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Table of contents What's This?
  • Conditions Governing Access
  • Immediate Source of Acquisition
  • Biographical / Historical
  • Preferred Citation
  • Scope and Contents
  • Conditions Governing Use
  • Processing Information

  • Language of Material: English
    Contributing Institution: Department of Special Collections and University Archives
    Title: John Marcum papers
    Creator: Marcum, John A.
    source: Marcum, John A.
    Identifier/Call Number: M1726
    Identifier/Call Number: 9545
    Physical Description: 64 Linear Feet (109 boxes, 9 oversize folders)
    Date (inclusive): 1945-2013
    Abstract: John Marcum was an Africanist scholar and political historian who published extensively on post-colonial southern Africa, especially Angola, Mozambique, and South Africa. Marcum was also involved with education and study abroad programs both in Africa and elsewhere.

    Conditions Governing Access

    Open for research. Note that material must be requested at least 36 hours in advance of intended use. Some audiovisual materials are not available in original format, and must be reformatted to a digital use copy. Selected media have been transferred and are available digitally.

    Immediate Source of Acquisition

    Gift of John Marcum, 2009-2014. Accessions 2009-296, 2010-022, 2010-193, and 2014-105.

    Biographical / Historical

    John Arthur Marcum (1927-2013) was an Africanist scholar and UC Santa Cruz professor emeritus of politics. Marcum was part of a small but passionate group of activist-scholars who helped shape and chronicle American relations with Africa during the collapse of colonialism and the birth of independent Africa. His influence and associations extended from academics and policy makers in the West to emerging leaders of Africa's pre-independence nationalist movements such as Eduardo Mondlane and Patrice Lumumba. Marcum met, interviewed, and corresponded with many important African political figures, including Kenneth Kaunda, Ahmed Sékou Touré, Agostinho Neto, Holden Roberto, and Jonas Savimbi. He was also deeply involved in efforts to end apartheid in South Africa for more than three decades.
    Born in 1927 in San Jose and raised in Napa, California, Marcum earned a B.A. (1949) and Ph.D. (1955) from Stanford University and an M.A. from Columbia University (1951). While at Stanford, Marcum worked as teaching and research assistant in the Program on Overseas Development at the Hoover Institution. He first became involved in sub-Saharan Africa after receiving a Fulbright-Hayes scholarship and studying French colonial involvement in West Africa at the University of Paris, Institut d'Etudes Politiques (1952-1954). He later received a Ford Foundation fellowship to continue his studies and travel in Africa, and spent time in Nigeria through the Experiment in International living program, while also also beginning his teaching career at Colgate University. In 1958, Marcum attended the first All-African People's Conference in Ghana. During the 1960 presidential campaign he advised John F. Kennedy and traveled to the continent with former governor Averell Harriman at Kennedy's behest. In 1961 he moved to Lincoln University, where he worked to create and then direct a training program for African students at the African Language & Area Center.
    Marcum was one of the world's foremost experts on Angola and Mozambique. He is widely credited with writing one of the the foremost accounts of the Angolan revolution in the two volumes The Angolan Revolution: The Anatomy of an Explosion (1950-1962) and The Angolan Revolution Volume II: Exile Politics and Guerrilla Warfare (1962-1976). When the war for independence broke out in Angola in 1961, Marcum (with the American Committee on Africa's George Houser) traveled on foot for 800 miles behind enemy lines conducting interviews and distributing medicine. At the time of his death he was completing the final edits on a history of the Mozambican revolution based on his trove of original documents and interview notes dating back to the late 1950s.
    Marcum began teaching at UC Santa Cruz prior to his official appointment in 1972, but in time became provost of the university's Merrill College, served as UCSC academic vice chancellor, and led the University of California's Education Abroad Program for seventeen years beginning in 1990.
    Marcum was also a PBS television panelist, president of the African Studies Association, edited the journal Africa Today, testified in Congress, and conferred with the State Department and other policy offices. He was also active in the Council on Foreign Relations and the Center for Strategic and International Studies. He observed elections in Angola in 1992, and served on the board of the Human Rights Watch Africa Advisory Committee in 2010. John Marcum passed away in 2013 due to complications following cancer surgery. He was 86 years old.
    Adapted from an obituary written by Marcum's family.

    Preferred Citation

    [identification of item], John Marcum Papers (M1727). Dept. of Special Collections and University Archives, Stanford University Libraries, Stanford, Calif.

    Scope and Contents

    John Marcum's papers primarily date from the late 1950s through the mid-1980s. The collection is arranged with most series organized in alphabetical order, including files on various countries. Within the series, files have been organized chronologically or alphabetically, transcribing Marcum's folder labels and for the most part retaining his original order. A few series consist of a single folder, but most contain several boxes. Marcum's own writings have been separated into several series, but correspondence is for the most part incoming, with fewer outgoing drafts.
    One large chronologically-arranged series (Series 7) serves as home to documents and publications of a more general nature and is related to Marcum's professional life and colleagues. Among the latter are significant exchanges with Gerry Bender, Helen Kitchen, George Houser, Winifred Armstrong, Chester Crocker, Patricia Tsien, Gwendolen Carter, Marvin Wachman, and Yvonne Williams among many others. This series also covers relations between countries, as well as regional and transnational groups or movements. However, files on various countries' relations with the United States, Europe, the Soviet Union, China and Cuba are located in their respective series.
    By far the most in-depth coverage in the collection concerns the Portuguese Colonial Wars in Angola and Mozambique. There is little on related conflicts in Portuguese Guinea or Cape Verde, however, and relevant files are in the Angola series. Other countries heavily represented in the collection include South Africa, Rhodesia/Zambia, Togo, and the Congo. Outside of Africa, Marcum gathered information on the independence movement in New Caledonia. In terms of his role as a teacher, there are several syllabi and course packs, but relatively few files concerning his work in the University of California system. There is a good deal of material on African scholarship and study abroad arrangements, however.
    Correspondence includes letters from students, academics, politicians, diplomats, government workers, NGOs, volunteers, foundations, activists, clergy, businesspeople, and others. Other files contain political tracts and other publications, clippings, transcripts, photographs, and many notes by Marcum. There are several reproductions of otherwise rare documents. Also, due to prior exposure to flooding, color copies were made of the more severe mold and water damaged papers.

    Conditions Governing Use

    While Special Collections is the owner of the physical and digital items, permission to examine collection materials is not an authorization to publish. These materials are made available for use in research, teaching, and private study. Any transmission or reproduction beyond that allowed by fair use requires permission from the owners of rights, heir(s) or assigns.

    Processing Information

    After the majority of the collection was processed, another ten boxes of important material was located. These files have been integrated in existing series, primarily the Angola and Pacific Rim/New Caledonia series, but also more of Marcum's writing & drafts, mentions of him in articles and reviews, and several additions to country files. There is likely to be some duplication between the previous and newer files, and in fact within the newer files as well. A later accession primarly concerning high education in South Africa was also added to the collection.

    Subjects and Indexing Terms

    Africa -- History -- 20th Century
    Angola -- Politics and government -- 20th Century
    Mozambique -- Politics and government -- 20th century
    South Africa -- Politics and government -- 20th century
    National liberation movements
    Pan-Africanism -- History
    Marcum, John A.