Home

Africana Library Catalogs & Archives

• Africana Library Catalogs On-Line
  • Libraries with major Africana collections in North America
  • Libraries with major Africana collections in Europe and Australia
  • Libraries in West, Eastern and Southern Africa
    
    
• Africa Focus: Sights and Sounds of a Continent (University of Wisconsin-Madison Libraries and African Studies Program, Madison, Wisconsin)
  This website offers downloadable images, sound files, and other materials on Africa drawn from contributions by UWM faculty over the last 20-30 years.
  
  
• Africa Research Central: a clearinghouse of African primary sources. Compiled by Kathryn Green and Susan Tschabrun, California State University, San Bernadino, California.
  "Research in African primary sources--be they records, manuscripts, personal papers, photographs, or artifacts--has posed challenges to the research community since the dawn of African Studies as a discipline. Scholars outside Africa struggle to learn about the holdings, services, and clearance procedures of African repositories, while scholars within Africa must cope with the fact that much of the African primary source heritage is housed beyond the borders of Africa. Africa Research Central has as its goal to centralize and constantly update information about the institutions with African primary source collections, so as to facilitate international research in African Studies."
  
  
• African Activist Archive Project (African Studies Center, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan)
  This website includes a "directory of African activist archives" in the U.S. "[The project] seeks to preserve for history the record of activities of U.S. organizations and individuals that supported African struggles for freedom and had a significant collective impact on U.S. policy during the period 1950-1994."
  
  
• ACA2K--African Copyright and Access to Knowledge (Johannesburg, South Africa)
  • "[ACA2K]...is probing the relationship between national copyright environments and access to knowledge in African countries. This project, supported by Canada's IDRC and South Africa's Shuttleworth Foundation, and managed by the Wits University LINK Centre in Johannesburg, began in October 2007 with legal researchers in five African countries (Egypt, Ghana, Senegal, South Africa and Uganda) preparing initial 'environmental scans' of the copyright contexts in their countries."
  • Country Nodes
  • Resources
  
  
• AFRINUL: African Newspapers Union List. A project of the Cooperative Africana Microform Project. (The Center for Research Libraries, Chicago, Illinois)
  Currently, a searchable database of holdings in North America. "Initially, this database ... will consolidate holdings information for collections in North America, but will later expand to include holdings in Africa, Europe, and elsewhere."
  
  
• African Posters from the Melville J. Herskovits Library, Northwestern University (Evanston, Illinois)
  "The Melville J. Herskovits Library of African Studies at Northwestern University maintains a comprehensive collection of posters published in Africa and elsewhere. The posters provide a unique resource to carry on research in a broad range of disciplines by consulting the visual image created by governments (independent and colonial) and international agencies, as well as political, labor, social, religious, educational and cultural organizations. In the first phase of this web site, 77 posters, selected as a representative sampling of the collection, are available for searching and viewing."
  
  
• African Presidential Archives and Research Center at Boston University (Boston, Massachusetts)
  The website provides general information about the center program, news about events, highlights from the visits by African presidents and others, a State of Africa Annual Report, and resource links on 13 African countries.
  
  
• Africana Digitization Project: Electronic Facsimile, University of Wisconsin--Madison Libraries
  A pilot project offering free access to searchable online copies of published sources for West African history with a focus on the Atlantic Slave Trade era. The titles include:
  -- Almada, Andre Alvares de, Brief Treatise on the Rivers of Guinea, c. 1594.
  -- Alvares, Manuel, Ethiopia Minor and a Geographical Account of the Province of Sierra Leone.
  -- Barbot's West African Vocabularies of c. 1680.
  -- Fage, J.D., A Guide to Original Sources for Precolonial Western Africa Published in European Languages.
  -- Jesuit Documents on the Guinea of Cape Verde and the Cape Verde Islands, 1585-1617.
  -- Jones, Adam. Raw, medium, well done: a critical review of editorial and quasi-editorial work on pre-1885 European sources for Sub-Saharan Africa, 1960-1986 (1987)
  -- Lovejoy, Paul E. (ed.), Africans in bondage: studies in slavery and the slave trade: essays in honor of Philip D. Curtin...(1986)
  
  
• West African Arabic Manuscript Database (Prof. Charles C. Stewart and Bruce Stewart Hall, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, Illinois)
  A catalog of West African Arabic manuscript collections from Kano--Nigeria at Northwestern University (Evanston, Illinois), from Ségou (Mali) at La Bibliothèque nationale de France (Paris), in Boutilimit and Nouakchott--Mauritania, Timbuctu--Mali, and Niamey--Niger. The ANMS database is searchable in English or in Arabic.
  
  
• Archives Hub: a national gateway to descriptions of archives in United Kingdom universities and colleges (University of Manchester, UK)
  
  
• Archives nationales de la France. IREL: Etats général des fonds Le Centre des Archives d'Outre Mer. (Aix-en-Provence, France)
  
  
• Archives Nationales du Sénégal (Dakar, Sénégal)
  
  
• Arquivo Histórico de Moçambique (Maputo, Mozambique)
  • IV Reunião Internacional de História de Africa -- "Africa e Dinâmicas no Periodo Colonial", de 8 a 11 de Setembro 2004 (Universidade Eduardo Mondlane, Maputo, Mozambique)
  • 17a Conferência Bi-Anual da ESARBICA sobre Arquivos, Sociedade e Boa Governação, de 22 a 26 de julho de 2003 (Maputo, Mozambique)
  
  
• Arquivo Histórico Ultramarino (Portugal) (via Instituto de Investigação Científica Tropical, Lisbon, Portugal)
  This site --in Portuguese-- provides descriptions of the collections and contact information only. From the main IICT site, under "TDD", "SIARQ", and "Bases de Dados", limited searching is possible.
  
  
• Die Bildbestand der Deutschen Kolonialgesellschaft in der Universitätsbibliothek Frankfurt am Main: Colonial Picture Archive (Frankfurt, Germany)
  • "The project...encompasses safety filming of 50,000-70,000 historical photographs from German colonial history."
  • Suchen = Search
  
  
• Black Arts Research Center (Nyack, New York)
  General information about the center, its director -- John Gray, and related links. "Founded in 1989, the Black Arts Research Center is an archival resource center dedicated to the documentation, preservation and dissemination of the African cultural legacy. Resources include some 2300 recordings, cassettes and videotapes, 1300 books and journals, 500 clippings files and a bibliographic database with more than 50,000 entries. These materials now offer one of the richest resources ever on the Black presence in the performing arts."
  
  
• Brooklyn College Library: The Robert L. Hess Collections on Ethiopia and the Horn of Africa -and- the Continent of Africa (Brooklyn College, The City University of New York)
  Very brief description and contact information. Search the CUNY--Brooklyn College online catalog.
  
  
• CAMP: Cooperative Africana Microform Project (Center for Research Libraries, Chicago)
  • "The Cooperative Africana Microform Project (CAMP), founded in 1963, is a joint effort by research libraries throughout the world and the Center for Research Libraries (CRL) to promote the preservation of publications and archives concerning the nearly fifty nations of Sub-Saharan Africa and to make these materials in microform available to researchers."
  • CRL's Foreign Newspapers (general search)
  • AFRINUL: African Newspapers Union List (Pilot) Project above.
  • AFRINUL--Current Electronic Newspapers of Sub-Saharan Africa
  • CAMP/Title VI National Resource Centers for African Studies and the National Archives of Senegal (1995--), see the detailed report or the summary.
  
  
• Centre Aequatoria - Centre de Recherches Culturelles Africanistes (Bamanya, Mbandaka, R. D. Congo ; Michael Meeuwis, Université d'Anvers, Belgium)
  Le site Web est en français ou en anglais. "Le Centre Aequatoria est situé à Bamanya, 10 km de Mbandaka, où le fleuve Zaire traverse la ligne de l'équateur. Il consiste en une bibliothèque, des archives, un périodique (6000 livres et 3000 volumes de périodiques). La bibliothèque est spécialisée en linguistique bantu et histoire coloniale."
  
  
• Chatham House -- Library. formerly The Royal Institute of International Affairs. (London, UK)
  General information and select lists of recently acquired publications.
  
  
• Connecting-Africa (2008-) (African Studies Centre, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands)
  "...a service that provides access to African research information produced in the Netherlands and elsewhere: details of Africa experts affiliated to Dutch and Belgian organizations; details of Dutch and Belgian development-related organizations, universities and research institutes; titles of published research on Africa in the Netherlands and elswhere; digital resources on Africa (full-text of publications, images and sound) in about 55 institutional repositories.
  
  
• DATAD: Database of African Theses and Dissertations = La base de donnée sur les thèses et mémoires africaines (Association of African Universities, Accra, Ghana)
  • A pilot project currently under way by the AAU, following a feasibility study and a series of meetings. See also: The Project for Information Access and Connectivity (PIAC).
  • List of participating institutions
  
  
• DISA: Digital Innovation South Africa (University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, South Africa)
  • Originally called "Digital Imaging Project of South Africa": The site offers a free access to selected periodicals and other publications focusing on the socio-political history of South Africa, particularly the struggle for freedom during the period from 1950 to the first democratic elections in 1994.
    
  • "DISA: insights of an African model for digital library development" by Dale Peters and Michele Pickover (2001) D-Lib magazine. (Online) ; Vol. 7, no. 11 (November 2001).
  
  
• Duke University Libraries: John Hope Franklin Collection of African and African American Documentation Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections Library (Durham, North Carolina)
  
  
• L'Ecole du Patrimoine Africain (Porto-Novo, République du Bénin)
  "L'EPA est un établissement universitaire de formation et de recherche spécialisé dans la conservation et la médiation du patrimoine culturel mobilier et immobilier à vocation régionale." Sur ce site, on peut apprendre les activités de l'école et les actualités culturelles, participer dans un forum, et trouver une liste de liens aux pages d'accueils de musées africaines et d'autres organisations.
  
  
• Emory University: Voyages -- The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database (Atlanta, Georgia)
  The site provides free access to selected data on thousands of slave ship voyages; plus scholarly essays and maps. "[The database] is the culmination of several decades of independent and collaborative research by scholars drawing upon data in libraries and archives around the Atlantic world. The Voyages website itself is the product of two years of development by a multi-disciplinary team of historians, librarians, curriculum specialists, cartographers, computer programmers, and web designers, in consultation with scholars of the slave trade..."
  
  
• ESARBICA: Eastern and Southern Africa Regional Branch, International Council on Archives (via International Council on Archives, Paris, France)
  • This site offers very basic information on the organization and the programme form the most recent conference in July 2009. "ESARBICA established in 1969 in Kenya, ESARBICA brings together individuals and institutions concerned with the creation, use, preservation and management of recorded information in Eastern and Southern Africa."
  
  
• Ethiopian National Archives and Library (Addis Ababa)
  General information about collections and services; contact information; plus:
  -- National bibliography of Ethiopia. (Online): 2005-2006 -- Addis Ababa: Ethiopian National Archives and Library Agency ; Ethiopia, Ministry of Culture and Tourism.
  
  
• Manuscrits Ethiopiens -- Inventaire des Bibliothèques et des Catalogues (janvier 2008). Par Anaïs Wion, Marie-Laure Derat et Claire Bosc-Tiessé. (Ménestrel--medievistes sur l'internet, sources, travaux, references en ligne, Paris) en format PDF
  
  
• France. Archives de: Centre des Archives d'Outre Mer. (Aix-en-Provence, France)
  
  
• France. Guide de bibliothèques à Paris et en régions dont les fonds présentent un intérêt pour la recherche sur l'Afrique (mai 2009) Ressources documentaires ; 2. -- Paris: Centre d'études africaines, L'Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, 2009. 29 pages en format PDF
  
  
• Harriet Tubman Resource Centre on the African Diaspora: SHADD--Studies in the History of the African Diaspora--Documents. York/UNESCO Nigerian Hinterland Project. (Department of History, York University, Toronto, Canada)
  "SHADD publishes manuscripts [some online] in Arabic, French, Portuguese, English, Spanish and other languages relevant to the history of the African diaspora."
  See also, the Home Page.
  
  
• Howard University: SARAP--South African Research and Archival Project (Washington, DC)
  The website includes the online guides to records on deposit at Howard University and to a small selection of collections in South Africa, such as those at the University of Fort Hare. "[In 2001...] This project began as an effort to identify, locate and describe documentation about the diasporic relationship between blacks in South Africa and the United States."
  -- See also: Moorland Spingarn Research Center below.
  
  
• Images of Colonial Africa (circa 1900-1914) by Laura Neva Collins of the Africa Inland Mission (Billy Graham Center Archives, Wheaton College, Wheaton, Illinois)
  "The images displayed here are one woman's view, mostly of Kenya, at the beginning of the twentieth century, probably before 1914. They depict the country's society, customs, economics, and geography, as well as its growing Christian church, the missionary community assisting in that endeavor, and Collins herself. Also included are some photographs from Cameroon, the Belgian Congo and Uganda."
  
  
• Indiana University Libraries: Liberian Collections Project (Bloomington, Indiana)
  This website provides information about the project, searchable inventory lists for several collections, and related information. 'The collections include historical and ethnographic documents, newspapers, government publications, books, journals, dissertations, maps, slides, negatives, photographs, audio & video tapes, etc.'
  
  
• JICPA: Joint IFLA/ICA Committee for Preservation in Africa = Comité conjoint IFLA/CIA pour la préservation en Afrique (2003). Sponsored by the International Federation of Library Associations and the International Council on Archives. (Nairobi, Kenya)
  General contact information and news of conferences, surveys, and projects of major African archives and national libraries.
  
  
• Kenya National Archives (Kenya National Archives and Documentation Service, Nairobi, Kenya)
  General information, lists of services, news about activities and publications, guides to the collections and -- under construction: searchable databases.
  
  
• Kenya National Archives Microfilm Collection at Syracuse University Library -- Guides
  (Syracuse, New York)
  The list of document titles and microfilm reel numbers; plus visitor information. "Syracuse University is one of two repositories of the microfilm collection of the KNA, produced in the 1960's through a joint grant with the National Science Foundation, the government of Kenya, and the Program of Eastern African Studies of Syracuse University (no longer in existence). The other collection is owned by the Center for Research Libraries in Chicago [See: Cooperative Africana Microform Project]. The documents include 157 microfilm reels...and a large number of microfilm reels of newspapers, journals, and papers of assorted associations."
  
  
• Libraries of Timbuktu (via University of Oslo, Norway)
  This web site presents information about the efforts under way to preserve the libraries of Timbuktu and their contents; with relevant links. See also, Mamma Haidara Memorial Library Project...below.
  
  
• The Library of Congress: "The State of Arabic Manuscript Collections in Nigeria" (2007) Report of a Survey Tour to Northern Nigeria, March 3-19, 2007. (Dr. Angel Batiste, Area Specialist, Sub-Saharan Africa; Washington, DC)
  --See also: Saving Nigeria's Islamic Manuscript Heritage below
  
  
• Mamma Haidara Memorial Library Project, Timbuktu, Mali
  • Ford Foundation Report: "Secrets of the Sahara" (Summer 2003) (Christopher Reardon, Ford Foundation, New York)
  • The Library of Congress: "Ancient Manuscripts from the Desert Libraries of Timbuktu, Mali" Exhibition, July--September 2003. (Washington, DC)
  
  
• Memórias de África et do Oriente, Biblioteca Digital (Universidade de Aveiro, Centro de Estudos sobre África e do Desenvolvimento--Universidade Técnica de Lisboa, e Fundação Portugal-África, Lisboa, Portugal)
  • "...it's main aim [is the] creation of an online library of historical data available in archives, documentation centers, libraries and institutions, private organizations and individuals involved...in African countries with Portuguese as the national language (PALOP)...[and] digitalization of rare works or those works that are difficult to access..."
  • Digital collections
  
  
• Moorland-Spingarn Research Center, Howard University (Washington, DC)
  "[The Center] is recognized as one of the world's largest and most comprehensive repositories for the documentation of the history and culture of people of African descent in Africa, the Americas, and other parts of the world. As one of Howard University's major research facilities, the MSRC collects, preserves, and makes available for research a wide range of resources chronicling the Black experience."
  
  
• Musée royal de l'Afrique centrale = Royal Museum for Central Africa (Tervuren, Belgique)
  • Inventory of The Stanley Archives (426 p.) Format PDF.
  
  
• National Archives of Nigeria (Abuja)
  The site includes detailed information on all branches and archival finding aids for major collections around the country.
  
  
• National Archives of South Africa (Pretoria)
  The site offers general information about the NASA and access to the various databases of the NAAIRS--National Automated Archival Information Retrieval System.
  
  
• National Archives of Zambia (Lusaka)
  This site features general information for researchers/visitors, a few sample photos and other images, and recent news about the archives.
  
  
• Saving Nigeria's Islamic Manuscript Heritage (2008-2009) (Michaelle Biddle, Head, Preservation Services, Wesleyan University Library, Middletown, Connecticut)
  A report on a 2008 research tour of Islamic manuscript collections in Northern Nigeria.
  --See also: "Modibbo Ahmadu Fufore collection" report and "Conservation in a Box: a Primer"
  
  
• Northwestern University, Melville J. Herskovits Library--Special Collections (Evanston, Illinois)
  • Arabic Manuscripts from West Africa: The Umar Falke Collection, The John Paden Collection, The John Hunwick Collection, and The University of Ghana Collection
    -- See also: West African Arabic Manuscripts Database below. (University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign)
  • Posters from the Collections: Search and view 366 selected items.
  • The Winterton Collection of East African Photographs: 1860-1960
    An inventory and description of the collection of 6,500 photographs and sample images.
  
  
• Princeton University Library, Manuscript Division: George Padmore Collection, 1933-1945 (Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey)
  
  
• Rhodes University Library (Grahamstown, South Africa)
  • RU Library Home Page
    
    
  • The Cory Library
    "The Library's archival holdings are particularly strong in the fields of Southern African history, including Xhosa history, mission and church history, the history of education and mining, commercial and agricultural history. It has a strong collection of material on Lesotho. Since the initial deposit of Sir George Cory's collections there has been a particular focus on the history of the Eastern Cape, and on Grahamstown itself."
    
    
  • Electronic Theses and Dissertations Initiative
    As of July 2008, 366 Masters' and Ph.D. theses --mostly in the sciences and social sciences-- are available in full text, PDF format as part of the Rhodes e-Research Repository.
    -- Search for other South African electronic theses & dissertations collections at the University of Johannesburg, U. of Pretoria, UNISA, & Wits.
  
  
• The Say Brother Collection -- WGBH Boston (Boston, Massachusetts)
  The website of the archive of a local public television program (1968-1982), featuring a searchable program directory and an extensive digital gallery of sample film excerpts. "Say Brother is WGBH's longest running public affairs television program by, for and about African Americans, and is now known as Basic Black. Since its inception in 1968, Say Brother has featured the voices of both locally and nationally known African American artists, athletes, performers, politicians, professionals, and writers..."
  
  
• The South African History Archive (SAHA) (University of the Witwatersrand, Braamfontein, South Africa)
  SAHA was formed in 1988 by the United Democratic Front and the Congress of South African Trade Unions to collect & preserve documents from the struggle against apartheid during the 1980s.
  
  
• United Kingdom, The National Archives (Kew, Richmond, Surrey)
  • Search the collections
  
  
• UNESCO--United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (Paris, France)
  • La Route de l'Esclave = Slave Route Project, 1994-2005
    Sur ce site, on peut trouver les informations à propos de ce projet, des publications, des activités du Comité scientifique, quelques cartes sur les routes internationales de la traite négrière, et aussi, une carte, un exemplaire d'un bulletin (PDF), et des liens choisis.
  • UNESCO Slave Trade Archives Project (Memory of the World)
    This site offers general information about the project and links to related web sites. "The Slave Trade Archives Project, initiated by UNESCO, is concerned with the access to and preservation of original archive materials relating to the slave trade."
  • Tradition orale et archives de la traite négrière (2001) sous la direction de Djibril Tamsir Niane.
    -- Paris, France: UNESCO, c2001. 143 pages en format PDF
  
  
• University of Cape Town Libraries -- Manuscripts & Archives (Cape Town, South Africa)
  "This department [at UCT] has an extensive collection of original research material relating to the political, social, cultural and economic history of the Western Cape. Subjects covered include art, music, education, literature and language, botany, politics and architecture." The web site includes online guides to the collections, see especially:
  -- Finding Aids
  -- Subject Guides
  -- Black Sash Archival Collection
  -- South West African People's Organization, 1961-1991. PDF format
  
  
• University of Florida Libraries: Africanist Archives (Dan Reboussin, Gainesville, Florida)
  This site offers bibliographies and general information about some of the unique archival collections at the George Smathers Libraries, University of Florida: including those on Chad, Northern Nigeria, Dem. Rep. of Congo (ex-Zaire), Rwanda, Burundi, Malawi, Zimbabwe, and South Africa.
  
  
• University of Fort Hare, Howard Pim Library (Alice, South Africa)
  • Established in 1918: "The valuable Africana collection ... houses rare books and unique collections such as the Steve Biko Letters, and the Lennox Papers. Significant landmarks in the growth of the Library include the reincorporation of the Federal Seminary Library into the main campus Library, as well as the integration of important liberation movement archives such as those of the African National Congress.
  • Liberation Movement Archives: Solomon Mahlangu Freedom College Records; UFH Records; Personal records of Oliver Tambo, Govan Mbeki, Walter Sisulu, Lionel Forman, and others.
  • UFHL Collections
  
  
• University of Kwa Zulu-Natal: The Campbell Collections -- Guides to Collections and Catalogs (Durban, South Africa)
  The web site for various historic manuscript collections and libraries....including The Killie Campbell Africana Library.
  
  
• University of London Research Library Services -- Archives and Manuscripts Online Catalogue (London, UK)
  
  
• University of London, School of Oriental and African Studies Library: Swahili Manuscripts Project (London, UK)
  • The website describes the on-going project and offers an online catalog of the collection. "The library of the School of Oriental and African Studies holds the largest public collection of Swahili manuscripts in Britain. The collection includes more than 250 manuscripts dating from the 1790s to the 1970s, contained in the papers of William Taylor, Alice Werner, William Hichens, Wilfred Whiteley, Jan Knappert and Yahya Ali Omar. The library also holds microfilms of the manuscripts that were deposited by JWT Allen at the University of Dar es Salaam."
  • Selected images from manuscripts and audio files
  
  
• University of Nigeria, Nsukka -- Research Documents (Nigeria)
  The university scans and makes available on the Internet hundreds of seminar and conference papers, journal articles, selected books by UNN faculty, and UNN theses (primarily Masters' theses in various fields and some doctoral dissertations in the fields of Law or The Arts, from the 1980s to the present).
  
  
• University of the Witwatersrand Library--Historical Papers Department (Johannesburg, South Africa)
  "The University established Historical Papers in 1966 in order to retrieve the rich historical heritage belonging to all South Africans. Today we house over 3000 separate collections of historical, political and cultural importance." The web site includes information about its collections, including: Papers of Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe (1924-1977) and the Pan Africanist Congress ; South African History Archive; and the Records of the Anglican Church of Southern Africa.
  
  
• West African Arabic Manuscript Project & Database (Prof. Charles C. Stewart and Bruce Stewart Hall, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, Illinois)
  A catalog of West African Arabic manuscript collections from Kano--Nigeria at Northwestern University (Evanston, Illinois), from Ségou (Mali) at La Bibliothèque nationale de France (Paris), in Boutilimit and Nouakchott--Mauritania, Timbuctu--Mali, and Niamey--Niger. The database is searchable in English or in Arabic.
  
  
• Zanzibar Department of Archives, Museums and Antiquities (Tanzania)
  This official site features general information for the visitor/researcher, with brief descriptions of the collections and a few photos.