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Web Editor, H-Africa and SERSAS, East Carolina University
<WILBURNK@MAIL.ECU.EDU>
In February 1986, some nine years before H-Africa was born, Harold G. Marcus
visited East Carolina University while a Fellow of the National Humanities
Center near Chapel Hill, North Carolina. On behalf of our African Studies
Committee, Mulatu Wubneh invited the distinguished Africanist historian from
Michigan State University to give a public lecture on drought in Africa
(Marcus had just returned from famine-stricken Ethiopia), to visit some of
our classes, and to advise us on how best to publicize Africa on and off
campus. The Hays-Fulbright alumnus suggested we host a SERSAS (Southeastern
Regional Seminar in African Studies) conference. Given the agricultural
character of eastern North Carolina, Marcus recommended that we develop a
graduate program in urban studies that focused on the rural, small city
dichotomy between the United States and South Africa. Contacts he
especially recommended to help us reach our goals included David Robinson,
Marilee Crofts, and Mel Page. He admired the energy of our committee and
described ECU as an up-and-coming university. We felt that his
encouragement genuinely came from both heart and mind. The impact of his
visit has continued to influence the development of African Studies here at
East Carolina.
Some six years later with the rise of the new technology, H-Net emerged in
December 1992 at the University of Illinois at Chicago. At first I vaguely
associated H-Net with its founder, Richard Jensen, who was the mentor of my
ECU colleague, Don Parkerson. Later, H-Net moved to Michigan State
University where it received strong institutional support. Jensen's
leadership was replaced with that of Marcus's colleague, Mark Kornbluh.
Both Jensen and Kornbluh supported Marcus's vision to establish an Africana
listserv. At the African Studies Association meeting in Toronto in 1994
Marcus met with Mel Page, and together they worked out the details. In
March 1995 Marcus and Page launched H-Africa. The rapid growth of the
subscriber base and content surprised them both. From afar, I very much
admired the innovative work they were doing. My own academic home page was
launched that same month.
In November 1996 I visited H-Africa's editors at their ASA exhibition booth
in San Francisco. In that beautiful city I renewed my acquaintance with
Marcus, met co-founder Mel Page, the engaging Tim Carmichael, and the
energetic Peter Limb, both of whom had come aboard in the meantime. After
discussing the character of H-Africa in the pre-H-Net search engine era and
my own HTML work, Harold said, "Ken, H-Africa needs a web editor; you see,
there is no effective search engine. We need someone to edit and organize
our postings and to work on the design of our web page. Consider joining
us." Marcus, the established traditional scholar, realized far earlier than
most academics that online seminars and electronic publishing would soon
prove invaluable to Africanists. The lonely Africanist could now exchange
ideas and find data about Africa with fantastic facility and increasing
substance. The Cape to Cairo telegraph had come of age. One of Harold's
unfulfilled goals was to publish an online, peer reviewed Africana book of
the highest academic integrity, and to use the nuances of web images, video,
sound, and links to support the text.
I was thrilled and honored to be invited, though a sudden family illness
forced me to hesitate. Marcus and Page, ever so supportive, encouraged me
on. I quickly caught my breath, and with all four editors as role models to
beacon me on, I leaped head first into thousands of subscriber postings in
H-Africa's online archives. I became H-Africa's log rat; my goal was to
research and convert hidden and useful log data into easily perused lists of
links to help teach and research about Africa. The Threads, Africana
Reviews, and Africa Forum pages are part of that result. Since those early
years, the gifted Dennis Boone has created an efficient and powerful search
engine that, for example, largely eliminates the need to craft threaded
discussions by hand.
My research and web page design work with H-Africa eventually led to the
establishment of the web site for SERSAS, the Southeastern Regional Seminar
in African Studies, an organization founded in 1973 by Joe Miller and
Rutledge Dennis with the early support of Ann Dunbar and Jim Brown. While
many SERSAS members were subscribers to H-Africa, SERSAS needed a regional
web site to archive its programs and papers. Most recently the SERSAS-L
listserv has been created to distribute business announcements and to carry
out more locally the international goals of its online foster parent,
H-Africa. The opportunity that Marcus and Page offered me with H-Africa has
also led to a professional relationship between SERSAS, H-Africa, and H-Net.
SERSAS online contains the vision of Marcus in it, and as such he is very
much one of its patron saints.
Several years ago Marcus graciously wrote a letter of recommendation for me
for which I will ever be grateful. We shared several H-Africa panels at
African Studies Association meetings where we continued our friendship in
person and explored ways to bring knowledge about Africa more effectively to
the world. As wonderful as our online conversations always were, they could
never replace being in the company of Marcus, whether over Chinese food in
San Francisco or discussing H-Africa in H-Net meetings in East Lansing.
Harold, I shall miss you. You live in me. God bless, my friend.
 Humanities & Social Sciences Online 
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