Libraries began to close to researchers in the week beginning 16 March 2020 and all were closed to researchers and staff from Monday 23 March when the UK’s lockdown began and all who could work from home were instructed to do so. University libraries dealt with large numbers of book loans in the last days and hours of operation, with loan periods extended (at the Bodleian for three months initially), recalls of loans switched off and fines suspended.

At the present time staff are still working from home where possible. Security staff and conservation staff are looking after buildings and checking on the storage of collections and at some institutions curatorial staff may arrange to visit to collect work materials. At King’s College London Library and at the Bodleian some staff have been furloughed, implementing the government’s Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS).

By about 1470 the Portuguese had arrived on the coast of what would later become the Gold Coast, now Ghana. Having established a trading post, the Portuguese engaged in trade with the indigenous Fanti and other traders from the interior particularly Ashanti. Trade came along with the building of forts and castles and also with the introduction of Christianity albeit at a slow pace and limited to the forts and castles. By the end of the sixteenth century these fortresses particularly Elmina and Christiansburg castles had Catholic priests who were stopping over on missions to other parts of Africa and considering the possibility of opening a mission in either Accra or Elmina. Such plans never materialised mostly due to lack of commitment, early death of the missionaries or lack of funds.

Migration – forced or voluntary – is a constant in human history. The African diaspora as a result of the Atlantic slave trade has been much studied. The story of the Afro-Turks is less well known. This article explores the possibility of building an archive and recording oral histories. It attempts to evaluate the available resources about the Afro-Turks in the modern Turk state of Turkey and asks: When, how and from where did African people come to Turkey? How do they understand their history? And what is their place, as an ethnic minority, in modern Turkey?

On June 11,2013, a great crowd of the people converged at Gazi Park, Istanbul to express their displeasure at the news that the Turkish government under Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan planned to use the greenish park for the erection of a Mall.