The aim of this paper is to examine how Ethiopia, Egypt, and Liberia are portrayed in Swedish encyclopedias. Specifically, it investigates the thematic elements that emerge in older Swedish encyclopedias, written between 1876 and 1959, regarding descriptions of the countries' populations and histories.

As method the essay uses “conventional qualitative content analysis”, and the theoretical framework constitutes of Edward Said’s theory of orientalism. 

The findings indicate that the populations of these countries are categorized and ranked according to value. The encyclopedias depict the populations of these countries as inferior and distinctly different. The older histories of these countries are portrayed as grandiose, but with a loss of prestige over time. The historical narratives often suggest that these countries are inferior to European powers and require domination in order to develop, either through European instructors or through European control over the state.