Dennis Zietsman and Svend Littauer attended the 125^th Anniversary event of the Royal African Society at the London Stock Exchange on 22 July.

The Royal African Society was founded in 1901 in memory of Mary Kingsley, an English travel writer and ethnographer whose two trips to West Africa significantly shaped British perceptions of the continent. Kingsley spoke frequently of a society that could bring together academics, friends, political figures and traders with an interest in Africa.

Since its inception, the Society’s main objective has been to foster a better understanding of Africa in the UK. That mission was inevitably interpreted – for better or worse – in the light of the prevailing assumptions of the time. In its early decades, its membership included many colonial officers, merchants, traders, businessmen as well as academics and missionaries, some of whom no doubt reflected attitudes common at the time, which now would be consider paternalist, patronising and even racist, but also others who were to be instrumental in changing those same perceptions.

Over time, while the mission has remained broadly the same, the Society has changed dramatically to become the inclusive, pan-African membership organisation that it is today. The mission of the Society is to amplify the voice of Africa in the United Kingdom and globally in the areas of business, arts and culture, politics and academia.

H.R.H The Prince of Wales, Prince William, is the Royal Patron of the Society.

The Chamber congratulates the RAS on this significant milestone and looks forward to many years of collaboration in the future.