Series S00503 - African development records

2.18 m of textual material
129 photographs
3 posters
2 DVDs

Series consists of records collected by Simpson under the heading "building relations between Africa and Canada." The records span the 1960s to the 1980s and include financial records and shipment receipts of the Hamilton Goodwill Africa Foundation; documentation of the formation, meetings and projects of The Sibley Foundation; reports, correspondence, memoranda and "trip envelopes" of the Canada Africa Business Advisory Group (CABAG); records related to Simpson's consulting company, Kanchar International Ltd.; records of his consultancy with the African Medical and Research Foundation (AMREF); correspondence from Canibex, a short-lived brokering subsidiary of Kanchar; and correspondence, memoranda, scripts, budgets and other records of Eden International Productions Inc., a film production company of which Simpson was a co-founder. There are a few files on Canadian Crossroads International and the African Students Foundation (ASF). As well, there is general material on Canada-Kenya activities, in particular the Canada-Kenya Forum for businessmen organized by Kanchar and CABAG. Other record sub-groups created by Simpson include "educating Canadians about African and international development," and "internationalizing the curriculum." The latter subset of records includes approximately 75 catalogue cards summarizing the films held by the Cross-cultural learning centre at the University of Western Ontario. "Trip envelopes" were packages that often included a mixture of records for projects of Kanchar, CABAG and Simpson's other consulting firm, Salasan. They contain letters, notes, and a set of photographs of pre-fabricated housing under construction in Kenya. Other types of records in the series include correspondence, memoranda, reports, clippings, articles, newsletters, studies, resumes, promotional and profile material on Kanchar, speeches, legal documents, meeting notes, surveys, financial statements, conference materials, seminars, and an oral history transcript of an interview with Simpson at UWO as an example of a model international business/cultural leader.