African Studies

CRL African Studies collections contain a wide variety of newspapers, monographs, archival collections, serials, government publications, and dissertations, spanning four centuries and covering virtually every country in Africa. Significant country strengths include South Africa, Nigeria, Senegal, Ethiopia, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.CRL also supports the Cooperative Africana Microform Project (CAMP) in its preservation and digital activities (see the related CAMP collection guide for additional resources of interest).

Africa and the New Imperialism (Adam Matthews) uncovers the history of European colonisation across the African continent in the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth century through rare printed works, diaries and journals, correspondence, maps, photographs, and film footage.

Confidential Print, Africa (1834-1966) provides electronic access to the United Kingdom's Colonial, Dominion and Foreign Offices' confidential correspondence relating to Africa between 1834 and 1966. This resource provides a searchable collection of scores of official documents and maps covering almost the entire period of European conquest and colonisation of Africa (with the exception of Egypt).The Confidential Print: Africa, 1834-1966 is Official British government correspondence concerning Africa from the Foreign Office and the Colonial Office.

Egypt : records of the U.S. Department of State (1853-1962) 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,

Empire online includes the following sections: I. Cultural contacts, 1492-1969 -- II. Empire writing and the literature of empire -- III. The visible empire -- IV. Religion and empire -- V. Race, class, imperialism and colonialism, 1607-2007.

European colonialism in the early 20th century. French colonialism in Africa : from Algeria to Madagascar, 1910-1930 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.

European colonialism in the early 20th century. Political and economic consolidation of Portuguese colonies in Africa, 1910-1929 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 Portuguese colonial government and the activities of the native peoples. Highlights include the beginning of an anti-colonial movement and the industrialization and economic exploitation of Portugal's African colonies.

European colonialism in the early 20th century : German colonies to League of Nations mandates in Africa 1910-1929 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 German colonial governments and later the mandate authorities, and the activities of the native peoples. Includes dispatches from U.S. Consulates regarding activities in Togoland, Cameroon, German South West Africa [present-day Namibia], and German East Africa [present-day Rwanda, Burundi, parts of continental Tanzania, and Mozambique].

European colonialism in the early 20th century : Italian colonies in North Africa and aggression in East Africa, 1930-1939 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. Highlights include the Italo-Ethiopian War and the activities of American expatriates in the conflict and conflicts between Italian, British and French colonial governments in Northeast Africa. Source Library: U.S. National Archives.

Evangelism in Africa : correspondence of the Board of Foreign Missions, 1835-1910 provides 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.

Frontier life : borderlands, settlement & colonial encounters helps us to understand existence on the edges of the anglophone world from 1650-1920. Major themes included are settlement development, law and order, violence, expeditions and exploration, relations with indigenous peoples, trade and commerce, death and disease, missionaries and religion, women's history, military matters, mining and gold rushes, settler governance, contested boundaries, and agriculture and livestock. The vast majority of the material is unique and unpublished manuscript in the form of correspondence, diaries, land records, and business records.

The King and the people in Morocco, 1950-1959 : U.S. State Department records on the internal affairs of Morocco provides essential and unique documentation on a wide variety of topics relating to Moroccan internal affairs from 1950 to 1959. These topics include: U.S. support for nationalists, Istiqlal Party terrorism, the Arab League's anti-French attitude, French exchange controls in Morocco, French settler concerns of spread of Algerian civil war, Pan-Arabism Berber support of French administration and army, the installation of French-puppet Sultan, economic and financial reforms, the exodus of Moroccan Jewry, Islamic society and Berberism, decolonization, development of the agricultural sector, industrial development, immigration and emigration, development of the textile industry, foreign trade and investment, and Marshall aid to Morocco.

Liberation movement in Africa and African America is 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.

Liberia and the U.S. : nation-building in Africa, 1918-1935 archive serves as a companion to Liberia and the U.S.: Nation-Building in Africa, 1864-1918. It consists of correspondence and telegrams received and sent by American diplomats, as well as records of American citizens and companies with relations to Liberia. Documentation covers the export of agricultural produce (such as coffee, palm oil, vegetable fibres, peat, and peat moss), details on quarantine restrictions from various U.S. agencies, such as the Department of Agriculture and the Department of Commerce, as well as records of advertising media in Africa, such as newspapers and trade publications in French and Portuguese. The archive also contains correspondences with the U.S. Department of Commerce from American companies exporting to Liberia; and details on the International Exposition of American Import Trade, held in August 1930; among various other papers of interest to historians of world trade and west Africa.

Morocco : records of the U.S. Department of State, 1797-1929 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.

Photography includes images from Britain, Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Americas, Photography assembles collections of photographs, photograph albums, photographically illustrated books and texts on the early history of photography from libraries and archives from across the globe.

Daily Observer Digital Archive is a collection including over 2,400 issues of this well-known, independent, national newspaper of Liberia. "The Daily Observer is notable for its coverage of the modern history of Liberia—including the Liberian Civil War and through its current phase of development."

Voyage en Afrique is a digital collection including a wide selection of documents (maps of peoples and kingdoms, colonial history, physical map, antique maps, nautical maps, full text books, journal articles), primarily in French, covering the entire African continent in the 18th and 19th century. A whole section of the website is dedicated to the history of French colonial policy in Africa (1830-1945).