African History
What are primary sources?
Primary sources are first-hand testimonies from sources who witnessed or experienced an event firsthand (examples can include a letter, newspaper article, a photograph, a diary, etc). Primary sources are an attempt to get as close to the events being studied as possible. So, while certain primary sources may be recorded after the fact, such as oral histories, they still capture someone’s first-hand experiences from the past, and are therefore primary sources.
If you can access an original primary source in person, great! If you can’t, primary source materials of all kinds are available in reproduction. Primary sources are characterized by their content, regardless of whether they are available in the original format, in digital format, or published on paper. You can find them in books, journals, and magazines, as well as in online databases.
Primary Sources
- Africa and the New Imperialism (Trial)Explore the history of European colonisation across the African continent in the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth century through the rare printed works, diaries and journals, correspondence, maps, photographs, and film footage.
Database Spotlight: Africa and the New Imperialism is a new addition to our collections, and has a wealth of exciting primary source content. Check out their interactive map, which illustrates the rapid change in power structures across the African continent as a result of European imperialism in the late-nineteenth century
- Africa Commons: History and Culture This link opens in a new window
A finding aid, directory, and indexing tool for African organizations, collections, and documents that links to 500,000 items from archives around the world, mainly from the 19th and 20th centuries.
- Apartheid South AfricaApartheid South Africa makes available British government files from the Foreign, Colonial, Dominion, and Foreign and Commonwealth Offices spanning the period 1948 to 1980.
- Confidential Print: Africa, 1834-1966The documents in Confidential Print: Africa begin with coastal trading in the early nineteenth century and the Conference of Berlin of 1884 and the subsequent Scramble for Africa. They then follow 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. Together they cover the whole of the modern period of European colonisation of the continent from the British Government’s perspective.
- Center for Research Libraries African Studies CollectionsCRL’s collection of African-related resources contains a wide variety of newspapers, monographs, archival collections, serials, government publications, and dissertations, spanning four centuries and covering virtually every country in Africa. Significant country strengths include South Africa, Nigeria, Senegal, Ethiopia, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Materials found here must be requested via Interlibrary Loan
- Center for Research Libraries' Newspaper Collections CRL's collection of rare, historical newspapers from across the globe, available on microfilm or digitized. Inquire with librarians for more information.
- World Digital LibraryContains primary source materials (books, manuscripts, maps, newspapers, journals, prints and photographs, sound recordings, and films) from around the world presented in a highly searchable manner.
- EuropeanaThis site allows you to search across the digital archives and holdings of many significant European galleries, archives, libraries, and museums, including Judaica Europeana, Bodleian Libraries, EuroPhoto, the Natural Europe Project, and Museo Galileo.
- The Times Historical Archive, 1785–2014 (Gale Primary Sources) This link opens in a new windowFull-text and full-image archive to the Times of London for the years 1785-2014.
- East African Newspapers This link opens in a new windowDigital archive of three East African newspapers: Daily Nation (Kenya), The Ethiopian Herald, and The Monitor (Uganda). Coverage from the 1940s to the early 2000s. Part of the Global Press Archive.
- Middle Eastern and North African Newspapers This link opens in a new window
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Digital archive of newspapers published in the Middle East and North Africa, with coverage from 1870 to 2021. Content is predominantly in Arabic, but also includes key titles in English and French. Part of the Global Press Archive.
