History : Africa: Primary Sources

A research guide to primary and secondary sources for African history.

Images: 1920 issue O Africano newspaper courtesy of African Newspapers, African women working in Deutsch-Ostafrika courtesy of the Koloniales Bildarchiv & 1948 letter from Anna Hodge courtesy of William V.S. Tubman Papers, 1904-1992

Major Collections on Africa

16th - Early 20th Century Maps of Africa
Africa Focus: Sights and Sounds of a Continent
Africa through Western Eyes

African Diaspora, 1860-Present
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African Newspapers, Series 1
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African Online Digital Library
Africana Historic Postcard Collection
Afriterra
AGSL Digital Photo Archive - Africa
Archives de l'Afrique Équatoriale Française
Baileys African History Archive
Centre des Archives d'Outre-mer
Confidential U.S. State Department Central Files, 1960-1969, Africa and the Middle East
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Empire Online
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Endangered Archives
Images of Colonialism
International Mission Photography Archive
Internet African History Sourcebook
Koloniales Bildarchiv
Memórias de África e do Oriente
Nationaal Museum van Wereldculturen
Papers of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions
Ross Archive of African Images 1590 - 1920
Royal Commonwealth Society Collection
SOAS Digital Collections: Africa
Sources on German Colonial History online
World History Commons
International Mission Photography Archive
World Through a Lens: Africa

Central Africa

British Documents on the End of Empire Project: Central Africa
Congo Expedition May 1909 - November 1915
Journal officiel de la République du Congo 1959-1969
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Livingstone Online

Horn of Africa

Ethiopic Manuscripts
Haile Selassie News Clippings
Horn of Africa Crisis
Martin Rikli Photograph Collection

North Africa

al-Ahrām, 1920-1940,1956-1958
American University in Cairo Digital Library
Barbary Treaties 1786-1836
British Documents on the End of Empire Project: Egypt & the Defence of the Middle East
British Documents on the End of Empire Project: Sudan
Duke Papyrus Archive
Emma B. Andrews Diary Project
Giza Archives
Memoire du Canal de Suez
Middle East in Early Prints and Photographs
Middle Eastern & North African Newspapers
Oriental Institute Museum Photographic Archives
Papyri.info
Photographic Archive of Papyri in the Cairo Museum
President Gamal Abdel Nasser
Princeton Geniza Project
Sudan Archive
Travelers in the Middle East Archive
Tutankhamun: Anatomy of an Excavation

West Africa

Ancient Manuscripts from the Desert Libraries of Timbuktu
British Documents on the End of Empire Project: Ghana
British Documents on the End of Empire Project: Nigeria
Church Missionary Society archive. Section IV, Africa Missions
Frederick Starr Liberian Research Collection 1792-1914
G.I. Jones Photographic Archive of Southeastern Nigeria Art and Culture
Liberian Journey
Liberian Letters
Liberian Photograph Collections
OpenSourceGuinea.org
Slave Voyages
Slavery and Manumission Manuscripts of Timbuktu
Slavery Images: A Visual Record of the African Slave Trade and Slave Life in the Early African Diaspora
William V.S. Tubman Papers, 1904-1992

Southern Africa

African Activist Archive
Bantu World 1932-1937
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British Concentration Camps of the South African War
Cape Times, 1944-1980
Cuba and Southern Africa
Digital Namibian Archive
DISA
Drum: a magazine of Africa for Africa - most issues 1953-1956, 1958
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Emerging Nationalism in Portuguese Africa, 1959-1965
Historical Papers Research Archive
Indian Opinion 1903-1914
Nelson Mandela Digital Archives
Records of South-Eastern Africa : collected in various libraries and archive departments in Europe
South Africa: Overcoming Apartheid, Building Democracy
South Africa: The Making of U.S. Policy, 1962–1989
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South African History Online
South African Medical Journal 1884-2002
Truth and Reconciliation Commission
UCT Libraries Digital Collections
UNISA Digital Archive
Zimbabwe Government Gazette 1957-1989
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East Africa

Central African Examiner, 1957-1966
Daily Nation, 1964-1965, 1974-1978
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East Africa and Rhodesia 1943-1966
East African Newspapers
East African Standard, 1971-1981
Genocide Archive of Rwanda
Human Rights Documentation Initiative
IFRA Press Archive
Kenya Gazette 1906-2011
Kenya National Assembly Official Record 1911-
Mengo Hospital Records (Uganda)
Rwanda Documents Archive
Uganda Christian University Archives
Voices from the Rwanda Tribunal
Winterton Collection of East African Photographs: 1860 - 1960