This collection includes correspondence between LoBagola and his agent, James B. Pond; contracts; clippings; advertisements; and a typescript of a lecture entitled "My Religion," about his experience as a Jew.
Bibliographic history: Bata Kindai Amgoza Ibn LoBagola, an African American, was born Joseph Howard Lee in 1887 in Baltimore, Maryland. As early as 1907 he was using the name "LoBagola," claiming that he was from the French Sudan, and was on the lecture circuit speaking about African customs and his claims that he was a Black Jew. In 1930 he published, "LoBagola : An African Savage's Own Story," which was translated and sold in a number of European countries, and "The Folk Tales of a Savage." LoBagola died in 1947 while in Attica Prison, having been arrested and imprisoned several times for petty theft and sexual crimes.
