Presentation of the periodical Annales Aequatoria (1980-2009)

The journal Æquatoria was relaunched by the founders of the Centre Æquatoria in 1980, under the new name Annales Æquatoria, which in its turn was discontinued in 2009 (volume 30). The mission remained the same as that of the old Æquatoria. Annales Æquatoria encouraged research on the Central African languages, literatures, cultures, and history in general, and on the Mongo people in particular.

While it was running, Annales Æquatoria was a blind peer reviewed journal. In a first phase, incoming manuscripts were scrutinized as to whether they fitted in thematically with the journal’s scope and whether they met minimal academic standards. In a second phase, those that had made it through the first selection procedure were sent out to international referees for blind assessment. The usual verdicts ‘accept as is’, ‘accepted with minor/major revisions’, ‘rejected’ applied.

Annales Æquatoria was followed by these indices: International Bibliography of Social Sciences, A Current Bibliography of African Affairs, Cambridge Scientific Abstracts, African Journals Online, INIST-CNRS (France), Language and Language Behavior Abstracts, and the Library of Congress Office. Thompson ISI has requested copies and is presently studying the possible inclusion of Annales Æquatoria in its lists.

The last scientific editorial board of the journal Annales Æquatoria consists of:

• Editor-in-chief: Honoré Vinck
• Assitant to the editor: Michael Meeuwis
• Advisory Board: Kamba Muzenga, Lufungula Lewono, Motingea Mangulu, Mumbanza mwa Bawele.

Of the 30 volumes that appeared, we here offer, in full text, the volumes of the years 1980 through 1999 and 2005 through 2009. Hard copies of the missing volumes can still be ordered (vinck.aequatoria@skynet.be). In due time, we also envisage to publish these volumes on the site. Note that the full texts of both Æquatoria and Annales Æquatoria can also be obtained from the JSTOR website (free when consulting from Africa): http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublication?journalCode=annaaequ.

We are greatly indebted to Theo and Lies Strijker for having scanned and typed both the Æquatoria and the Annales Æquatoria volumes -- a laborious enterprise, to say the least. May they find here the expression of my sincerest gratitude. The originals they used were taken from the archives of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart at Borgerhout, Belgium.