LibGuides: African Studies: Primary sources and archives

What are primary sources?

A primary source is "material that contains firsthand accounts of events and that was created contemporaneous to those events or later recalled by an eyewitness" (Glossary of Archival Records and Terminology). Letters, diaries, autobiographies, photographs, oral histories, government documents, literary works, speeches, and, contemporaneous newspaper articles are just some examples of primary sources.

Rubenstein Library collections

Resources on African History and Culture in Rubenstein Library
"Highlight[s] some of the Africa-related resources located in the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library at Duke University. The John Hope Franklin Research Center for African and African American History and Culture was founded in 1995 to support the library's book and manuscript collecting initiatives in African studies. These collections, although not a complete list, are broad in scope with particular strengths in the history and culture of the peoples of Sub-Saharan Africa and the country of South Africa."

Primary source research databases

Africa-focused sources

Apartheid South Africa, 1948-1980 This link opens in a new window
Search for primary sources (British government files and maps) related to the apartheid government of South Africa, spanning 1948-1980
Confidential Print: Africa, 1834-1966 This link opens in a new window
Search for primary documents beginning with trading in the early nineteenth century and the Conference of Berlin of 1884 and the subsequent Scramble for Africa
Littérature de l'Afrique noire This link opens in a new window
Search for oral and written literatures from French speaking Sub-Saharan Africa, from Benin to Togo, representing about twenty countries and more than a hundred ethnic groups
Evangelism in Africa: Correspondence of the Board of Foreign Missions, 1835‐1910 This link opens in a new window
Search primary source records of the Board of Foreign Missions (BFM) of the Presbyterian Church in Africa during the 19th century
Liberation Movement in Africa and African America This link opens in a new window
Search for primary sources from FBI surveillance of the activities of the African Liberation Support Committee and All African People’s Revolutionary Party during the 1970s and 80s
Struggles for Freedom: Southern Africa This link opens in a new window
Search for primary sources related to the liberation struggles in: Angola, Botswana, Mozambique, South Africa, Namibia, and Zimbabwe

Sources including coverage of Africa

Chatham House Online Archive This link opens in a new window
Search for primary sources and publications from the archives of the Royal Institute of International Affairs
Empire Online This link opens in a new window
Search for original documents and essays by leading scholars in Empire Studies
Human Rights Studies Online This link opens in a new window
Search primary and secondary documentation related to major human rights violations and atrocity crimes worldwide
Royal Anthropological Institute Digital Archive This link opens in a new window
This collection of digitized primary sources provides access to more than 150 years of the longest-established association dedicated to the furtherance of anthropology in its broadest sense. Accessible through the Wiley Digital Archives platform, the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland's unique collection of association files, manuscripts, and photos, documents the history of the association, as well as the services it provided to contemporary anthropology and anthropologists.
Slavery, Abolition and Social Justice, 1490-2007 This link opens in a new window
Search primary sources related to the history of slavery
SlaveVoyages This link opens in a new window
Search across the records of almost 35,000 slaving voyages that forcibly embarked over 10 million Africans for transport to the Americas between the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries. This is an open access database.
Women and Social Movements in Modern Empires Since 1820 This link opens in a new window
Search primary source materials exploring prominent themes in world history since 1820, conquest, colonization, settlement, resistance and post-coloniality. Relevant "document clusters" include: African American and Black African Women Build Civil Society in South Africa, 1920-1960; Dutch and British Women in Warring Empires in South Africa, 1899-1903; Indigenous Women and Anti-Imperialist Activism in South Africa, 1929-1960; Women in the Anti-Apartheid Movement in South Africa, 1960-1997; and French Empire in North Africa, 1935-2005.

Primary Sources on the Open Web

Digitized Collections at the Herskovitz Library of African Studies
The Melville J. Herskovits Library of African Studies at Northwestern University is the largest separate Africana collection in the United States.
African Digital Research Repositories
List of known digital repositories within the African continent. Compiled by the International African Institute at SOAS University in London.