African Studies: Primary Sources
These are just a few of the possible primary source collections available through ZSR and on the web. Visit the Primary Sources guide for more options. Need help finding a specific primary source? Ask me!
- Apartheid South Africa This link opens in a new windowProvides access to British government files from the Foreign, Colonial, Dominion and Foreign and Commonwealth Offices, including previously restricted letters, diplomatic dispatches, reports, trial papers, activists' biographies and first-hand accounts of events. Coverage: 1948-1980
- Church Missionary Society Periodicals This link opens in a new windowThis resources encompases publications from the Church Missionary Society, the South American Missionary Society, and the Church of England Zenana Missionary Society, from 1804-2009. In addition to religious perspectives, these publications give information on political and social issues in the various regions in which these societies were working. Coverage: 1804-2009
- Confidential Print: Africa, 1834-1966 This link opens in a new windowComplete volumes of all British Government Confidential Print for Africa. All items marked ‘Confidential Print’ were printed and circulated immediately to leading officials in the Foreign Office, to the Cabinet and to heads of British missions abroad. Coverage: 1834-1966
- Empire Online This link opens in a new windowBrings 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. Coverage: 1400s-present
- Global Commodities This link opens in a new windowProvides manuscript, printed and visual primary source materials to explore the history of fifteen major commodities and to examine the ways that these have changed the world.
- HathiTrust Digital Library This link opens in a new windowFull-text seachable library of high-quality digitized materials such as books, articles, government information, and more from libraries around the world. Includes public domain and in-copyright content. Log in as a WFU user to download PDFs and access additional features. Coverage: Varies
- HeinOnline This link opens in a new windowIncludes World Treaty Library (all the UN treaties) and World Trials Library (historical documents on trials going back to the era of slavery and colonialism).
- Making of the Modern World This link opens in a new windowProvides full-text, searchable access to primary source materials that track the development of the modern, western world through the lens of trade and wealth from the period 1450-1914. Coverage: 1450-1914
- Shoah Foundation Visual History Archive This link opens in a new windowThe USC Shoah Foundation's Visual History Archive allows users to search and view video testimonies of survivors and witnesses of genocide. Initially a repository of Holocaust testimony, the Visual History Archive has expanded to include testimonies from the Armenian Genocide that coincided with World War I, the 1937 Nanjing Massacre in China, the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda, the Guatemalan Genocide of 1978-1996 and the Cambodian Genocide of 1975-1979.
- Slavery, Abolition and Social Justice This link opens in a new windowAccess to primary and secondary source documents from 1490-2007 that allow researchers to examine the history of slavery, abolition and social justice in America, the Caribbean, Brazil and Cuba along with material examining European, Islamic and African involvement in the slave trade. Coverage: 1490-2007
- Slavery, the Slave Trade, and Law and Order in the 19th Century This link opens in a new windowDocuments the international and domestic traffic in slaves in Britain's New World colonies and the United States, providing important primary source material on the business aspect of the slave trade. Coverage: 1636-1880
- Struggles for Freedom: Southern AfricaThe liberation of Southern Africa and the dismantling of the Apartheid regime was one of the major political developments of the 20th century, with far-reaching consequences for people throughout Africa and around the globe. This collection focuses on the complex and varied liberation struggles in the region, with an emphasis on Botswana, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, and Zimbabwe.
- Women and Social Movements: Development and the Global South, 1919 to 2019 This link opens in a new windowThis database examines efforts to foster gender equity through expanded economic and social participation of women on a global scale. Covering a century, the database highlights and evaluates activism through individual efforts, organizational initiatives, and socio-cultural projects led by or for women in the Global South. Coverage: 1919-2019
- World Heritage Sites: AfricaExplore more than 86,000 objects linking visual, contextual, and spatial documentation of African heritage sites.
Historical Newspaper & Magazine Databases
- African Newspapers, Series 1 (1800-1922) This link opens in a new windowSearch the full text of English- and foreign-language titles from Angola, Ghana, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Sao Tome and Principe, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe. Coverage: 1800-1922
- British Periodicals This link opens in a new windowProvides searchable, full page image digital access to British journals published between the late 1600s and early 1900s. Topics covered include, literature, art, music, architecture, drama, history, science, and more. Includes access to collections I & II. Coverage: 1680s-1930s
- Caribbean Newspapers, 1718-1876 This link opens in a new windowProvides searchable, full page image digital access to newspapers published in the Caribbean region during the 18th and 19th century. Includes titles published in English, Spanish, French, and Danish. Coverage: 1718-1876
- Economist Historical Archive This link opens in a new windowFully searchable, complete facsimile edition of The Economist, the weekly magazine covering politics, current affairs and all aspects of business and trade worldwide. Coverage: 1843-2008
- Nexis Uni (Formerly LexisNexis Academic) This link opens in a new windowNexis Uni features more than 15,000 news, business and legal sources, including U.S. Supreme Court decisions dating back to 1790.
- ProQuest Historical Newspapers This link opens in a new windowProvides full-text searchable access to both U.S. and selected international historical newspapers, including: New York Times (1851-three years ago), Chicago Tribune (1849-1998), Wall Street Journal (1889-2011), Christian Science Monitor (1908-2009), Pittsburgh Courier (1911-2002), Washington Post (1877-2006), New York Amsterdam News (1922-2010), Times of India (1838-2010), Korea Times (1956-2016), Irish Times and Weekly Irish Times (1859-2021), the Chinese Historical Newspapers Collection (1832-1953), the South China Morning Post (1903-2001), and Leftist Newspapers and Periodicals (1845-2015). More recent issues may be available through other databases. Includes advertisements, illustrations, etc. as they were laid out on the original page. Coverage: Varies by publication.
- Readers' Guide Retrospective (1890-1982) This link opens in a new windowIndexes general interest magazines published between 1890 and 1982. Coverage: 1890-1982
- Times Digital Archive (1785-2014) This link opens in a new windowSearchable, full-text, page image access to the Times of London, sometimes called the "world's newspaper of record." Access goes back to the first issue.
Selected Online Primary Source Collections
These are just a few of the possible primary source collections available on the web. Need help finding a specific primary source? Ask me!
- Internet African History SourcebookOn this site historical sources on the history of human societies in the continent of Africa are presented, when available, without making prejudgements about what is "African".
- African Studies Internet ResourcesSince 1997, Columbia University's collection of African Studies Internet Resources has served as the official WWW-Virtual Library guide for African Studies.
- African Online Digital LibraryAODL is an open access digital library of African cultural heritage materials created by Michigan State University in collaboration with museums, archives, scholars, and communities around the world.
- University of Washington Research Guide to Primary and Secondary Sources for African HistoryThis resource list contains a range of resources, some of which are broken down into regional collections. Note that resources with the lock symbol require a subscription. Check with ZSR to determine whether or not we have access.
- Georgetown University Resources for Africa South of the SaharaThis resource list contains a number of primary sources. Note that some resources require a subscription. Check with ZSR to determine whether or not we have access.
- Emory University African Studies Research Guide: Primary SourcesThis site offers a list of quality resource databases, many of which are open access. Note that some resources require a subscription. Check with ZSR to determine whether or not we have access.
- British Library Guide to African Official Government Publications (PDF)Although primarily a list of documents available in the British Library, this list also contains links to official websites of government offices within Anglophone African countries, including South Africa, Zimbabwe, and more.
Tips for Locating Primary Sources
Choose historically appropriate keywords. For example, use "Great War" instead of "World War I" to locate documents discussing the war during and just after it occurred. You may also consider different terms that might have been used to describe the same event from opposing sides or perspectives. Searching for the names of particular people or places may also be effective, but consider how the names might be presented (last name only, or as part of a title) and how country and city names have changed over time.
Think about what types of primary sources might have been produced that would be relevant to your topic; think also about which persons or organizations might have produced materials. Some possible types of sources:
| Books | Photographs and images |
| Magazine and newspaper articles | Cartoons and advertisements |
| Diaries and journals | Movies, videos, and DVDs |
| Memoirs and autobiographies | Audio recordings |
| Interviews | Public opinion polls |
| Letters | Fiction |
| Speeches | Research data and statistics |
| Documents produced by organizations | Documents produced by government agencies, including congressional hearings and census records |
To locate potential primary sources in the library's online catalog, Primo, look for subject headings that contain terms such as diaries, letters, correspondence, autobiography, interviews, or personal narratives following the main heading.
Selected Books
African History Through Sources, 1850-1945 by Call Number: Wilson 1 DT352.7 .A34 2014ISBN: 9781107030893Publication Date: 2014-06-16
African Histories: New sources and new techniques for studying African pasts by Call Number: Wilson 1 DT19 .B75 2012ISBN: 9780136155584Publication Date: 2011-08-03
From the South African Past: Narratives, documents, and debates by Call Number: Wilson 1 DT1709 .W55 1997ISBN: 9780669287899Publication Date: 1996-11-22
Corpus of Early Arabic Sources for West African History by Call Number: Main Stacks - Wilson 1 DT476 .C67ISBN: 0521224225Publication Date: 1981-01-29
African Voices on Slavery and the Slave Trade: Volume 1, the Sources by Call Number: ONLINEISBN: 9780521194709Publication Date: 2013-05-13
