Maps of Africa


  • Africa From a Continent of States to a Continent of Cities (2012) -- Poster Map
    (African Studies Centre, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands)
  • Africa Maps WorldMap (Center for Geographic Analysis, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts)
    ***Requires registration.  A repository of geographic data on Africa, historical and contemporary, using WorldMap open software. The site offers the possibilities of free access to the software and collaborative projects.
  • African Coastal & Marine Atlas (ODINAFRICA Program, International Oceanographic Data and Information Commission, United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization, Paris, France)
    This web site --under construction--includes continental and coastline maps--with potential for regional, country, and local areas, various graphs, and numerical data. "The purpose of the African Marine Atlas is to identify, collect and organize available geospatial datasets into an atlas of environmental themes for Africa..."
  • Africapolis: étude de l'urbanisation en Afrique de l'Ouest, 1950-2020, Update (2015) = Urbanization dynamics in West Africa par François Moriconi-Ebrard, Dominique Harre, and Philipp Heinrigs. Revised ed. (Paris: OECD, Sahel and West Africa Club, 2016)
    A geostatistical study first produced in 2008 by a team of researchers at SEDET--Université Paris Diderot for AFD and revised by OECD scholars.
    --See also, Africapolis.org (2019): interactive maps & data
  • Afriterra, The Cartographic Free Library (Boston, Massachusetts)
    The website features information about the collection in Boston and a small set of "Zoomifyer" online maps. These digital images were produced in collaboration with the Digital Imaging Group at Harvard College Library, Cambridge, Massachusetts. "The AFRITERRA Foundation is a non-profit Cartographic Library and Archive assembling and preserving the original rare maps of Africa [c. 1480 A.D.--1900 A.D.] in a definitive place for education and interpretation."
  • American Museum of Natural History -- American Museum Congo Expedition 1909-1915: Map Gallery (New York)
    "The maps in this gallery reflect the development of European knowledge of African geography from 1562 through 1940. They are reproduced with the permission of the New York Public Library and the British Library." See also: Home page of the web site.
  • Animated Atlas of African History, 1879-2002 (Prof. Nancy Jacobs et al., Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island)
    "...The map displays information in several ways: color-coding of territories reflects political changes; symbols show conflicts as isolated events; bar graphs give demographic and economic data, and labels show country names. Users may click on the diamonds in the bottom center to reveal or hide these features. Timeline controls on the bottom-right advance or reverse the chronology. The polygonal keys expand when the mouse is placed over them and can be dragged to any location on the map to match colors with those on the key. For the period after 1960, the labels also contain bar graphs showing changes in population and per capita GDP over time."
  • Mapping Africa's Endangered Archaeological Sites and Monuments (University of Cambridge, UK)
    "The MAEASaM project is working to identify and document endangered archaeological heritage sites across eight African countries, [Botswana, Ethiopia, Kenya, Mali, Senegal, Sudan, Tanzania, & Zimbabwe] dated from the Palaeolithic/Early Stone Age to the 20th century, then share this information to help protect them. Using a combination of remote sensing, records-based research and selective archaeological surveys, the team is building comprehensive and up-to-date records of site types and distributions, which will be made available in an open access Arches geospatial relational database tailored for different interest groups and stakeholders."
    --Resources: maps and videos on digitization
    --MAEASaM newsletter
  • Atlas of Natural and Agronomic Resources of Niger and Benin (L. Herrmann et al., "Special Research Programme 308: Adapted Farming in West Africa," University of Hohenheim, Germany)
    At this site, one can read online or download the data. There are full text summaries, map images, and analytical reports. See also, the French version.
  • Bibliography for Research at Columbia on "Maps and Power in Modern African History" (Compiled by Dr. Yuusuf S. Caruso, African Studies Librarian, Columbia University)
  • Bibliothèque Nationale de France: Gallica: la bibliothèque numérique sur l'Afrique (Paris)
    Gallica is an open access digital library which includes a wide selection of downloadable, online travellers' accounts, colonial documents, ***maps, illustrations and other images, and publications, including journals, covering the entire African continent ...and other parts of the world.
  • Boston University Libraries -- African Studies Map Collection (Boston, Massachusetts)
    This web page provides access to detailed lists of holdings organized by publication date, location, and title.
  • Comparative Bantu Online Dictionary: Bantu Maps and Mapmaker (Department of Linguistics and the Institute of Cognitive Studies, University of California, Berkeley; via CNRS, France)
    "The CBOLD project was started in 1994 by Larry Hyman and John Lowe to produce in Berkeley a lexicographic database to support and enhance the theoretical, descriptive, and historical linguistic study of the languages in the important Bantu family."  
  • Cornell University Geoscience Information System: Cornell Morocco Project (Institute for the Study of Continents and the Department of Geological Sciences, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York)
    "The Morocco project is a collaborative effort between Cornell University and institutions in Morocco and Spain to improve the understanding of the geodynamics of the western Mediterranean (Alboran) region and the intracontinental development of the Atlas system, using geophysical and geological methods. On these pages you will find information about the research conducted including abstracts and figures (and maps) from recent investigations." See also, the larger Cornell GIS web site which includes several pages on research on the Middle East and North Africa, plus new and old maps.
  • The Decolonial Atlas: Africa  (USA) Blog
    "'A volunteer-run project'...The Decolonial Atlas is a growing collection of maps which, in some way, help us to challenge our relationships with the land, people, and state. It’s based on the premise that cartography is not as objective as we’re made to believe."
  • Ethnologue Country Index -- Africa (From Ethnologue (Online), Summer Institute of Linguistics, Inc., Dallas, Texas, 1999-)
    For each country in Africa, there is a listing and description of languages, and a map of languages.
  • FAO Country Profiles and Mapping Information System = Profils FAO de pays et système d'information cartographique
    Select a country = Sélectionner un pays: This "retrieval tool" is the latest offering on the FAO website. It consists of summarized presentations for each country around the world, including maps and tables, with detailed information on the environment and the economy based on FAO research.
  • The Atlas of the Gambia (Dr. Malanding Jaiteh, Center for International Earth Science Information Network, Columbia University)
    Last update in December 2008: A website with basic geographical information, maps, some statistics, etc."The Atlas of the Gambia project is a public education project aimed at providing authoritative data and statistics on biophysical, social, cultural and economic dimensions of life in the Gambia."
  • Historical Maps of Ghana, West Africa, and the African Continent Foundation course in African dance drumming (2003). (C. Ladzekpo, University of California, Berkeley; via Richard Hodges)
  • Humanitarian OpenStreet Map Team--Our Work (Washington, DC)
    Select locations in Africa: "When major disaster strikes anywhere in the world, HOT rallies a huge network of volunteers to create, online, the maps that enable responders to reach those in need...Or, assists people to create their own maps for socio-economic development and disaster preparedness."
    --See especially: Community Development--Malawi, Tanzania, and Uganda ; and, Disaster Mapping--Central African Republic; Ebola in West Africa; Ivory Coast; Somalia.
  • Institut de recherche pour le développement: Service Cartographie (IRD - anciennement ORSTOM, Bondy, Ile-de-France)
    • Un site en construction. Sur ce site, on peut apprendre les projets et les publications du laboratoire, y compris quelques extraits des réalisations récentes: cartes du Togo (sur les indices de dégradation des sols) et de l'Afrique central et de l'ouest (sur les précipitations moyennes annuelles); et plusieurs atlases: sur les migrations ouest-africaines et sur les pêcheries thonières tropicales, et un atlas de la ville Sokodé du Nord-Togo; de plus, en cours de réalisation: un atlas de l'Extrême-Nord Cameroun.
    • Sphaera: Base de données de documents cartographiques
  • Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre -- Maps Norwegian Refugee Council. (Geneva, Switzerland)
    • IDMC Home Page (General)
      ***Search for individual country reports to find maps. As of April 1, 2014, the map library section is no longer available.
      --See also: UN Maps below
  • Library of Congress, American Memory: American Colonization Society Collection: Maps of Liberia, 1830-1870 (Washington, DC)
    A searchable online collection of twenty maps of Liberia from various sources, including the American Colonization Society, 'organized in 1817 to resettle free black Americans in West Africa.'
  • Malawi. National Statistical Office: Atlas of social statistics. (2002) (Zomba, Malawi)
  • Maps of World.Com -- Africa (San Jose, California, USA)  Commercial site
  • Other Map Sellers on the Internet
  • MISR: Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer: Search Gallery of Satellite Images (NASA--Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California)
  • Le Monde Diplomatique -- Maps on Africa (Paris, France)
  • National Geographic--Maps  (The National Geographic Society, Washington, DC)
    Commercial site: search for maps of Africa.
  • National Geographic's MapMaker Interactive (The National Geographic Society, Washington, DC)
    This colorful site offers an online abridged world atlas and interactive features.
  • National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency GeoNames Search United States Board on Geographic Names Official Repository. (Bethesda, Maryland)
    --See also: World Gazeteer on Africa below.
  • The Nile River Basin -- Maps (The Nile Basin Initiative, Entebbe, Uganda)
  • Northwestern University Library: 16th--20th Century Maps of Africa Digital Collections (Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois)
    "This site features digital copies of 113 antique maps of Africa and accompanying text dating from the mid 16th Century to the early 20th Century. All scanned maps are authentic and originally collected by the Melville J. Herskovits Library of African Studies at Northwestern University."
  • Other Maps of the African Continent: Historical & Contemporary
  • Perry Castañeda Library, University of Texas
  • Princeton University Library: "To the Mountains of the Moon: Mapping African Exploration, 1541-1880." (2007) (Princeton, New Jersey)
    Exhibition curated by John Delaney, Rare Books & Special Collections.
  • SEDAC--Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center -- Map Gallery (Center for International Earth Science Information Network, The Earth Institute, Columbia University, New York)
    Selected maps of data on poverty, environment, and other development issues in Africa and the rest of the world. "SEDAC is one of the Distributed Active Archive Centers (DAACs) in the Earth Observing System Data and Information System (EOSDIS) of the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration. SEDAC focuses on human interactions in the environment."
  • Slavery Images--A Visual Record of the African Slave Trade and Slave Life in the Early African Diaspora: Maps  (Virginia Humanities and the University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia)
  • Stanford University Libraries: Maps of Africa Online Exhibit Humanities Digital Information Service Luna Insight Service (Stanford, California) 
    "The maps --578 images-- from the Norwich Collection of Maps of Africa and Its Islands as well as the maps from the Antiquarian Maps Collection relating to Africa can be viewed online."
  • The True Size of...Africa (James Talmage and Damon Maneice, USA)
    An app displaying comparative sizes of countries and continents, as a corrective to the widespread use of the Mercator projection map of the world.
    --See also: "The True Size of Africa" by Kai Krause.
  • United Nations Maps of Africa
  • United States Geological Survey (USGS, Earth Resources Observation Systems Center, Sioux Falls, South Dakota)
  • University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign: Maps of Africa to 1900 University Library, Library Digital Services and Development (Urbana, Illinois)
    A searchable digital map collection based on the bibliography Maps of Africa to 1900: A Checklist of Maps in Atlases and Geographical Journals in the Collections of the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign (By Thomas J. Bassett & Yvette Scheven, Urbana: Graduate School of Library and Information Science, 2000).
  • Volcanoes of the World-By Country Volcano World. (Oregon State University, Corvallis, Oregon)
    An inventory list of volcanoes and volcano study programs, with photographs and maps.
  • WHKMLA Historical Atlas -- History of Africa (2005) (Zentrale für Unterrichtsmedien im Internet e.V., Merzhausen, Germany)
    A collection of bright, pastel-colored maps of the continent and individual countries since 19th century onwards (colonial territories and post-colonial era)...based on standard historical sources and other African map websites.
  • World Gazetteer on Africa (Stefan Helders, Köln, Germany)
    A set of basic political boundary maps of countries, regional divisions, cities, population figures, and a few other basic statistical indicators.
    --See also: National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency's GNS above.
  • World Resources Institute--Maps and Data  (Washington, DC)
    • Data and maps for African watersheds and forest zones.
    • Congo Basin Forest Atlases (2005-)
      "WRI works in the following Congo Basin countries: Cameroon, Central African Republic, Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, and Gabon."
  • WWW Virtual Library for Map History / History of Cartography: Images of Early Maps
    --Africa (& the Islands)
    (Tony Campbell, The British Library, London, UK)