Skip to Main Content

Colonial states and African societies: Ghana, Gold Coast

Resources for the study of African colonial history including Belgian, British, and French colonial history.

Ghana, Gold Coast

Ghana and Togo under colonial rule, in government reports, 1843-1957
East Ardsley, Wakefield, United Kingdom : Microform Academic Publishers, [2016-]

"Ghana and Togo were known by the colonial Government as the Gold Coast and British Togoland. These countries' records are published together because Togoland included land which is now part of Ghana."

Admnistration, 1846-1956
Finance, 1895-1956
Judicial and police, 1895-1956
Natural resources, 1889-1957
Social services, 1886-1956
Transport and public works, 1895-1956
Communications and post office savings bank, 1895-1956
Commerce, 18889-1956
Staff lists, 1896-1957
Miscellaneous, 1895-1956
British Togoland, 1920-1955
https://searchworks.stanford.edu/view/13948870

 

 
Ghana in records from colonial missionaries, 1886-1951

East Ardsley, Wakefield, United Kingdom : Microform Academic Publishers

Database of documents from the Archives of the United Society for the Propagation of the Gospel. The original Archives are housed at the Bodleian Library, Oxford University. "As outlined in the short history entitled The beginning of Africanisation : the dawn of the missionary motive in Gold Coast education by F.L. Bartels, the SPG's mission was originally established at Cape Coast Castle in 1752 by Rev. Thomas Thompson, who was succeeded by Rev. Philip Quaque, the first African to be ordained a priest of the Church of England." https://searchworks.stanford.edu/view/13948875

 

Ghana and Sierra Leone in colonial and missionary records, 1700-1850

East Ardsley, Wakefield, United Kingdom : Microform Academic Publishers, [2009]

Documents from the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts (SPG), letters and supplementary material from its West African branches. Includes the papers of Thomas Perronet Thompson, the first governor of the Colony of Sierra Leone. Concerns the slave trade in West Africa.  "The Papers of Thomas Perronet Thompson reveal how slavers were caught and tried while he was Governor. The Rev. Phillip Quaque was a native of the Cape Coast in Ghana. Sent to England for training as a priest, he..... the became the first African priest to be ordained by the Church of England."  The original Archives are housed at the Bodleian Library, Oxford University. https://searchworks.stanford.edu/view/13948878

 

Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts (Great Britain)
Gold Coast records of the U. S. P. G., 1753-1933. [microform]
East Ardsley, Eng. : E. P. Microform Ltd., [197-?]
12 reels ; 35 mm.
https://searchworks.stanford.edu/view/1457491

The below contents description is from Yale University's catalog.
Organization: Arranged in six sections: 
Reel 1. Series E - Original Missionary Reports for the Gold Coast (ACCRA), 1906-1917, 1919-1933 and Copies of letters received, 1890-1913  
Reel 2. Copies of letters received - West Africa (including ACCRA), Vol. 3 - March 1913-April 1922, Vol. 4 - April 1922-December 1927 
Reels 3-9. Original letters from Abroad, Sierra Leone and Gold Coast, 1856-1933 
Reel 10. Copies of letters sent - Sierra Leone and Gold Coast, 1900-1935
Reel 11. Committee for Women's Work (S.P.G. Ladies' Association) - Africa-ACCRA, 1907-1928 
Reel 12. West Africa Mss., Boxes I - II, 1753-1951 

Notes from Yale University Library's catalog
"The collection includes reports, letters received from West Africa and letters sent from Sierra Leone and the Gold Coast. Other reports detail the work of the Committee for Women's Work of the S.P.G. Ladies' Association. Manuscripts from West Africa include the correspondence of Philip Quaque and Thomas Thompson, 1753-1855, and pages from the Journal of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel. Gold Coast papers consist mainly of letters to or from Bishop Hamlyn dating from 1904 onwards.

The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts was organized in 1701 under a charter granted by William III. Its activities began on the Gold Coast of Africa in 1752 and, eventually, spread worldwide. The original objectives of the S.P.G. were to provide bishops and a ministry and to establish schools for Anglican emigrants in the British overseas possessions. Later, the S.P.G. worked for the conversion of non-Christian peoples."
 

 

United Society for the Propagation of the Gospel.
Reports, 1860-1900 [microform]
East Ardsley, Yorkshire : EP Microform, c1974.
1 microfilm reel
Subject (LC): Church of England--Missions--Africa, Central. Missions--Africa, Central--History.
Location GREEN MFILM N.S. 3892 MEDIA-MTXT
https://searchworks.stanford.edu/view/1678503

 

Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts (Great Britain)
Report
 1908-1935 Not complete
Location SAL3
https://searchworks.stanford.edu/view/396606


Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts (Great Britain)
Annual report.1915-1918
Location Hoover Library Stavks
https://searchworks.stanford.edu/view/409473

 

Confidential U.S. State Department central files. Ghana 1960-January 1963 [microform] : internal affairs 745J, 845J, and 945J, 779, 879, and 979 (West Africa) and foreign affairs 645J and 611.45J, 679 and 611.79 (West Africa)
Bethesda, MD : UPA Collection from LexisNexis.. 12 microfilm reels ; 35 mm.
Guide on the microfilm.
https://searchworks.stanford.edu/view/8657743

 

Records of the U.S. State Department [microform] : Ghana : political relations and governmental affairs, February 1963-1966 : Subject-numeric file POL.
United States. Department of State
Woodbridge, CT : Primary Source Media, Gale Cengage Learning, 2011.
7 microfilm reels ; 35 mm.
Guide to the film is in the Stacks - E183.8 .G4 U558 2012 GUIDE
https://searchworks.stanford.edu/view/9636913

 

U.K. parliamentary papers [online database]
[Cambridge, U.K.] : Chadwyck-Healey
Has the full text of   -

Command papers, 1802-1910
Hansard, 1803-2005
Debates, 1774-1805
Histories and proceedings, 1660-1743.
House of Commons Papers, 1715-2010
Bills and acts, 1695-2015
Public petitions, 1833-1918
House of Lords Papers , 1714-1910
Journals, 1688-1834
Includes House of Commons sessional papers from 1715 to the present, with supplementary material back to 1688. I     

Has some African annual Colonial Reports.

Guide to the database - https://proquest.libguides.com/parliamentary
https://searchworks.stanford.edu/view/672467

Examples of contents:

Colonial Reports - Annual     Gold Coast.  1892-1919.

Note - some years have two reports such as

Colonial reports--annual.  Northern territories of the Gold Coast. Report for 1912

Colonial reports--annual.  Gold Coast. Report for 1912.

 

Public Records and Archives Administration (PRAAD) in Tamale, Northern Ghana (EAP256)
Digitized by the British Library Includes
Land Tenure Records [1921-1959]
Chieftaincy and Native Affairs [1919-1988]
Compilation of Customary Law: Upper Region Traditional Area [1919]
Chiefs and Prominent Africans Reports [1927-1932]
Native Administration [1919-1930]
Franco British Boundary-Togoland [1927-1932]
Town Boundaries S.P [1929-1928]Town Boundaries S.P [1929-1928]
Anglo-French Frontier Incidence [1929-1938]
Register of Land Tenure [1930-1934]
A Digest of the Religion System of Land Tenure of the Kasena Tribe [1923-1933]
Town Boundaries-Northern Territories [1933-1936]
Tamale Water Supply-Fuel Wood Plant Acquisition of Land [1938-1950]
Right of Native Authorities to Lease Plots non-Native in Certain Circumstances [1939-1948]
Land Cases Pending before the Chief Commissioner Court [1945-1950]
Lease to Natives (Wari) [1947-1958]
Land and Native Rights Ordinance [1947-1958]
Land Dispute-Krachi District [1931]
The History and the Organization of the Kanbonse in Dagomba [1919] and more
https://eap.bl.uk/project/EAP256 

 

Historical Heritage of Land Registration Documents of the Archives of Land Registration Division and Lands Commission of Ghana (4 Mar 1843-26 Aug 1909) (EAP1119)
Wills, Testaments, Correspondence,  Grants affecting Lands registration, disolution of marriages, indentures, mortgages. In cursive writing. Digitized by the British Library. https://eap.bl.uk/project/EAP1119
 

 

Takoradi Railway Workers' Archives Digitisation Project. 1903-1974 (EAP1144)
Central archive of the Ghana Railway Corporation (GRC).
EAP1144/1/1: Personnel files ? (1903-1974)
EAP1144/1/2: Correspondence ? (1912-1928)
https://eap.bl.uk/project/EAP1144