Research Guides: Primary Sources: Africa

Africa - Databases

ABC-CLIO World History: Modern Era This link opens in a new window
Background information, primary sources, and perspectives essays covering the evolution of modern Europe since the Renaissance; concurrent developments in Asia, Africa, and the Islamic world; the global impact of the Industrial Revolution; and the last 100 years of conflicts and international cooperation. Browse by content type, topic, and era.
Aluka: Struggles for Freedom: South Africa This link opens in a new window
This collection focuses on the complex and varied liberation struggles in the region, with an emphasis on Botswana, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, and Zimbabwe. Struggles for Freedom: Southern Africa consists of 76 sub-collections of primary source materials focusing on colonial rule, the dispersion of exiles, and international intervention, and it comes from archives and libraries around the world, including: periodicals, pamphlets, and local newspaper reports, nationalist publications, records of colonial government commissions, UN documents, personal papers and correspondence, out-of-print and other relevant books, photographs and speeches and interviews.
Apartheid: Global Perspectives, 1946-1996 This link opens in a new window
This collection contains thousands of translated news broadcasts and publications, written by both the people who experienced apartheid and those around the world who watched, reacted to and analyzed it.
Empire Online This link opens in a new window
This resource brings together manuscript, printed and visual primary source materials for the study of 'Empire' and its theories, practices and consequences. The materials span across the last five centuries and are accompanied by a host of secondary learning resources including scholarly essays, maps and an interactive chronology. Collections include: Section I: Cultural Contacts, 1492-1969. Section II: Empire Writing & the Literature of Empire. Section III: The Visible Empire. Section IV: Religion & Empire. Section V: Race, Class, Imperialism and Colonialism, 1607-2007.
Infobase Modern World History This link opens in a new window
A comprehensive look at world history from the mid-15th century to the present. Thousands of subject entries, biographies, images, videos and slideshows, maps and graphs, primary sources, and timelines combine to provide a detailed and comparative view of the people, places, events, and ideas that have defined modern world history. Focused Topic Centers pull forward interesting entries, search terms, documents, and maps handpicked by our editors to help users find a starting point for their research, as well as videos and slideshow overviews to offer a visual introduction to key eras and regions.
Gale World History In Context This link opens in a new window
World History in Context provides information on topics related to the world history. Sources include reference works and primary historic documents.
Middle East And North Africa: Global Perspectives, 1957-1995 This link opens in a new window
This online archive offers first-hand reporting and deep analysis on important issues and historic events from Morocco to Egypt to Afghanistan with unique content not available anywhere else..
New York Times (1851-2018) This link opens in a new window
The New York Times - Historical provides page images of the newspaper beginning with the first issue in 1851 up until 4 years before present.
- 1980 - current can be found on ProQuest National Newspapers.

Africa - Internet Sources

Avalon Project [Yale]
Digital historical documents relevant to the fields of law, economics, politics, diplomacy and government on the World Wide Web. Currently contains, among other things, The debates in the Federal Convention of 1787, reported by James Madison, materials relating to the Nuremberg trials, works by Thomas Jefferson, and materials relating to diplomatic relations between the United States and Europe in the 18th and 19th centuries.
Digital Innovation South Africa (DISA)
A freely accessible online scholarly resource focusing on the socio-political history of South Africa, particularly the struggle for freedom during the period from 1950 to the first democratic elections in 1994, providing a wealth of material on this fascinating period of the country’s history.
Hoover Institution - Africa
The African holdings emphasize history, politics, economics and economic development, colonial administration and military affairs, national liberation movements, and political and social movements, including communism and socialism. Inter-African and international relations are also represented. The colonial period is particularly well documented by legislative debates, journals, government commission reports, and early government gazettes spanning the early 1900s to the early 1960s.
Hoover Institution - Middle East & North Africa
The Middle East collection was formally established in 1948 with the appointment of its first curator, Dr. Christina Phelps Harris, and the acquisition of the libraries of James Heyworth-Dunne, Hidayet Dağdeviren, and Richard P. Mitchell. Building on this foundation, the collection now includes materials on political and social movements in the Middle East and North Africa, relations with the U.S. and Europe, education development, and military affairs.
Internet African History Sourcebook
A vast collection of links to resources across the web about the entire scope of African history.
Voyages: the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade
Comprises nearly 35,000 individual slaving expeditions between 1514 and 1866. Records of the voyages have been found in archives and libraries throughout the Atlantic world. They provide information about vessels, enslaved peoples, slave traders and owners, and trading routes. A variable (Source) cites the records for each voyage in the database. Other variables enable users to search for information about a particular voyage or group of voyages. The website provides full interactive capability to analyze the data and report results in the form of statistical tables, graphs, maps, or on a timeline.
Wilson Center Digital Archive
Constructed and maintained by the Wilson Center's History and Public Policy Program, the Digital Archive contains newly declassified historical materials from archives around the world--much of it in translation and including diplomatic cables, high level correspondence, meeting minutes and more. The historical documents presented in the ever-expanding Digital Archive provide fresh, unprecedented insights into recent international history. By making new sources available and easily accessible, the Digital Archive serves to deepen and enrich international scholarship, history education, and public policy debate on important global issues and challenges. The Digital Archive supports the mission and research aims of three Wilson Center projects: The Cold War International History Project (CWIHP), The North Korea International Documentation Project (NKIDP) and The Nuclear Proliferation International History Project (NPIHP).
World Digital Library - Africa
A vast collection digitized manuscripts, maps, rare books, musical scores, recordings, films, prints, photographs, and architectural drawings from cultures all over the world.
World Digital Library - Middle East and North Africa
A vast collection digitized manuscripts, maps, rare books, musical scores, recordings, films, prints, photographs, and architectural drawings from cultures all over the world.