Research Guides: History : Africa

Recommended Primary and Secondary Source Databases

General

Africa Commons This link opens in a new window
Comprehensive database for searching and discovering African materials from 1500 to today. It indexes African organizations, collections, and documents from archives around the world. Find books, magazines, newspapers, historical journals, government documents, oral history, photographs, art, music, videos, and more.
African Diaspora, 1860-present This link opens in a new window
Includes primary source documents such as personal papers, organizational papers, journals, newsletters, court documents, letters, and ephemera that deal with the migrations, communities, and ideologies of the African Diaspora through the voices of people of African descent, focusing on communities in the Caribbean, Brazil, India, United Kingdom, and France,
Confidential Print: Africa, 1834-1966 This link opens in a new window
Part of the British Government's Confidential Print series, issued between 1820 and 1970, these primary sources cover the modern period of European colonization of the continent from the British Government’s perspective. Topics include coastal trading in the early nineteenth century; the Conference of Berlin of 1884; the subsequent Scramble for Africa; the abuses of the Congo Free State; fights against tropical disease; Italy’s defeat by the Abyssinians; World War II; apartheid in South Africa; and colonial moves towards independence.
Apartheid South Africa This link opens in a new window
Includes British government files from the Foreign, Colonial, Dominion and Foreign and Commonwealth Offices spanning the period 1948 to 1980. Includes letters, diplomatic dispatches, reports, trial papers, activists’ biographies, and first-hand accounts of events about the the history of South Africa’s apartheid regime.
Empire Online This link opens in a new window
Manuscript, printed, and visual primary source materials for the study of "Empire" and its theories, practices, and consequences.
History Reference Source This link opens in a new window
This database features full text for thousands of primary source documents and informational texts.
JSTOR
Full-text digital archive of over 2600 scholarly journals, especially strong in Social Sciences, Humanities, Economics, and Mathematics.

Selected Open Source Databases

Internet Archive
Internet Archive is a non-profit library of millions of free books, movies, software, music, websites, and more.
Foriegn Official Gazette Database
Contains records for approximately 650 official gazette titles from countries outside the United States. It serves as a “union list” of holdings within the major collections residing in North America, encompassing both CRL holdings as well as the holdings of five other major libraries.
Official Gazettes and Civil Society Documentation
Digitized and/or harvested from the web official gazettes from eleven African and Persian Gulf nations where the integrity of the public record is at risk. The content is available as an Open Access collection, and includes gazettes from Algeria, Congo (Rep.), Iran, Iraq, Libya, Morocco, Mozambique, Nigeria, Somalia, Sudan, and Zimbabwe.
Maps of Africa
Maps of Africa produced for the US CIA.
Animated Atlas of African History
This map gives a year-by-year presentation of selected themes in the history of Africa between 1879 and 2002.
All Africa
AllAfrica is a voice of, by and about Africa - aggregating, producing and distributing news and information from over 140 African news organizations and our own reporters to an African and global public. AllAfrica's multi-channel platform is the only independent, comprehensive pan-African news source, with unrivaled reach and reputation.
Library of Congress: Africana Collections
Unusually rich and extensive research materials concerning the fifty countries of sub-Saharan Africa, an area that includes the Western Indian Ocean Islands but excludes the North African countries of Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, and Tunisia, are available at the Library of Congress. The Library's collections of Africana -- material from or relating to Africa -- are among the best in the world. Although most Africa-related material is dispersed in the Library's general book and periodical collections, impressive works of Africana may also be found in the collections of manuscripts, maps, microforms, music, newspapers, prints, photographs, and films in the various special-format custodial divisions of the Library. Every major field of study except technical agriculture and clinical medicine is represented. Holdings in economics, history, linguistics, and literature are especially strong.