Angela E. V. King (28 August 1938 – 5 February 2007) was a Jamaican. She started her career as a diplomat in 1963 when she worked in the Jamaican Foreign Service in London and then at the Permanent Mission to the United Nations in New York. She worked as a staff officer in the United Nations in various capacities from 1966 until her retirement in April 2004.
The UN manuscripts in the Angela King Collection primarily cover the period September 1992 until her retirement. In September 1992 she was appointed Chief of Mission, United Nations Observer Mission to South Africa (UNOMSA) and in January 1994 Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary General for South Africa. The collection includes weekly and quarterly reports of the activities of the Mission submitted to UN Headquarters in New York, correspondence with UN Headquarters, South African newspaper clippings, invitations to social engagements and several of her handwritten notebooks. It therefore includes a comprehensive documentation of the political and geopolitical events in South Africa during the period leading up to the election in April 1994.
In 1996 Ms King was named Director of the Division for the Advancement of Women (DAW) and in 1997 was appointed Assistant Secretary General Special Adviser on Gender Issues and Advancement of Women. The collection includes a report of the UN Interagency Gender Mission to Afghanistan (12-24 November 1997) which she led and a visit to the UN Mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina (28 April to 2 May 2001).
Ms King retired from the UN in April 2004. Correspondence related to her departure is included. After retirement she continued in public life and many of the speeches she gave are included in the collection. She also wrote the chapter entitled “Gender Equality and the United Nations” in a book about Dag Hammarskjöld, Secretary General of the United Nations 1953 – 1961. The book The Adventure of Peace: Dag Hammarskjold and the future of the UN was launched in 2005. The collection includes the drafts of the chapter and correspondence related to its writing.
Monographs that form part of the collection cover several subject areas with many related to the UN and its role, South Africa and women’s issues.
