Guides: African History: Find Primary Sources

Primary Sources

What are primary sources?

Primary sources are original documents and objects created at the time being studied, such as diaries, newspaper accounts, letters, governmental records, or drawings. Any record that documents a past event can be considered a primary source.

Keep in mind...

Many of the digitized primary source collections included here are written about, rather than by, African peoples. Be sure to keep this in mind when analyzing these sources.

Newspapers

Gallica: Presse par pays
The digital library of the Bibliothéque nationale de France, it hosts many French newspaper titles from around the world, including several countries in Africa as well as Haiti and Turkey.

Foreign Broadcast Information Service electronic index
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Created by the U.S. intelligence community to benefit policy makers and analysts, FBIS Daily Reports offer foreign views and perspectives on historical events from thousands of monitored broadcasts and publications. Translated into English from more than 50 languages, these comprehensive media reports from around the globe include news, interviews, speeches and editorial commentary. This comprehensive, fully searchable edition of the FBIS Daily Reports covers such topics as political, military and social issues, economics, science and technology for eight world regions from 1941-1996.
International Newsstream (ProQuest)
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Recent news content from outside of the US and Canada. Archives back decades featuring full-text newspapers, newswires, and news sites. Includes The Times (London), The Bangkok Post, El Norte, Financial Times, The Guardian, Jerusalem Post, South China Morning Post, The Daily Telegraph, Asian Wall Street Journal, and the BBC Monitoring series of publications.
Ethnic NewsWatch (ProQuest)
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A current resource of full-text newspapers, magazines, and journals of the ethnic and minority press, providing researchers access to essential, often overlooked perspectives.

National Library of South Africa Digital Collections
This digital collection includes dozens of newspapers such as African Leader, the Basutoland News, the Cape Argus, and more.
The Daily Trust (2014-present)
A privately owned newspaper from Abuja, Nigeria, and one of the largest in the area. The same publisher also produces the Weekly Trust and the Sunday Trust.

Colonial Africa

Antiquarian Maps of Africa
Online exhibit of antiquarian (15th- and16th-century) maps of Africa held at Stanford University.

Empire Online (Adam Matthew)
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Brings together manuscript, printed and visual primary source materials from the past 500 years for the study of 'Empire' and its theories, practices and consequences.
When searching all documents, try filtering by 'Region' to Africa.
Missionary Studies (Adam Matthew)
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These primary sources are a resource for the study of missionary work, educational work, medical work, evangelism, political conflict, and the emergence of indigenous churches. The collections are truly global in scope, with Africa, East and South Asia, Australasia and the Pacific, and the Americas all well-represented. The sources will be of interest to scholars in a range of fields, from missiology to colonial history and anthropology.
Text mining is permitted, but certain conditions apply. Please contact Digital Scholarship Hub

Evangelism in Africa: Correspondence of the Board of Foreign Missions, 1835-1910
The records of the Board of Foreign Missions (BFM) of the Presbyterian Church provide valuable information on social conditions in developing nations and on efforts to spread the gospel during the nineteenth century. Among the missions' responsibilities was the establishment of indigenous churches, educational facilities, hospitals, orphanages, and seminaries. The majority of the material in this collection consists of incoming correspondence from the mission field and outgoing correspondence from the Board headquarters. Other primary sources include diary accounts, sermon manuscripts, receipts of sale, and field accounts.
Egypt: Records of the U.S. Department of State, 1853-1962
This archive covers Egypt from the years before the opening of the Suez Canal through the era of British domination, Egyptian nationalism, and independence. The documents are sourced from the Central Files of the General Records of the Department of State. The records are under the jurisdiction of the Legislative and Diplomatic Branch of the Civil Archives, National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, D.C.
Libya: Records of the U.S. Department of State, 1796-1885
This archive documents the American consulate in Tripoli. Included here are correspondences of Secretary of State James Madison during the Tripolitan War, 1801-1805, between the United States and the piratical North African Barbary States. Handwritten correspondences from Secretary of State William H. Seward in the Lincoln Administration, relating to the opening of the port of New Orleans in 1862, and exchanges from Secretary of State James G. Blaine, in the Garfield Administration, make this a rich resource in U.S. diplomatic history. The collection is sourced from the Central Files of the General Records of the Department of State. The records are under the jurisdiction of the Legislative and Diplomatic Branch of the Civil Archives, National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, D.C.
Morocco: Records of the U.S. Department of State, 1797-1929
This archive reveals more than a century of U.S.-Morocco relations and includes, among various documents, correspondences from U.S. ministers in Tangier and Tetuan. It is sourced from the Central Files of the General Records of the Department of State. The records are under the jurisdiction of the Legislative and Diplomatic Branch of the Civil Archives, National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, D.C.
Grand corpus de littérature de l'Afrique noire
The Great Corpus of French and Francophone literature, from the Middle Ages to the 20th century offers online corpora of literature published by Classiques Garnier Numérique including the Corpus of Francophone literature from Black Africa, from the origins to Independence. In total, more than 14,000 texts can be searched simultaneously; about 300 authors' complete works are represented in this corpus.

Frontier Life : Borderlands, Settlement & Colonial Encounters (Adam Matthew)
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Contains primary source documents around life on the edges of the anglophone world from 1650-1920, covering the British colonial expansion into modern day South Africa. There are also excellent clusters of material relating to the exploration of West Africa and the colonial administration of Lagos.

SlaveVoyages
The SlaveVoyages website is a collaborative digital initiative that compiles and makes publicly accessible records of the largest slave trades in history. Search these records to learn about the broad origins and forced relocations of more than 12 million African people who were sent across the Atlantic in slave ships, and hundreds of thousands more who were trafficked within the Americas. Explore where they were taken, the numerous rebellions that occurred, the horrific loss of life during the voyages, the identities and nationalities of the perpetrators, and much more.

Modern Africa

Confidential Print: Africa, 1834-1966 (Adam Matthew)
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Reproduces the Confidential Print series issued by the British Government between c. 1820 and 1970 and contains important papers generated by the Foreign and Colonial Offices. Documents range from single-page letters or telegrams to comprehensive dispatches, investigative reports and texts of treaties, and circulated to officials in the Foreign Office, to Cabinet and to heads of British missions abroad.
Text mining is permitted, but certain conditions apply. Please contact Digital Scholarship Hub
Africa and the New Imperialism: European Borders on the African Continent, 1870-1914 (Adam Matthew)
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Diaries, journals, sketch books and papers documenting the period of rapid colonial expansion by European powers across the African continent during the late nineteenth and early twentieth century.

European Colonialism in the Early 20th Century: French Colonialism in Africa: From Algeria to Madagascar, 1910-1930
This collection comprises correspondence, studies and reports, cables, maps, and other kinds of documents related to U.S. consular activities. U.S. Consulates were listening posts reporting on the activities of the French colonial government and the activities of the native peoples. Highlights include the beginning of an anti-colonial movement and problems along the Moroccan-Algerian border. Documents include: Algeria, Tunis (Tunisia), French West Africa and the Sahara, French Equatorial Africa (French Congo), French Somali Coast and Dependencies (Somali Coast), Madagascar, and other African islands.
Liberia and the U.S.: Nation-Building in Africa, 1918-1935
This archive consists of correspondence and telegrams received and sent by American diplomats, as well as records of American citizens and companies with relations to Liberia. It carries the story from the end of First World War into the interwar period.
European Colonialism in the Early 20th Century: Italian Colonies in North Africa and Aggression in East Africa, 1930-1939
Italian colonial aspirations and policies mimicked those of other European countries during the modern period. Italian colonial policy during the period 1930-1939 was shaped more by Fascism. Fascist tenets related to governance and social policy was used in the administration and treatment of the African population in Libya, Eritrea, Somalia, and Italian East Africa. This collection comprises correspondence, studies and reports, cables, maps, and other kinds of documents related to U.S. consular activities. U.S. Consulates were listening posts reporting on the activities of the Italian colonial governments and later the mandate authorities, and the activities of the native peoples.
Struggles for Freedom: Southern Africa (JSTOR)
The 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. It brings together materials from various archives and libraries throughout the world documenting colonial rule, dispersion of exiles, international intervention, and the worldwide networks that supported successive generations of resistance within the region.

Apartheid South Africa (Adam Matthew)
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Makes available British government files from the Foreign, Colonial, Dominion and Foreign and Commonwealth Offices spanning the period 1948 to 1994.

These previously restricted letters, diplomatic dispatches, reports, trial papers, activists’ biographies and first-hand accounts of events give unprecedented access to the history of South Africa’s apartheid regime. The files explore the relationship of the international community with South Africa and chart increasing civil unrest against a backdrop of waning colonialism in Africa and mounting world condemnation.
This resource is in five sections: 1948-1966, 1967-1975, 1976-1980, 1981-1988 (Resistance, Sanctions and Reform), and 1989-1994 (Negotiation, Liberation and Democracy).

Text mining is permitted, but certain conditions apply. Please contact Digital Scholarship Hub

Liberation Movements in Africa and African America
Composed of FBI surveillance files on the activities of the African Liberation Support Committee and All African People's Revolutionary Party; this collection provides two unique views on African American support for liberation struggles in Africa, the issue of Pan-Africanism, and the role of African independence movements as political leverage for domestic Black struggles.

World Heritage Sites. Africa (JSTOR)
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World Heritage Sites: Africa links visual, contextual, and spatial documentation of African heritage sites.

Africana Poster Collection (Northwestern)
These posters represent a sampling (approximately 2300) of our growing collection of over 5000 Africana posters housed at the Melville J. Herskovits Library of African Studies. The subjects covered here include politics, health, religion, liberation struggles, art exhibitions, and social issues. Over 500 posters are available digitally.
Africana Historic Postcard Collection (Library of Congress)
The African Section of the Library of Congress’ African and Middle Eastern Division has amassed a unique collection of more than 7000 historical photographic postcards documenting an important visual record of Africa and its people during the historically intensive years of European colonialism, from 1895 to 1960. Almost 1300 are available digitally.

African Writers Series (ProQuest)
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Includes over 250 volumes of fiction, poetry, drama and non-fictional prose, including works by Ama Ata Aidoo, Steve Biko, Buchi Emecheta, Nadine Gordimer, Bessie Head, Doris Lessing, Nelson Mandela, Dambudzo Marechera, Christopher Okigbo, Okot p'Bitek and Tayeb Salih.

African Activist Archive
The African Activist Archive at Michigan State University is preserving and making available online the records of activism in the United States to support the struggles of African peoples against colonialism, apartheid, and social injustice from the 1950s through the 1990s. Find historical materials, personal remembrances, interviews with activists, and an iternational directory of collections deposited in libraries and archives.

Africa Commons: Black South African Magazines (Coherent Digital)
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Black South African Magazines brings together over 50,000 pages of extremely rare, yet historically significant magazines, written and targeted specifically for Black African audiences. Covering 1953-73, the writings cover major historical events, such as the Defiance Campaign, and prominent figures like Winnie Mandela, Kwame Nkrumah, and Steve Biko.
Amnesty International Archives : a Global Movement for Human Rights. (Adam Matthew)
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Amnesty International Archives presents the archival records of the International Secretariat of Amnesty International from the period of 1961-1991. Includes Africa as a regional focus.
Church Missionary Society Periodicals (Adam Matthew)
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Documenting missionary work from Anglican Church Missionary Society (CMS) from the nineteenth to the twenty-first century, the CMS' periodicals include news, journals and reports offering a unique perspective on global history and cultural encounters. Includes periodicals from the Mid-Africa Ministry, and a particular medical focus as CMS medical journals encompass the work of medical missionaries and mission hospitals in all fields, including Africa.
MacMillan Cabinet Papers, 1957-1963 (Adam Matthew)
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Macmillan Cabinet Papers, 1957-1963, sourced exclusively from The National Archives, the UK government's official archive, enables students and researchers better to understand the workings of British Government. Includes coverage of the 'Wind of Change' speech, February 1960, and independence for Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Uganda, Kenya, Zambia, Malawi and Zanzibar;
the Sharpeville Massacre, March 1960; and apartheid in South Africa.
Women in the National Archives (Adam Matthew)
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Reproduces original documents covering the campaign for women's suffrage in Britain, 1903-1928 and the granting of women's suffrage in colonial territories, 1930-1962, including Cape Colony, Nigeria, and Tanganyika.
Africa Commons: History and Culture (Coherent Digital)
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An index, search engine and preservation tool for more than 500,000 openly available books, magazines, and other primary sources. This database includes newspapers, films, journals, magazines, and more.
Decolonization : politics and independence in former colonial and commonwealth territories. (Gale Primary Sources)
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Brings together material from within former British colonies and Commonwealth nations, alongside some from former French and Portuguese territories, to provide valuable primary source material created for local audiences by local actors during a period of enormous global change.
Decolonization: Politics and Independence in Former Colonial and Commonwealth Territories brings together material from within former British colonies and Commonwealth nations, alongside some from former French and Portuguese territories, to provide valuable primary source material created for local audiences by local actors during a period of enormous global change. After the Second World War, decolonization movements around the world gathered pace, and from the small port colony of Aden to the vast Indian sub-continent, new borders were set, and new nations built.

African Diaspora

Colonial State Papers (ProQuest)
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A resource for scholars of early American history, British colonial history, Caribbean history, maritime history, Atlantic trade, plantations, and slavery.

Coverage: 1574 - 1757

Colonial Caribbean: Settlement, Slavery, and Empire, 1624-1832
This first module stretches from the turbulent years of early British settlement to the rise of the abolition movement, amongst the fierce rivalries with the Spanish, Danish, French and Dutch in the Caribbean region. 'Settlement, Slavery, and Empire, 1624-1832' documents the rise of absentee landlords, and traces the rise and decline of the slave trade, from the regular transportation of enslaved peoples through trade and shipping, to the rise of the abolition movement.
Slave Trade in the Atlantic World
Slave Trade in the Atlantic World charts the inception of slavery in Africa and its rise as perpetuated on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean, placing particular emphasis on the Caribbean, Latin America, and United States. International in scope, this collection was developed by an international editorial board with scholars specializing in North American, European, African, and Latin American/Caribbean aspects of the slave trade.

African Diaspora: Cultural, Social and Political History, 1860-present (Alexander Street)
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This database allows scholars to discover the migrations, communities, and ideologies of the African Diaspora through the voices of people of African descent. With a focus on communities in the Caribbean, Brazil, India, United Kingdom, and France, the collection includes never-before digitized primary source documents, including personal papers, organizational papers, journals, newsletters, court documents, letters, and ephemera.
Black Drama - 1850 to the Present (Alexander Street Press)
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Contains approximately 1200 plays from the mid-1800s to the present by more than 200 playwrights from North America, English-speaking Africa, the Caribbean, and other African diaspora countries. Some 440 of the plays are published here for the first time, including a number by major authors. The plays themselves have been selected using leading bibliographies and with the editorial advice of James V. Hatch, co-author with Errol G. Hill of A History of African American Theatre and a leading expert in this area.
African American Communities (Adam Matthew)
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Focusing predominantly on Atlanta, Chicago, New York, and towns and cities in North Carolina this resource presents multiple aspects of the African American community through pamphlets, newspapers and periodicals, correspondence, official records, reports and in-depth oral histories, revealing the prevalent challenges of racism, discrimination and integration, and a unique African American culture and identity.
Text mining is permitted, but certain conditions apply. Please contact Digital Scholarship Hub

Printed Primary Sources

Sources of African History Book Series
Oxford University Press publishes a series of books titled Fontes Historiae Aricanae (Sources of African History), some of which are available through the McGill Library as eBooks. Click "Libraries Worldwide" to see other books in the series that you can request via Interlibrary Loan.

Try finding more primary sources in physical or eBook format by searching the catalogue using subject headings. Subject headings are a system of categorizing books that are similar in theme and content. Try subject heading searches like the following:

su: Africa history sources
su: North Africa history sources
su: Congo (Democratic Republic) history sources

Films

Black Film Archive: Africa
Black Film Archive is a living register of Black films. In its current iteration, it showcases Black films made from 1898 to 1989 currently streaming. This link leads to African films.
NFB Abroad: Africa on Screen
Discover a selection of National Film Board (Canada) films made across Africa that illuminate the continent and its people, arts and culture, in addition to Canadian intersections with Africa over the years.

Africa Commons: Southern African Films and Documentaries (Coherent Digital)
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With content spanning the 1900s to the early 2000s, Southern African Films and Documentaries offers streaming access to more than a century of African history, politics, and culture. Five film types are represented: propaganda, newsreels, documentaries, feature films, and interviews.
Africa Commons: History and Culture (Coherent Digital)
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This database includes several film collections, such as:
-Journeyman Pictures: Southern African Films and Documentaries
-Villon Films: Southern African Films and Documentaries
-Moi University: Kenyan Heritage Video Series

Liaison Librarian

Kristen Howard

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Subjects: Classical studies, History, Indigenous studies

African History