ivory and spices; the success of Erickszoon's expedition inspired many other Dutch merchants to follow his example. The trading opportunities on the Gold Coast contributed to the wealth of The Netherlands and its Golden Age of arts and sciences in the seventeenth century. The dark side of the Dutch presence was undoubtedly the slave trade in which the Dutch West Indische Compagnie participated. The Dutch presence in Ghana ended formally in 1872 when a treaty with the British government stipulated that the British took over power in Ghana whilst the Dutch were given full control of the island of Sumatra.
In 2004 the governments of Ghana and The Netherlands signed an agreement on the preservation of their mutual cultural heritage. Most of the archival heritage due to the Dutch presence in Ghana is held by the Dutch National Archive in The Hague. Part 1 of the present volume offers a detailed inventory of archival sources concerning the historical relations between The Netherlands and Ghana from the 1593 expedition up to the 1960s. A brief listing is given of documents in each collection with the size of the archive and a brief description of its importance; the aim is to enable students to make a choice of materials relevant to research in any particular field. Sources other than the Dutch National Archive are also included; these are, the Koninklijk Instituut voor Taal, Land en Volkenkunde (Royal Institute for Language, Country and Population Studies) in Leiden, the UK National Archive at Kew, and the extensive Furley collection housed in the University of Ghana's Balme Library at Legon. Part II of the work offers a thematic approach to the archives on topics ranging from economic activity, people and castles to the Dutch administrative and judicial systems. Much useful comment is also given on historical aspects including lists of governors and consular officials as well as data relating to exports from the Gold Coast, including statistics of the slave trade. The reader's attention is drawn to other useful studies of the period, notably the numerous works by Ineke van Kessel.
In their introduction authors Michel R. Doortmont of the University of Groningen and Jinna Smit formerly of the Dutch National Archive explain that the present guide, although based on earlier publications, differs considerably from main predecessors especially Roessingh and Visser (1978) relating to all of Africa south of the Sahara. Readers should be aware that this volume is more than a mere guide to historical sources; although the aim of the work is to identify and list relevant sources, the user will find much interesting historical commentary. In addition, the volume is illustrated with a number of reproductions from archival sources including text, maps and illustrations. There is also an extensive, up to date bibliography and index. As a source of academic research the volume clearly has a somewhat limited market but, since it is written entirely in English, it should be on the library shelves of any institution where the history of Africa and its colonial administrations are studied.
