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African History Primary Sources: A - M

Primary sources for research in African history.

African History Primary Sources. A - M

 

Academie Royale des sciences d'outre-mer
In French and English. The Academy was founded in 1928 as the "Institut Royal Colonial Belge" (Royal Belgian Colonial Institute). Publications are in French, Flemish or English. Has the full text of Bulletins des Séances, the various Mémoires studies series, thr Belgian Colonial Biography / Belgian Overseas Biography published 1948-2015. The Memoires cover the economy, Rwanda, geology, copper, transporation, railroads, volcanoes, dams, scientific studies. There are online Maps of Atlas du Congo belge et du Ruanda-Urundi, maps showing explorations, anti-slavery campaigns, geology, climate, national parks, languages, volanoes, population, Catholic and Protestant missions, medical facilities, telecommunications, tsetse flies, hydroelectricity, military, mining, etc. Based om Brussels, Belgium. https://www.kaowarsom.be/

 

Adam Matthew Publications
Microfilm publisher. Sells microfilm of 19th and 20th century journals and archival collections for African studies and other areas. https://www.amdigital.co.uk/

Examples of microfilm sold - U.K. Foreign Office. American Department. Files: United States (Public Record Office Class FO 371:Part 1: The John F Kennedy Years, 1960-1963), relations of the United States with Nigeria,  Rhodesia, Peace Corps, etc. Part 2: The Lyndon B Johnson Years, 1964-1968 (PRO Class FO 371/174260-174346, 179557-179622 & 184995-185056 and PRO Class FCO 7/738-884) - Seychelles, Rhodesia, Peace Corps.
Africa Through Western Eyes. Part 1-2: Original Manuscripts from the Royal Commonwealth Society Library at Cambridge University Library.
Church Missionary Society Archive

 

Aequatoria Archives Research Project
Based at the Research Center of the International Pragmatics Association, University of Antwerp, and works with the Centre Aequatoria, Mbandaka, Congo (DRC). "Its goal is to make extensively annotated editions as well as systematic interpretive analyses of documents from the archives of the Centre Aequatoria - in particular those documents that are relevant to the historiographic study of linguistics and ethnology in colonial times." The Archives have, on microfiche, the proceedings of the Conf?rence Nationale Souveraine.  The Archives holdings, on microfiche, are available in several locations worldwide (CAMP, Univ. of Wisconsin, etc.). The microfiche can also be purchased from the Archives in Antwerp. Has the full text, in French, of: Temoignages africains de l'arrive des premiers Blancs aux bords des rivires de l'Equateur(RD Congo) -- African testimonies of the arrivals of the first Whites on the river banks in the Congolese Equateur region (? 253pp) http://www.aequatoria.be/04engels/010home_en.htm

African Digital Heritages
A non-profit founded by Chao Tayiana Maina. Based in Nairobi, Kenya. https://africandigitalheritage.org/
Its digital projects include -

African Historical Photographs
African historical photographs, postcards, posters from archives and libraries worldwide. https://guides.library.stanford.edu/African-historical-photographs


African Pictures
"the media licensing arm of Africa Media Online (AMO)" an online picture library. "African content created by Africans" Licenses images. Has a digitization service. Based in Pietermaritzburg, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. https://african.pictures/

Collections include -

photos from the 1949 film, African Jim
Drum photographs
Ken Oosterbroek photographs
Peter Magubane photographs
World Cup South Africa 2010 photos
2019  and 2023 South Africa World Rugby Cup
1976 Rhodesian civil war
Archbishop Desmond Tutu
South African leaders by Peter Davis
Nelson Mandela
Winnie Mandela
Cyril Ramaphosa
District Six
The World newspaper archive
Sowetan Newspaper archive
Rand Daily Mail archive
Hugh Masekela
Miriam Tlali
Architecture West Africa
Dorothy Rathebe
Miriam Makeba
1956 Women's March
Sangomas
and more
 

African Slave Trade, Slavery in Africa
Academic historical resources. https://guides.library.stanford.edu/african-slavetrade-slavery-in-africa

American Museum of Natural History. Congo Expedition, May 1909-November 1915
"In 1909,...Herbert Lang and James Chapin set sail for the Belgian Congo....By the time they sailed home five and one-half years later, they had collected tons of precious zoological and anthropological specimens..." [KF] http://diglib1.amnh.org/
Contents:

  • Diaries of James Chapin ("At age 19, in 1909, James Chapin left New York for northeastern Congo where he served as Herbert Lang's assistant for the next five years. Chapin was interested in many aspects of Africa's natural history. Birds, however, were his passion, a fact borne out by these diaries.")
  • Biographies of James Paul Chapin and Herbert Lang, photographs (villages, primates), the watercolors of James Chapin including Congo mural paintings, birds, fish, reptiles, mammels.
  • A central African map with layers. Select which features will appear on the map: lakes, cities, roads, railroads, forest, mammals, birds, reptiles, fish, etc., a map of Chapin and Lang's travels historic maps reflecting the "development of European knowledge of African geography from 1562 through 1940." Video clips of the Belgian Congo Records made by the "adventurer and filmmaker Armand Denis during his 1934-35 cross-Africa expedition. 
  • A database on specimens collected by the American Museum Congo Expedition a bibliographic essay on sources by Paula Willey, specially prepared bibliographies on Congo Conservation (314 citations), Description & Travel (1218 citations), Maps & Atlases (220 citations). Newspaper Headlines, 1880-1916 about the Congo from the New York Times and the New York Herald.

Archives Hub
Excellent resource for finding United Kingdom archives of organizations, people, topics. Holdings from over 330 institutions. https://archiveshub.jisc.ac.uk/

Banknotes.com
Historical currency for African countries. For ex has 2001 currency with the image of : Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe and 1939 French West Africa currency. [KF] https://www.banknotes.com/

Bois Marchand Cemetery Archive (1867-1930)
In English. Burial registers dating from August 1867 to October 1921.  Includes the name, age, sex, place of birth, date and place of death, cause of death, marital status, names of the declarants of death, date of burial, type of burial (pauper, private), number of row, grave and square.  "This was the largest cemetery in the Indian Ocean at the time."  Digital copies of the material can also be found at the National Archives of Mauritius, Stanford University Libraries, and the Aapravasi Ghat Trust Fund. Received from project holder Dr Krish Seetah, January 2020. Project description. https://eap.bl.uk/collection/EAP863-1

British History Online
Subscription is required for access. Covers England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales. From the Institute of Historical Research and the History of Parliament Trust. Database of primary and secondary sources, images and maps. Focus is on the period between 1300 and 1800. List of the British Secretaries of State 1794-1870. If you register (free), you can save a personal bookshelf of links to useful resources and use a split screen feature to compare two documents simultaneously. Based in London. https://searchworks.stanford.edu/view/7884590

Has Africa in History Theses 1901-1970: Historical research for higher degrees in the universities of the United Kingdom. Originally published by Institute of Historical Research, London, 1976.
Full text of the House of Commons Journal. Examples:

  • Report from Committee on Sierra Leone, No. 661. From: 'House of Commons Journal Volume 85: 13 July 1830', Journal of the House of Commons: volume 85: 1830, pp. 640-45. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.asp?compid=16284&strquery=slavery%20africa
  • Petitions for abolition of Slavery. From: 'House of Commons Journal Volume 85: 13 July 1830', Journal of the House of Commons: volume 85: 1830, pp. 640-45. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.asp?compid=16284&strquery=slavery%20africa
  • the Slave Trade - The trade in general has suffered greatly since I have known it, both as to the difficulty of obtaining slaves, and the price at which they are purchased; in the year 1763 a male slave might be bought at about £13 sterling, which now costs £23 gold, which is become a necessary article in the purchase of a slave, is obtained by the free trader with great difficulty. 
     

British Libraray. Endangered Archives
Provides grants "to locate relevant endangered archival collections, to arrange their transfer to a suitable local archival home where possible, to create digital copies of the material and to deposit the copies with local institutions and the British Library."http://eap.bl.uk/
Examples:

  • EAP466: Themanuscripts of the Riyadh Mosque of Lamu, Kenya (in Arabic)
  • EAP340 Photographic preservation of the manuscript collection in the monastic church of Ewostatewos at Däbrä Särabi (Tigray, Ethiopia) - in Geez
  • EAP474: Regional Archive at Cape Coast, Ghana: pre-colonial and colonial documents preservation project (handwritten and typescript)
  • EAP485:World War II and the origins of Hausa newspapers: the early years of 'Gaskiya ta fi Kwabo' (in Hausa)
  • EAP052: Rescuing Eastern Nigerian history: preserving the holdings of Enugu and Calabar regional archives (typescript)
  • EAP087: Northern Nigeria: precolonial documents preservation scheme (in Arabic)


British Library. United National Independence Party of Zambia Archives
"Kenneth Kaunda's United National Independence Party (UNIP) was formed in 1959. It was the driving force behind the attainment of Zambia's independence in 1964."
EAP121/1 Records of the African National Congress (ANC) party of Zambia [1948-1973] 
EAP121/2 United National Independence Party of Zambia (UNIP) [1949-1988]
https://doi.org/10.15130/EAP121
 

CAMP. Catalog of Nigerian Pamphlets on Microfilm
Compiled by the African Collection, Yale University Library, New Haven, Connecticut for the Cooperative Africana Microform Project and the Center for Research Libraries. http://www-apps.crl.edu/areastudies/CAMP/collections/camppamp.htm
Full text, 60 pages, in Adobe pdf. Citations to 1,000 pamphlets on microfilm. Included are market literature titles from the Simon Ottenberg collection. Types of pamphlets - Nigeria, Biafra, Southern Nigeria government publications, market literature, political party pamphlets, church and religious pamphlets, magazines and other serials. Authors include Obafemi Awolowo, Nnamdi Azikiwe, Samuel A.Crowther, the Action Party, N.C.N.C. Dates range from the late 19th century to pre-World War II and the mid 1960s. Languages - English, Yoruba, Ibo, Hausa. There is an index by author and subject. The microfilmed pamphlets are available from CAMP, Cooperative African Materials Project, based at the Center for Research Libraries, Chicago. The inventory is part of CAMP's Guides to Collections. [KF]
 

Cold War International History Project (Washington, D.C.)
Established at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, supports the release of historical materials by governments, seeks to disseminate new perspectives on Cold War history.[KF] https://www.wilsoncenter.org/program/cold-war-international-history-project
Has full text Russian archival documents on Soviet policy toward Angola and Southern Africa in the 1970s and Russian and East German documents on the U.S.-Russian rivalry in the Horn of Africa. 

Colonial States and African Societies - Stanford Library Guide

Mainly licensed resources for the study of African colonial history. https://guides.library.stanford.edu/colonialstates

Commonwealth War Graves Commission
The Commission maintains graves / memorials throughout the world for members of the Commonwealth forces who died in World Wars I and II. Has statistics on the number of Commonwealth war dead commemorated by country, for ex. 50,000 + in Kenya, 8,000 + in South Africa,  5,000 + in Tanzania, 4,000 + in Nigeria, 900+ in Eritrea, etc. Select "Global Commitment" then "breakdown by country." [KF] http://www.cwgc.org/

Curtin, Philip D. and Herbert S. Klein. Records of Slave Ship Movements Between Africa and the Americas, 1817-1843
Compiled by Philip D. Curtin, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin (1967). Edited by Herbert Klein, Columbia University, New York (1973). From Parliamentary Papers XLIX (73) 593-633, Foreign Office, 1845. "...contains information on the ship's port of arrival, date of arrival, type of vessel, tonnage, master's name, number of guns, number of crew, national flag, number of slaves, port of departure, number of days of voyage, and mortality." The site is part of Slave Movement During the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries. [KF] https://www.disc.wisc.edu/archive/slave/slave01_index.html

Digital Innovation South Africa, DISA
Full text historical South African journals, books, theses, maps, legal documents online. Also articles, legal decrees, pamphlets, historical conference papers, political party constitutions, letters, historical interviews, poetry, music (including the national anthem), photographs, posters, programs, trial proceedings, etc. The Advanced Search covers the entire database. http://www.disa.ukzn.ac.za/

  • "South Africa's Struggle for Democracy: Anti-Apartheid Periodicals, 1960-1990" Full text titles available are: Abasebenzi, Afra Newsletter, African Communist, Africanist News and Views, Amandla-Matla, Apdusa Views, Arise! Vukani!, Black Review, Clarion Call, Congress Resister, Cosatu News, Crisis News, Critical Health, Dawn, Democracy in Action, East Cape Update, Fosatu Worker News, Frank Talk, Grassroots, Ikwezi, Inqaba ya Basebenzi, Isisebenzi, Isizwe, Izwi lase Township Journal of Black Theology, Mayibuye, NUM News, Phakamani, Pro Veritate, Rixaka, Sash, SASO Newsletter, SASPU Focus, SASPU Nationa,l Sechaba, Speak, Speak Newspaper, TRAC Newsletter, Umsebenzi, Work in Progress.
  • Black Sash, 1960-1990 - [Stanford Students Please Note. Stanford has Black Sash print issues for 1959-1965,1967-1992, 1995 Jan.]
  • Clarion Call (Inkatha), 1983-1990 - "published as the official journal of the KwaZulu Government and Inkatha" - "a liberation movement committed to non-violence, peaceful change and a negotiated future for South Africa". [Stanford Students Note. Stanford has print issues of Clarion Call for v.1:no.9 (1984:Apr.) - 1991:Nov.]
  • Pro Veritate (Christian Institute of Southern Africa) , 1962-1977 - "relating to the Christian standpoint in the face of the anti-apartheid regime."
  • Sechaba (ANC, London), 1967-1990
     

Digital Library of the Middle East
Free access to digitized documents, maps, posters, archaeological objects, jewelry, coins from the Middle East and North Africa. Includes the Sudan, Mauritania, Mali, Ethiopia, Djibout, Eritrea, Senegal, Comoro Islands, Zanzibar, etc.  Many publications are in Arabic. Contributions from libraries worldwide. Maintained by CLIR, Council on Library and Information Resources and the Stanford University Library.  https://dlmenetwork.org/library

Documenting the American South
Has full text primary sources (books, monographs) including works by African-American missionaries in Africa, slaves' accounts of Africa. The Education section has Lessons Plans. From the University Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. http://docsouth.unc.edu/

Du Bois, W. E. B.(William Edward Burghardt), 1868-1963. "The Souls of Black Folk; Essays and Sketches" (1903)
Project Gutenberg provides the full-text of the book. https://www.gutenberg.org/files/408/408-h/408-h.htm

Durham University. Sudan Archive
Online records:

  • Intelligence Reports 1889-1903
  • "Reports were published by the Egyptian Army, printing any reports from the Sudan and the area around it pertinent to the campaign against Mahdist Sudan and the defence of the Condominium." https://libguides.durham.ac.uk/asc-sudan-archive/sirs
  • Governor-General Reports, 1902-1952
  • "The reports for the years 1902-1914, when General Sir Reginald Wingate was Governor-General, are particularly valuable, containing a wealth of information and statistics on every aspect of the administration."
  • https://libguides.durham.ac.uk/asc-sudan-archive/ggrs
  • Staff Lists, 1899-1963
  • "contain the names of all Sudan Government employees, both British and Sudanese, from 1914-1963."
  • https://libguides.durham.ac.uk/asc-sudan-archive/staff
  • Government Gazettes, 1899-1970
  • https://libguides.durham.ac.uk/asc-sudan-archive/gazettes
  • Maps, photographs, exhibits and a blog.  Online catalog of books, periodicals and ephemeral material on the Sudan.
  • Archive of the papers of administrators from the Sudan Political Service, missionaries, soldiers, business men, doctors, agriculturalists, teachers and others. The papers are not online.  Includes the papers of Professor Robert O. Collins, General Sir Reginald Wingate, Sir Harold MacMichael, Sir James Robertson, and the Gordon Memorial College Trust Fund. Has some material from the post-independence period and papers relating to countries bordering the Sudan.  http://www.dur.ac.uk/library/asc/sudan/

Encyclopedie, ou Dictionnaire Raisonne des Sciences, des Arts et des Metiers
In French. Pilot project to put the 17 + vols. of Diderot and d'Alembert's encyclopedia, published between 1751 and 1772, online. The definition of Afrique represents the knowledge of that time about Africa. Has a keyword search mechanism. A project of the Univ. of Chicago. [KF] https://encyclopedie.uchicago.edu/

Fontes historiae nubiorum : textual sources for the history of the middle Nile region between the eighth century BC and the sixth century AD
Author(s): Eide, Tormod,; 1934- ; editor and others.
Bergen, Norway : University of Bergen, Dept. of Classics, 1994-2000
4 volumes online.  Egypt, Kush, Nubia, Meroe, Ethiopia. https://digitalt.uib.no/handle/1956.2/3083
v. 1. From the eighth to the mid-fifth century BC 
v. 2. From the mid-fifth to the first century BC 
v. 3. From the first to the sixth century AD 
v. 4. Corrigenda and indices

Foreign Relations of the United States Ebooks
Information about the Foreign Relations of the US series. https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/ebooks

Foreign Relations of the United States, 1961-1963, Volume 9: Foreign Economic Policy
Editors: Evans Gerakas and others. Washington, D.C.: Office of the Historia, U.S. Dept. of State, 1995. Full text. From the print volume. Covers aid to Africa, German-U.S. coordination regarding aid, relations with South Africa with regard to U.S. Strategic Materials and Commodities Policy during the administration of President John F. Kennedy. (Dept. of State Publication, 10229) [KF] https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1961-63v09

Foreign relations of the United States, 1964-1968. Volume 24, Africa
Editors, Nina Davis Howland, David S. Patterson.Washington, D.C. : Office of the Historian, U.S. Dept. of State, 1999. Full text primary documents (letters, telegrams, memoranda, etc.) regarding U.S. relations with Africa. (Dept. of State Publication 10627). [KF] https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1964-68v24

France, Bibliotheque nationale, Gallica
In French. "Gallica propose un accès à 70 000 ouvrages numérisés, à plus de 80 000 images et à plusieurs dizaines d'heures de ressources sonores." Huge online library of full text books, serials, and images. http://gallica.bnf.fr/ http://gallica.bnf.fr/

France. Bibliotheque nationale. Voyages en Afrique
In French. "900 volumes de textes, 30 titres de revues, 80 cartes venant des collections imprimees de la BnF, 20 heures d'enregistrements sonores des fonds du Musee de la parole et du geste et 6500 photographies issues des fonds de la Societe de geographie." Access documents by type (books, journals, maps, photographs), geographic area, era. Part of the French national library's Gallica site. http://gallica.bnf.fr/dossiers/html/dossiers/VoyagesEnAfrique/
Contents include:

  • Maps of peoples and kingdoms, colonial history, physical map, antique maps, nautical maps.
  • Full text books, journal articles, maps illustrating themes: L'Europe decouvre l'Afrique, L'Afrique des cultures, Histoire coloniale : la France en Afrique, L'Afrique vue depuis la France.
  • Journal articles (Bulletins de la Societe d'anthropologie de Paris; Bulletin de la Societe de geographie de Paris; le Tour du Monde, 1860-191; La Geographie; Bulletin de la Societe de geographie commerciale de Bordeaux; Revue maritime et coloniale, Annales des voyages, de la geographie et de l'histoire: Nouvelles annales des voyages, de la geographie et de l'histoire and many more.
  • A Bibliography and a Chronology and Music from the 1930s and earlier (see L'Afrique vue depuis la France).

France Diplomatie
In French and English. Web site for the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Has the Digital Diplomatic Library.  Has documents online such as "Affaires du Congo et de l'Afrique occidentale / Ministère des affaires étrangères" 1884 and "Compte définitif des recettes et des dépenses de l'exercice... / Colonie du Sénégal, Pays de Protectorat." https://www.diplomatie.gouv.fr/en/

French West Africa. Grand Conseil.
Bulletin. Procès-verbaux. v.1-2(1918-1919). Published 1919
Bulletin. Procès-verbaux. v.3-4(1920-1921). Published 1921
Bulletin. Procès-verbaux. v.5-6(1922-1923). Published 1923. Full text on the Hathi Trust site. https://www.hathitrust.org/

Garvey - Marcus Garvey and Universal Negro Improvement Association Papers Project
Project directed by Robert A. Hill at the James S. Coleman African Studies Center, UCLA. Has the text of the book jackets, the introductions and sample documents for the African series, 1913-1945, American series, and Caribbean series. Has photographs including the Black Star Line and sound files of two speeches by Garvey, the only known recordings of his voice. [KF] https://www.international.ucla.edu/africa/mgpp/

Gazettes Africa
Huge collection of full text African gazettes online. A project of Laws.Africa and AfricanLII. https://gazettes.africa/

George Mason University. Center for History and New Media - Women in World History
Primary sources about women and gender with guidelines to using primary sources. Sources include excerpts from the 17th c. Journal of Jan van Riebeeck, letters of the grand-daughter of Jan van Riebeeck, rock art of the San, drawings, narrative of the Cape (Southern Africa) 1705 to 1713, the situation of slaves in the Cape, letter of Mary Moffat, narrative by Mary Kingsley, autobiography of Buchi Emecheta, African novels, excerpt from Tsitsi Dangarembga's novel Nervous Conditions. http://chnm.gmu.edu/wwh/index.html
Has a case study by Beverly Mack on Nana Asma'u, Muslim Woman Scholar and one by Jeremy D. Popkin, The Calling of Katie Makanya (South Africa 1873-1956) and a classroom module on Cultural Contact in Southern Africa (17th century including slavery). Holds online forums for teachers; the forum beginning October 1, 2005 is Women in World History. Beginning November 2005 is a forum on Women in Africa.

Goethe University. University Library. Digital Collections. German Colonial Collections
Mainly in German, some in English. Full text online of 19th century / early 20th century monographs, books, journals related to German Africa colonial history.
ilissAfrica (internet library sub-Saharan Africa) has a detailed guide to the contents. https://ilissafrica.wordpress.com/2016/04/19/german-colonial-history-online/
Full text Colonial Newspapers and Journals. https://sammlungen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/kolonialbibliothek/nav/classification/10035030
Includes the General Act of the Conference of Berlin, 1885. Presented to both House of Parliament, 1886. Africa No. 3, 1886.
Based in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. https://sammlungen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/kolonialbibliothek/nav/index/all

  • Has the German Colonial Society Photography Archive,, 1822-1936 in a searchable database..
    Die Deutsche Kolonialgesellschaft (DKG) Bildarchiv
    In English and German. Large keyword searchable database of colonial era photographs, 1822-1936, from the archives of the Deutsche Kolonialgesellschaft [German Colonial Society]. Covers Namibia, Tanzania, Cameroon, Togo, etc. The database can be searched by Region, Subject Areas, Keyword, Person, Photographer, People.. Description of the Image Collection of the German Colonial Society. https://sammlungen.ub.uni frankfurt.de/kolonialesbildarchiv/nav/index/all

Graham (Billy) Center Archives, Wheaton College, IL
Collections on African Christianity from mainly North American Protestant missionaries and some African churches and organizations. Most records are 20th century; 75% concern east or central Africa. Examples are the diaries of Bernard Litchman, a health officer in Zaire from 1917 to 1961, and Elwood Davis, a physician, in Kenya 1910 to 1949. Collections include those of the Africa Inland Mission and individual missionaries. Has the text of an interview with Paul P. Stough, a missionary with the Africa Inland Mission in Zaire (from 1928 to the early 1960s) during Belgian colonial rule which offers insights into relations with the Zairois, Belgian officials, the Catholic missions, etc. [KF] https://www.wheaton.edu/about-wheaton/museum-and-collections/buswell-library-archives-and-special-collections/about/wheaton-college-billy-graham-center-archives/

Halsall, Paul - Internet African History Sourcebook
Has full-text sources for African history arranged by topics. Includes passa-ges from The Life of Gustavus Vassa, by Oladuah Equiano, from David Livingstone, excerpt from Kwame Nkrumah:I Speak of Freedom, 1961, the "Loi-Cadre" of June 23, 1956, Jomo Kenyatta's 1952 speech, the Arusha Declaration (1967), speech by Kenneth Kaunda on African Development and Foreign Aid (1966), statements/speeches on Rhodesia's Unilateral Declaration of Independence 1965, etc. Maintained by Paul Halsall, Fordham University. [KF] http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/africa/africasbook.html

Hathi Trust

Many books, serials, documents free online. Founded by U.S. midwestern universities and the University of California system. https://www.hathitrust.org/
Examples include -

Heinz III, H. John - Archives
Heinz was a Congressman (1971-1976) and U.S. Senator from Pennsylvania (1977-1991). Portions of his archival papers are keyword searchable and available in full text from Carnegie Mellon University Library. Included is information on international trade, Rhodesia, South Africa, articles from newspapers, journals, his correspondence, etc. [KF] https://digitalcollections.library.cmu.edu/cmu-collection/sen-h-john-heinz-iii

INA.fr - Institut national de l'audiovisuel
Online archive of French radio and TV programs. Find videos of Leopold Sedar Senghor, Patrice Lumumba. Nicolas Sarkozy's July 27, 2007 speech in Dakar has been removed. http://www.ina.fr/

Internet Archive
Founded by Brewster Kahle, archives web pages from state archives and university libraries, older books. Find archived pages from the Africa Union, Doctors Without Borders, Slate (the e-magazine for example), etc.
Full text books such as Histoire de la Guinée Française : rivières du sud, Fouta-Dialo, région du sud du Soudan.  By André Arcin. Paris : A. Challamel, 1911. 780 pages. https://www.archive.org

Internet Library of Early Journals
A project by the Universities of Birmingham, Leeds, Manchester and Oxford to digitise substantial runs of 18th and 19th century journals. Includes Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, The Annual Register, and other titles. Blackwood's (March 1844) contains passages from The Highlands of Ethiopia, by Major W. Cornwallis Harris. [KF] http://www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/ilej/

Johnson (Lyndon B.) Library and Museum
Has full text oral history interviews in Adobe Acrobat .pdf format. Use the Acrobat Find (the binoculars) for keyword searches. Walt Rostow talks about a meeting with President Kennedy and President Keita of Mali reassuring Kennedy that Africa would not become communist. Has an interview with Dean Rusk on the US dropping paratroopers in Stanleyville, Congo and sending transport planes to show support for the Congo govt. against mercenaries, on U.S. policy in the Nigerian civil war. [KF] https://www.lbjlibrary.org/

Kanuri Studies Association
Site has closed. The Internet Archive has archived some pages Articles on Kanuri history /ethnography by scholars, photographs, current news, primary sources (oral histories), a bibliography, table of contents of the Borno Museum Society Newsletter, biographies of prominent figures. Primary health care project, "Borno Development Initiative." "founded in Maiduguri / Nigeria in 2003. The main aim of the association is to enhance and support the exchange of knowledge and information from and with Kanuri-speaking people and the academic community." http://www.kanuri.net/

Kennedy - John F. Kennedy Library
Memoranda, (in the Presidential Papers of John Fitzgerald Kennedy at the Kennedy Library in Boston, Mass.), by either President Kennedy or McGeorge Bundy, Kennedy's National Security Advisor. Topics covered include South Africa policy, CIA support of U.S. actions towards Portuguese territories in Africa, U.S. arms in Angola, Soviet training of Ghanaian troops, Volta Dam in Ghana, U.S. Fighter Aircraft in the Congo, Intelligence on Operations in the Congo. [KF] https://www.jfklibrary.org/

Language and Popular Culture in Africa
"The main aim of LPCA is to document and further the study of expressions of popular language and culture in Africa." Maintained by Johannes Fabian and Vincent de Rooij of the Department of Sociology and Anthropology, University of Amsterdam. [KF] http://lpca.socsci.uva.nl/index.html
Has full text archives such as:

  • Buntungu's "Mokingi mwa Mputu": A Boloki perception of Europe at the end of the 19th Century
  • The Archives of Popular Swahili containing:
    • Popular Swahili Texts in Books and Articles: an annotated bibliography
    • Letters to the editor from the section Habari za Kwetu in Mwana Shaba (Journal d'entreprise de l'U.M.H.K.) 1958
    • The history of Zaire as told and painted by Tshibumba Kanda Matulu in conversation with Johannes Fabian - Introduction - in several parts
    • Teachings of the Jamaa Movement
    • Vocabulaire de ville de Elisabethville: A history of Elisabethville from its beginnings to 1965
    • Le pouvoir se mange entier - Power is eaten whole: A play by the "Troupe Théâtrale Mufwankolo" of Lubumbashi (in English and Swahili)

Livingstone, David, "Missionary Travels and Researches in South Africa"
Missionary Travels and Researches in South Africa; Including a Sketch of Sixteen Years' Residence in the Interior of Africa, and a Journey from the Cape of Good Hope to Loanda on the West Coast; Thence Across the Continent, Down the River Zambesi, to the Eastern Ocean. (London, 1857). Full-text of the book with information on slavery. Part of Project Gutenberg. Includes an 1858 review of the book in Harper's Magazine. [KF] http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/1039

Livingstone Online 
Digital museum & library on David Livingstone. Documents, letters, essays (Southern Africa and colonialism, Victorian medicine, European expeditions, etc), images, timeline. Resources contributed by 40 archives / repositories such as the National Library of Scotland, Royal Geographical Society, etc. Children's materials (ages 9-13) under Resources. http://livingstoneonline.org/   Has a blog. https://livingstoneonline.wordpress.com/

LLMC Digital (Law Library Microform Consortium)
Access to documents by subscription only (many U.S. libraries subscribe.)  Full text books, pamphlets, laws, law reports, official gazettes, selected British command papers, British Colonial Office annual reports, treaties, papers from the Proceedings of the Royal Colonial Institute, Cape Colony documents, etc. Has a partnership with the Center for Research Libraries (in Chicago) and has digitized African official gazettes. Based in Kaneohe, Hawaii.  http://www.llmcdigital.org
 

Lomé, un siècle d'images (1884-1990) : Lomé entre la terre et la mer. vol.1
Author: Archives nationales du Togo
Presses de l'Universite du Benin (Lome), 1993, 76 p. Photographs with some text. an economic history of Lome. Shows religious buildings, wharfs, ships, industrial areas, Président Eyadéma, etc.
Maintained by Horizon Pleins Textes, la base documentaire de l'IRD, L'Institut de recherche pour le développement. Based in Marseille, France. [KF] https://horizon.documentation.ird.fr/exl-doc/pleins_textes/divers17-08/010017801.pdf

[Madagascar]
Antananarivo annual and Madagascar magazine. 1875-1900
Antananarivo : Press of the London Missionary Society,
Hathi Trust  and Google Books have the full text of some issues online.l

The Mambila of the Cameroon Nigerian border - David Zeitlyn
Full text letters and reports from the 1920s and 1930s. https://www.mambila.info/Archive/index.html

Medical Archives of Mengo Hospital, Uganda, housed at the Makerere University College of Health Sciences Albert Cook Library
300 volumes of hand-written medical notes, dating from 1897-1944. patients’ names have been removed. https://doi.org/10.15130/EAP617 or https://eap.bl.uk/project/EAP617

Mintz, Stephen - Excerpts from Slave Narratives
Primary documents including:

  • A European slave trader, John Barbot, describes the African slave trade (1682)
  • A Muslim merchant, Ayubah Suleiman Diallo, recalls his capture and enslavement (1733)
  • Olaudah Equiano, an 11-year old Ibo from Nigeria remembers his kidnapping into slavery (1789)
  • Olaudah Equiano describes West African religious beliefs and practices (1789)
  • Charles Ball remembers a slave funeral, which incorporated traditional African customs (1837). Prof. Mintz teaches in the Department of History, University of Texas (Austin). [KF] https://chnm.gmu.edu/worldhistorysources/r/30/whm.html

 Money, Duncan - Sources for the History of the Copperbelt
Archival sources for the colonial and post-colonial history of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Zambia.
"state archives, company archives, trade union archives, missionary archives, international organisations, personal archive collections, newspapers, photographs and films. Duncan Money is a historian of Central and Southern Africa based at Leiden University, Netherlands.  He manages a project to preserve and digitize the archives of the Mineworkers’ Union of Zambia.
https://duncanmoney.wordpress.com/sources-for-the-history-of-the-copperbelt/

Museum of British Colonialism
Narratives of British colonial rule in Kenya. Interviews with Mau Mau veterans and survivors of the Emergency period in Kenya. Fieldwork videos relating events during the Mau Mau Emergency. Map of the detention camps. Documentary about the British destruction of records of their activities. Founded 2018. https://museumofbritishcolonialism.org/

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