Africana Librarianship, Book Dealers, Projects & Publishers
Awards, Book Fairs, Exhibitions, Festivals, & News
- Africa Book Club (Olney, Maryland, USA)Founded in 2010, an international online newsletter, with book reviews and a forum about Africa's literary past, present, and future, Africans in the diaspora, and related issues; plus an online bookstore.
- Africa's 100 Best Books (Zimbabwe International Book Fair, Harare; via Columbia University)
- General announcement and contact information. All nominations have been received, a short list drawn up by a jury, and the 100 titles were announced on February 18, 2002.
See a copy of the list of 100. - H-Africa Discussion Forum, March 2002 (H-Net, Humanities and Social Sciences Online, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan)
- African Studies Centre, Leiden University: Web Dossier on "Africa's 100 Best Books of the 20th Century" (2002) (Leiden, The Netherlands)
- General announcement and contact information. All nominations have been received, a short list drawn up by a jury, and the 100 titles were announced on February 18, 2002.
- AALBC.com: The African American Literature Book Club (New York)"Founded in 1997, by Troy Johnson, AALBC.com is a widely recognized source of author profiles, book recommendations, active discussion boards, writer resources, informative articles, videos, and book reviews."
--See especially: author profiles ; list of Black-owned book stores in the United States ; and, book reviews - African Poetry Book Fund (University of Nebraska, Lincoln)"Promotes and advances the development and publication of the poetic arts...in Africa. APBF administers 3 poetry book prizes annually, the Sillerman First Book Prize for African Poetry, The Glenna Luschei Prize for African Poetry , and in collaboration with Brunel University , the Brunel University African Poetry Prize.
- African Studies Association of the United States: Book Awards (via Rutgers University, New Brunswick,
New Jersey)- All ASA Awards
- Children's Africana Book Awards (via Africa Access Review, Silver Spring, Maryland)
- Conover-Porter Awards (Africana bibliography and reference)
- Gretchen Walsh Book Donation Award
- ASA Best Book Award (Best scholarly work on Africa published in English since 1965)
- Aké Arts & Book Festival, October 20-22, 2020, Lagos, Nigeria (Ikeja, Lagos State, Nigeria)"The Book Buzz Foundation is a non-governmental organisation...we organise a yearly (six-day) festival of arts and books..."
--See especially: 2019 Programme - Arthur Alfonso Schomburg
- "Arthur 'Afroborinqueño' Schomburg" by Robert Knight (1995) Civil rights journal. (via Robert Knight's Earthwatch)A very brief biographical sketch.
- Arthur A. Schomburg Papers, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, The New York Public Library (New York)
- "The Negro Digs Up His Past" by Arthur A. Schomburg (1925) Excerpt from: Harlem: Mecca of the New Negro. The Survey Graphic. Harlem Number. Vol. VI ; no. 6 (March 1925) (via Scribd)
- "Arthur 'Afroborinqueño' Schomburg" by Robert Knight (1995) Civil rights journal. (via Robert Knight's Earthwatch)
- The Caine Prize for African Writing (London, UK)
- A prize given annually for the best short story written by an African author in English. The home page includes information about the most recent prize winner and short-listed stories.
- About the AKO Caine Prize
- 2023 Caine Prize -- "A Soul of Small Places." By Mame Bougouma Diene and Woppa Diallo.
--Read the winning story - 2022 Caine Prize -- "Idza Luhumyo for ‘Five Years Next Sunday’," July 18, 2022
--Read the story "Five Years Next Sunday." - 2021 Caine Prize -- Meron Hadero and "The Street Sweep." (2018)
-- Read the story here.
- 2020 Caine Prize -- "Irenosen Okojie for "Grace Jones", July 27, 2020
--Read the story "Grace Jones" by Irenosen Okojie - 2019 Caine Prize -- "Skinned" by Lesley Nneka Arimah, Nigeria
--Read the story "Skinned" by Lesley Nneka Arimah - 2018 Caine Prize -- "Fanta Blackcurrent" by Makena Onjerika
--Read the story - 2017 Caine Prize -- "The Story of the Girl Whose Birds Flew Away" by Bushra al-Fadhil
--Read the story
- 2017 Caine Prize Short List
- Previous Winners
- 2016 Caine Prize -- "Memories we lost" by Lidudumalingani
- 2015 Caine Prize -- "The Sack" by Namwali Serpell
See: "Also shortlisted" to find the full text of "The Sack" In: Africa39 (Bloomsbury, London, 2014);
13 pages in PDF format - 2014 Caine Prize -- "My Father's Head" by Okwiri Oduor
- 2013 Caine Prize -- "Miracle" by Tope Folarin
--See the full text of In Transition vol. 109, 2012. - 2012 Caine Prize -- "Bombay's Republic" by Babatunde Rotimi
- 2011 Caine Prize -- "Hitting Budapest" by NoViolet Bulawayo
--Published in The Boston Review, vol 35 - 2010 Caine Prize -- "Stickfighting Days," by Olufemi Terry -- via The New Internationalist (London); originally appeared in Chimurenga, vol. 12/13.
- BBC News: "Nigerian scoops African 'Booker'," 2009 Caine Prize Winner E.C. Osondu (July 7, 2009)
- "Waiting" by E.C. Osondu (October 2008) Guernica. (Online): a magazine of art & politics. -- New York: Guernica Inc., 2008-
- 2007 short listed author Uwem Akpan's "My Parent's Bedroom." The New Yorker. (Online). June 12, 2006.
- Guardian Unlimited Books: "Afolabi wins African Booker" (July 6, 2005)
- Brian Chikwava and "Seventh Street Alchemy" in Writing Still. -- Harare: Weaver Press, 2003. via Bellagio Publishing Network.
- 2002 Caine Prize Winner: "Discovering Home" By Binyavanga Wainaina --via Binyavanga Wainaina Archive ; published in 2006 by Kwani Trust (Nairobi); originally appeared in G21: The world's magazine (London) in 2001.
- La CENE Littéraire (Switzerland)"Le CErcle des amis des écrivains Noirs Engagés a pour buts la promotion et la défense des littératures produites par les écrivains africains et afrodescendants et mettant en exergue une cause humaine, sociétale, idéologique, politique, culturelle, économique de l’Afrique ou de sa diaspora."
--Veuillez voir surtout: Prix Littéraire Les Afriques
- Le Festival du Livre Africain de Marrakech, du 8 au 11 février 2024 (Marrakech, Maroc)
- 21st Annual Ghana International Book Fair, August 8-11, 2024, Accra, Ghana
The theme is “Books and Culture in the Era of Artificial Intelligence." - Hans Zell Publishing (Scotland, UK)"...these new Web pages provide some background about our past activities, details of backlist titles still in print, reviews of recent titles, as well as some other documents. Also included are links to articles and papers by Hans Zell on topics relating to publishing and book development in Africa, as well as an extensive links section to organizations, groups and associations that are active and/or supportive of African publishing and the ‘book chain’."
- Harlem Book Fair 2024, New York (via QBR.Com, New York)"The nation's largest African American literary event celebrating family literacy, community empowerment, and community cooperation." This annual book fair is usually held in the Harlem section of the Borough of Manhattan in New York City. The program includes outdoor exhibits, panel discussions, and other events. Since 2020, the fair has been held online!
- 2023 Jozi Book Fair--"Read! Remake the World", October 27-29, 2023, Newtown Park, Johannesburg, South Africa Co-sponsored by the National Library of South Africa and Bohlale ba Basebetsi, Khanya College--Education for Liberation.
- Kwani Trust (2018) (Nairobi, Kenya)The archived web site for the popular literary magazine Kwani?, with excerpts, interviews, photos, news, and announcements about writers' workshops and other literary events.
- The 25th Lagos Book and Art Festival, November 13-19, 2023 (Nigeria)"Since its birth in 1999, LABAF has manifested as a yearly ritual for top-notch publishers, adherent book lovers, literary activists and artists of all hues, attracting huge patronage from members of the public across ages and divergent persuasions."
- Lagos International Poetry Festival (Nigeria)The 3rd Lagos International Poetry Festival--"Bridges from Walls", November 1-5, 2017. The site includes the official program and highlights from the events.
- The Library of Congress: "Ancient Manuscripts from the Desert Libraries of Timbuktu, Mali" Exhibition, July--September 2003. (Washington, DC)
- See also: The Libraries of Timbuktu (via University of Oslo, Norway)
- 23rd Nairobi International Book Fair, September 28--October 2, 2021 (Kenya)
- Nigeria International Book Fair, 21st Edition, May 8-10, 2024, UNILAG, Akoka, Lagos State, Nigeria (Nigeria Book Fair Trust, Ikeja, Nigeria)
- Open Book Festival, September 6-8, 2024, Cape Town, South Africa
"...at The Fugard Theatre is an annual literary festival, the first of which happened in 2011. - 12th Annual Schomburg Center Black Comic Festival, April 26-27, 2024 (New York)"Each year, the Schomburg Center’s Black Comic Book Festival brings creators, illustrators, writers, and independent publishers together with thousands of collectors, blerds, and nerds for two days of programming and activities."
- Wole Soyinka Prize for Literature in Africa (The Lumina Foundation, Lagos, Nigeria)
- 2020 Storymoja Festival, February 28-March 1, 2020, Nairobi, Kenya"The Storymoja Festival started out as a small gathering of 300 people in 2007, and has grown to a vibrant gathering of the greatest minds in Kenya and beyond, celebrating ideas and culture...Books are brought to life through poetry, storytelling, lively discussions with local and international artists, music, workshops, film and much more."
- Takam Tikou: L'actualité de l'édition jeunesse en Afrique et dans le monde arabe La joie par les livres. (Centre National du Livre pour Enfants, Paris, France)
Book Dealers & Publishers
Inclusion in the following list does not imply endorsement by Columbia University Libraries.
- Africa World Press and Red Sea Press (Lawrenceville and Trenton, New Jersey)An African-run, multinational publishing house: academic and trade books published in the USA on Africa and the African diaspora.
- AALBC.com--The African American Literature Book Club: List of Black-Owned Book Stores in the United States (New York)
- African Books Collective Ltd. (Oxford, UK; GreenNet Design)'ABC is a unique organization. It is not a conventional commercial distributor. It was founded in 1989 by 17 African publishers who established and own the company. The publishers established ABC's offices and warehouse in the UK as their exclusive overseas distributor; and the location of the operation reflects the fact that the markets we are accessing are the English-language markets in the UK, Europe, the US and elsewhere. Further publishers have joined since the start of trading in 1990, and the total membership is now 42 publishers from 12 African countries.'
- African Writers Trust (London, UK ; Kampala, Uganda)"Established in 2009, African Writers Trust is a non-profit body, which coordinates and brings together African writers in the Diaspora and their counterparts on the continent to promote mutual sharing of skills and other resources, and to foster knowledge and learning between the two groups."
- AMALION Publishing (Dakar, Senegal)
- APNET--African Publishers Network (Accra, Ghana)"The African Publishers Network, established in 1992 [in Harare, Zimbabwe], brings together national publishers associations and publishing communities to strengthen indigenous publishing throughout Africa.."
--See also: APNET on Facebook - Afrilivres -- livres d'Afrique et des diasporas (Africultures, Paris, France)<< ...depuis le 12 novembre 2002, Afrilivres présente tous les titres non-scolaires publiés par les éditeurs d'Afrique francophone regroupés en association >>.
- Bookcraft, Ltd. (Ibadan, Nigeria) Since 1988
- Books LIVE (Cape Town, South Africa)A general book news and events portal for South Africa and the wider world.
- Clarke's Bookshop -- Cape Town, South Africa--See also: Clarkes' Africana & Rare Books
- CODESRIA--Council for the Development for Social Science Research in Africa: Publications (Dakar, Senegal)
- East African Educational Publishers, Ltd. (Nairobi, Kenya)
- Fountain Publishers, Ltd. (Kampala, Uganda)
- Ghana Book Publishers' Association (Accra) Since 1976
- Hans Zell Publishing (Scotland, UK)"Our publishing activities have now ceased...these new Web pages provide some background about our past activities, details of backlist titles still in print, reviews of recent titles, as well as some other documents. Also included are links to articles and papers by Hans Zell on topics relating to publishing and book development in Africa, as well as an extensive links section to organizations, groups and associations that are active and/or supportive of African publishing and the ‘book chain’."
- L'Harmattan (Paris)L'Harmattan est une majeure maison d'édition dans le domaine des études africaines.
- HEBN Publishers Plc. (Ibadan, Nigeria) Since 2006
- Hogarth Representation (David Hogarth, UK; Oleg Semikhnenko, Canada)A major North American and UK distributor for books from Africa (also, Russia and Poland).
- Indian Ocean Books (Larry W. Bowman, Storrs, Connecticut)A bookseller specializing in books, maps, and prints -- used and antiquarian -- from and about the Indian Ocean region.
- Karthala (Paris)"Les éditions Karthala publient des ouvrages sur l'Afrique et l'ocean Indien, le Monde arabe et l'Islam, la Caraïbe, l'Amérique latine et l'Asie et, plus largement, sur les questions Nord-Sud."
- Kenya Publishers' Association (Nairobi)
- Map Sellers on the Internet
- MapStudio (South Africa) (Johannesburg, Cape Town, and Durban, South Africa)
- Omni Resources -- Africa Maps (Burlington, North Carolina, USA)
- Maisons D'Edition Africaines (via Lire les femmes ecrivains et les littératures africaines, Dr. Jean-Marie Volet, University of Western Australia)A listing of and very brief information about publishing houses in French-speaking West Africa (plus Baobab Books in Zimbabwe) which specialize in publishing African women writers -- fiction and nonfiction.
- McBlain Books: Antiquarian Booksellers (Hamden, Connecticut)
- Mkuki na Nyota Publishers (Dar es Salaam, Tanzania) "Mkuki na Nyota Publishers is an indigenous Book Publishing Company established in 1991, in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. With a background of 18 years as the General Manager of the Tanzania Publishing House, Walter Bgoya established Mkuki na Nyota Publishers in response to the general absence of independent scholarly publishing in Tanzania. Concentrating initially on scholarly books and general titles, MnNP have since then developed a diverse list of scholarly titles in the social sciences, fiction, children's books and have recently branched out to publish high quality art books."
- Monde du Livre: "L'édition en langues africaines chez les éditeurs d'Afrique francophone," April 2013, by Danusia Richer. (Université d'Aix-Marseille, France) --via OpenEdition
- Mother Tongue Editions: promoting literacy, writing, and publishing in African languages (West Newbury, Massachusetts)"...a non-profit organization dedicated to the promotion of African languages and cultures, in all of the forms in which they are manifested. Initially involved uniquely in publishing, today MTE produces and distributes a variety of culturally significant representations of language and traditional artisanry."
--Publications for sale - New Africa Books (Cape Town and Johannesburg, South Africa)"New Africa Books (Pty) Limited is a new company formed as a result of the merger of David Philip Publishers, Spearhead Press and New Africa Educational Publishing. Prior to this merger, David Philip Publishers and New Africa Education Publishing were separate companies owned by New Africa Media, a subsidiary of New Africa Investments Limited, which owns several radio, newspaper, magazine and television production companies. Spearhead was operating as an imprint of David Philip Publishers."
- Nigerian Publishers' Association (Ibadan) Since 1965
- Nouvelles Editions Ivoiriennes--NEI: Catalogue de la Maison d'Edition (Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire)
- L'Oiseau Indigo--Facebook (Arles, France; Grand-Bassam, Côte d'Ivoire)"L'Oiseau Indigo diffuse les catalogues d'une trentaine de maisons d'édition principalement basées en Afrique de l'Ouest, au Maghreb et au Moyen Orient."
- PASA--Publishers' Association of South Africa (Wynberg, South Africa)
- Peppercorn Books -- African Languages (Snow Camp, North Carolina)A US-based bookseller and publisher specializing in adult education, but also offers selected African language materials.
- Les Éditions Phoenix (Detroit, Michigan, USA; Montréal, Canada; Dakar, Sénégal)"...est une société d'édition internationale créée par une équipe de Sénégalais et d'Américains et basée aux Etats-Unis...Les Editions Phoenix ont en effet acces au plus grand reseau mondial de distribution occidentale (Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Borders, PickaBook et les autres grands magasins d'Angleterre et du Canada)."
- Présence Africaine -- Catalogue, Liens, et Evénements Spéciaux (Paris, France)Depuis 1949, cette maison d'édition offrait "un espace dans lequel, romanciers, nouvellistes, conteurs, essayistes, poètes et penseurs du Monde Noir peuvent enfin s'exprimer et voir circuler leurs oeuvres."
- Red Sea Press (See above: "Africa World Press and Red Sea Press")
- Soumbala.Com--Archive (2014) (Paris, France)Remarquez: ce librairie a fermé ses portes en octobre 2014. Depuis 2009, c'était un boutique en ligne pour les livres rares et les nouveaux titres sur l'Afrique.
- Tanzania Educational Publishers, Ltd. (Dar es Salaam)
- Tsehai Publishers & Distributors (Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles, California)Tsehai specializes in publications about Ethiopia and by Ethiopian authors...including reprints of classic works of Ethiopian history.
- University Press Plc (Ibadan, Nigeria) Since 1978
Organizations and Conferences
- AFLIB-L: African Libraries Listserv (National Library of South Africa, Pretoria)A web page describing the purpose of the listserv and how to subscribe. "The African Libraries Listserve (Aflib-L) is a forum for African libraries and their colleagues who seek to overcome the professional isolation which presents one of the barriers to library development in Africa. It is an unmoderated discussion list."
- Africana Librarians Council: A Coordinate Organization of the African Studies Association of the United States. (via Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts)"The Africana Librarians Council (ALC), founded in 1957 as the Archives-Libraries Committee of the African Studies Association (ASA). Members of ASA whether they are librarians, archivists or documentalists working with materials from and about Africa or scholars interested in the preservation of or access to Africana may join the ALC. The ALC meets twice yearly, during the fall annual meeting of the African Studies Association and in the spring at the home institution of a member. These meetings coincide with those of the Cooperative Africana Materials Project (CAMP), a consortium whose member institutions purchase or film research materials in cooperation. The ALC and its activities (up until 2014) were reported in the Africana Libraries Newsletter, a publication of Indiana University Libraries, Bloomington, Indiana. On behalf of the ALC Cataloging Committee, Charles Riley of Yale University writes and publishes a blog, "Cataloging Africana" since 2011.--See also: Older ALC website (via University of Pennsylvania)
- African Speculative Fiction Society (Nigeria ; USA)"The African Speculative Fiction Society is an informal organization of African writers, editors, comic and graphic artists, and filmmakers in the fields of speculative fiction such as fantasy, science fiction, stories that draw on traditions, horror and philosophical fiction."
--See especially: List of Published African SFF -and- Nommo Awards - "Arabic Script Manuscripts in Africa," 12-16 September 2021, Remotely over Zoom, Bibliotheca Alexandrina, Alexandria, Egypt (Co-sponsored by The Islamic Manuscripts Association, the Bibliotheca Alexandrina, and the Thesaurus Islamicus Foundation)This site --available in Arabic, English, and French-- includes the full programme -and- video recordings, with English interpretation, of all the presentations!
- Asian, African, and Middle Eastern Section of the Association of College and Research Libraries of the American Library Association. (Chicago, Illinois)"[Created in 1969]...AAMES represents librarians and specialists in the fields of Asian, African, and Middle Eastern area studies and acts for the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL), in cooperation with other professional groups, in those areas of library service that require knowledge of Asian, African and Middle Eastern languages and cultures."
--AAMES newsletter - Association for the Development of Education in Africa -and- The Global Book Alliance: Report on the Regional Workshop for African Book Industry Stakeholders, January 22-25, 2018, Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire. Published with support from the United States Agency for International Development. 44 pages in PDF format.
- ANA: Association of Nigerian Authors (Lagos, Nigeria)
- ASBAD: Association Sénégalaise des Bibliothécaires, Archivistes et Documentalistes (Dakar, Sénégal)
--Veuillez voir aussi: ASBAD sur Facebook - Bellagio Publishing Network (Oxford, UK)"BPN is an international solidarity network for publishing and book development in the south. For over a decade...a key information and knowledge provider, an enabling collaborative network, and a forum for discussion on issues of indigenous publishing, with special emphasis on Africa and the Caribbean."
- Black Caucus of the American Library Association (BCALA) Home Page"Founded in 1970, the BCALA was organized to promote the development of library and information services for African Americans and other people of African descent."
- Book Aid International: African Countries "Where We Work" (London, UK)
- CODESRIA--Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa = Conseil pour le développement de la recherche en sciences sociales en Afrique (Dakar, Sénégal)
- CODESRIA is 'a pan-African, non-governmental organisation, set up in 1973. Its constituencies are African research institutes, social science faculties of African universities as well as professional organisations. It has an observer status and a collaboration agreement with the Organisation of African Unity (OAU).'
- Publications and communications, including CODESRIA online journals: CODESRIA bulletin. (Online) --and-- TOCs and excerpts from Africa development. (Online)
- Bibliographies thématiques
- Catalog of Theses Sponsored by CODESRIA, 1998 to 2009
- Conferences on Electronic Publishing and Dissemination, 2004-2008The web site offers full text copies of most of the papers (PDF format) presented at these workshops.
- DISSAnet--Development of Information Science in South Africa (Pretoria, South Africa)The web site features general information about the project and an online library of DISSAnet, SCECSAL, and WWW application conference proceedings---downloadable in PDF format, and a bibliography of references.
- EBAD--École de Bibliothécaires, Archivistes et Documentalistes, Université Cheikh Anta Diop:
Cinquantenaire EBAD--Colloque international 2017 : Les sciences de l’information documentaire au service de la recherche, de la formation, de l’intégration et du développement durable." du 14 au 16 novembre 2017 (Dakar, Sénégal) - ESARBICA--Eastern and Southern Africa Regional Branch (International Council on Archives, Paris, France)
- This site offers very basic information on the organization, a recent list of active individual members, and links to member institutions. "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."
- Ethiopia Reads (Addis Ababa, Ethiopia; via Denver, Colorado)"[Since 1998] Ethiopia Reads mission is to promote a reading culture in Ethiopia by connecting children with books...Ethiopia Reads opened Shola Children's Library, the country's first free library for children which now houses more than 15,000 books." Other programs include the Awassa Reading Center and Mobile Donkey Library, School Library Development, a Publishing Program, and the Annual Children's Book Week.
- Etonnants Voyageurs, Festival International du Livre et du Film, novembre 2008, Bamako, Mali -- Les profils des écrivains-participants. (Saint-Malo, France)Sur ce site, on peut rechercher par le mot-clé "Bamako" pour trouver les profils des écrivains qui participent aux festivals entre 2001 et 2006.
--Veuillez voir aussi: Festival 2010: Café littéraire -- Images, Sons et Vidéos - ICADLA-1: First International Conference on African Digital Libraries & Archives. 1-3 July 2009, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia Sponsored by the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa ; via WireDSpace, Wits Institutional Repository environment on DSpace, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa
- IBBY SA--International Board on Books for Young People South Africa Formerly "South African Childrens' Book Forum" (Howard Place, South Africa)
- IFLA-International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions--Africa Section (Florida, Pretoria, South Africa)
- IFLA newsletter Africa Section. (Online) -- Pretoria, South Africa: IFLA Regional Office Africa; The Hague, The Netherlands: IFLA, 2001- --ISSN: 0850-9891
- Strategic Plan, 2008-2009
- IFLA -- Conference Proceedings (The Hague, The Netherlands)
- IFLA Annual Conferences -- Home Page
- "Libraries without borders: navigating towards global understanding," -- 74th IFLA General Conference and Council, 10-14 August 2008, Quebec, Canada
Selected papers in PDF format:-- "Globalization a disservice to human development in Africa: the impact of ICT" by Juliano Kabamba (Central University, Free State, South Africa)
-- "Globalization and African Libraries: The challenge of self-discovery in a digital world" by Benedict Oladel (University of Ibadan, Nigeria)
-- "Globalization challenges of medical education library services in Uganda" by Alison Kinengyere, Makerere University, Uganda)
-- "Strategies for continuing professional development of LIS faculty in Sub-Sahara Africa" by Cortez, Britz, & Kigongo-Bukenya (Univ. of Tenn., Univ. of Wisc., Makerere Univ.)
-- "Document delivery services enhance access to information resources in remote Uganda" by Maria Musoke (Makerere University, Uganda)
-- "Attracting students into library and information science programmes in develoing countries: the Nigerian experience" by Zakari Mohammed (Ahmadu Bello University, Nigeria)
-- " La formation d'aide-bibliothècaires au Rwanda..." par Muhebera Bizimana (Kigali Institute of Education, Rwanda)
-- "Afrique de l'ouest: enjeux et stratégies pour aller vers la société de l'information" par Djibril Ndiaye (OIT, Dakar, Sénégal)
-- "Current state of government publishing and access to government information in Nigeria" by Angel Baptiste (Library of Congress, Washington, DC)
-- "Learning from the past: mass communication and access to information in Malawi, 1964-1994" by Patrick Mapulanga (University of Malawi)
-- "Hindering factors to access and usage of government libraries in Kenya" by Nerisa Kamar (Egerton University, Kenya) - "Libraries for the future: progress, development and partnerships" -- 73rd IFLA General Conference and Council, 19-23 August 2007, Durban, South Africa
- "Libraries for Life : Democracy, Diversity, Delivery" -- 68th IFLA Council and General Conference, August 18-24, 2002, Glasgow, Scotland: Programme
Selected papers in PDF Format:-- "Les politiques nationales du livre: le cas du Sénégal" (2002), par Mariétou Diongue Diop. (Direction du livre et de la lecture, Dakar, Sénégal)
-- "Pensées provocatrices d'une nouvelle génération de bibliothécaires" (2002), par Bernard Dione. (Ecole des Bibliothécaires, Archivistes et Documentalistes, Université Cheikh Anta Diop de Dakar, Sénégal)
-- "Services à distance et services de proximité en milieu africain: quels défis pour le bibliothécaire en tant que vecteur de développement?" (2002), par Nafissatou Bakhoum. (Bibliothèques de l'Université Cheikh Anta Diop de Dakar, Sénégal)
-- "La formation des bibliothécaires de référence à l'Ecole des Bibliothécaires, Archivistes et Documentalistes de l'Université Cheikh Anta Diop de Dakar" (2002), par Mody Sow. (EBAD, Université Cheikh Anta Diop de Dakar, Sénégal)
-- "The role of libraries in a developing society -- a Zimbabwean experience" (2002), by Uno Nilsson. (County Library of Halland, Halmstead, Sweden)
-- "Challenges and strategies of library associations: an overview and examples of Uganda" (2002), by Charles Batambuze. (Uganda Library Association)
-- "Community information structures in Botswana: a challenge for librarians" (2002), by Batlang Comma Serema. (University of Botswana, Gabarone)
-- "The challenge of public library systems to meet information needs...mobile library service in Kenya" (2002), by Richard Masaranga Atuti. (Kenya National Library Service, Nairobi)
-- "Internet as a tool for reference work...Danida trial project in Ghana" (2002), by Ruth Kondrup. (State and University Library, Denmark)
-- "The success story of GILLDDNET" (2002) by A.K. Martey. (Ghana Interlibrary Lending and Document Delivery Network, University of Cape Coast)
-- "Women, democracy and participation in the information society" (2002), by Louisa Mayer. (Tshwane Metropolitan Library and Information Services, Pretoria, South Africa)
-- "From information to knowledge" (2002), by Solomon Mahapa. (University of South Africa, Johannesburg)
-- Building bridges: LIASA and leadership development in South Africa" (2002), by Gwenda Thomas. (Library and Information Association of South Africa, Pretoria)
-- "Difficulties faced by librarians in Africa -- a comparative analysis" (2002), by Anna-Marie Arnold. (Pretoria, South Africa)
-- "The 'information-starved' -- is there any hope of reaching the 'information super highway'?" (2002), by Denise Nicholson. (University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa)
-- "Promoting diversity and democracy in new democratic societies -- the Unisa experience" (2002), by Jenny Raubenheimer. (University of South Africa Library, Pretoria) - "La tradition orale: de la collecte à la numérisation" par A. Raphaël Ndiaye (1999). (Enda Tiers-Monde, Dakar, Sénégal) 65th IFLA General Conference, Conference Proceedings, Bangkok, Thailand, August 20-28, 1999.
- "Sources for African language materials from the countries of Anglophone Africa." by Alfred Kagan (1995). (University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign) 61st IFLA General Conference, Conference Proceedings, August 20-25, 1995.
- IFLA Annual Conferences -- Home Page
- KARMA--Kenya Association of Records Managers and Archivists (Nairobi, Kenya)
- KIT: Koninklijk Instituut voor de Tropen = Royal Tropical Institute (Amsterdam, The Netherlands)
- LIASA: Library and Information Association of South Africa (Pretoria)
- General information on the organization, conferences, and other news and activities. "The launch (July 1997) marked the end of the process of the unification of all existing library organisations in South Africa ... initiated in January 1995 at the Conference on Libraries and Information Services in Developing South Africa ... an initiative of the two largest existing organisations at the time, the South African Institute for Librarianship and Information Science and the African Library Association of South Africa."
- LIASA events: national and regional conferences
- The Library of Congress (Washington, DC)
- African & Middle Eastern Reading Room (African & Middle Eastern Division, Area Studies, LC--Washington)
- Library of Congress Office, Nairobi, KenyaThis site includes information about the cooperative acquisitions program for US libraries.
- Quarterly index to African periodical literature. (Online) -- Nairobi, Kenya : The Library of Congress, 1991- -- ISSN 1018-1555A searchable online index to materials acquired by The Library of Congress since 1991 mostly in eastern and southern Africa, plus since 2002: Cameroon, Gabon, Ghana and Senegal.
- Leiden University, African Studies Centre: Library, Documentation, and Information (Leiden, The Netherlands)General information about the library holdings of the center since 1988, plus Web and telnet access to the catalog--including an index of journal articles and chapters from edited works.
- Lubuto Library Project--Zambia (Washington, DC; Lusaka, Zambia)"The Lubuto Library Project is an innovative development initiative that, in cooperation with governments, creates opportunities for equitable education and poverty reduction through model library services that: provide safe havens, literacy skills, and opportunities for educational growth for sub-Saharan Africa's street children, orphans and other vulnerable and out-of-school children."
- Online Publications on Africa from Research Centers & Universities (via Columbia University Libraries)
- Pan African Writers Association (Accra, Ghana)Formally established in Ghana in 1992, with the support of UNESCO and the African Union. PAWA "...is made up of the 52 national writers associations on the continent, and seeks to contribute its quota to moral, cultural and intellectual renaissance in Africa." PAWA sponsors annual symposia in celebration of "International African Writers' Day" (November 7th), various workshops, special publications, etc.
--See especially: Book Reviews --and-- Profiles - SABDET: Southern African Book Development Education Trust (London, UK)
- "[Founded in 1993] SABDET's objective ... is to advance education for the public benefit concerning indigenous publishing in Africa as a means of communication and literacy."
- SABDET programmes (including journals support, electronic publishing, scholarships, etc.)
- South Africa -- Libraries, Archives, and Publishers (Compiled by Columbia University Libraries.)
- SCECSAL--Standing Conference of Eastern, Central and Southern Africa Library and Information Associations (via South Africa)General information on the organization, member contact information, resolutions, call for conference papers, and links to conference proceedings.
--All country reports, 2000-2018--SCECSAL XXIII Conference--"Positioning Library and Information Services to Achieve Sustainable Development," April 23-27, 2018, Entebbe, Uganda [Papers]
--SCECSAL XXIV Conference--"Inclusive Libraries and Information Services Toward Achieving Prosperity for Sustainable Development in Africa," February 8-12, 2021, Windhoek, Namibia
--SCECSAL XXVI Conference : "Re-Imagining Information Products and Services for the Digital Era," April 22-26, 2024, Mombasa, Kenya - Standing Conference on Library Materials on Africa (SCOLMA) (London, UK)UK Libraries and Archives Group on Africa: "SCOLMA provides a forum for librarians and others concerned with the provision of materials for African studies in libraries in the United Kingdom; it monitors, co-ordinates and improves the acquisition of library materials on Africa, especially through its co-operative Area Specialisation Scheme for the acquisition of materials from Africa; it sponsors bibliographical projects, publishes bibliographical works and a journal; and, it organises conferences and seminars on African bibliographical topics."
-- SCOLMA 2023 Conference--Online, "Africa and the Environment: Archives and Data in the Climate Emergency," June 23, 2023, London - Tanzania Library Association (Dar es Salaam, Tanzania)
- UgCLA--Uganda Community Libraries Association (Kampala, Uganda)"...registered as an NGO in 2007 and currently organizes more than 100 libraries..."
Projects--Indexes & Digital Archives
- Addis Ababa University: Institutional Repository--Electronic Theses and Dissertations (Addis Ababa, Ethiopia)
- Africa Portal Library (Centre for International Governance Innovation, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada; Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda; South African Institute of International Affairs, Johannesburg, South Africa)A digital library of over 5000 books, journals, and documents related to African policy issues; a directory of experts; plus, news analysis and opinion articles.
- African Activist Archive Project (African Studies Center, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan)The website includes galleries of documents, photographs, posters, audio and video files, and an extensive archives list for 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.
- African Ajami Library (Boston University Libraries, Boston, Massachusetts)"...a collaborative initiative between Boston University and the West African Research Center (WARC) in part funded by the British Library’s Endangered Archives Programme...The project currently includes: Mandinka Ajami and Arabic Manuscripts of Casamance Senegal ; Wolofal Manuscripts, Senegal ; Dagbanli Ajami and Arabic Manuscripts of Northern Ghana ; Fuuta Jalon Pular Ajami Manuscripts ; Hausa Manuscripts ; and, Philippe Beaujard Sorabe (Malagasy) Ajami Collection."
- "African Digital Research Repositories: Survey Report." (2016). By Anna de Mutiis and Stephanie Kitchen. Originally published in Africa Bibliography (2015) ; via International African Institute, London, UK.
18 pages in PDF format
--See also: ***December 2022 Update - African Journal Archive--Open Access Titles (Sabinet Gateway, Sabinet, Centurion, South Africa)Part of the African Journal Archive: "The [AJA] is a retrospective digitisation project of full-text journal articles published in Africa, in the Sciences, Social Sciences and Humanities...originally funded by the Carnegie Corporation of New York [since 2008]."
Note: For most journal titles in AJA, access from outside of Africa requires a subscription. - AJOL--African Journals Online: Free-to-Read Titles. (Oxford, UK)"AJOL is an online service that provides access to African-published research, and increases worldwide knowledge of indigenous scholarship...[with 550 titles in open access]."
- African e-Journals Project (Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan)The website offers general information about the on-going project, access to full text archive of 11 African journals, and a searchable directory of African e-journals--with links to websites. "An initiative co-sponsored by the Association of African Universities (AAU), the African Studies Association in the USA, and Michigan State University."
The archive includes: African Journal of Political Science, Glendora, Journal of Social Development in Africa, Transformation, Zambezia, and others. - ALMA--African Language Materials Archive: A joint project of the West African Research Association and
Title VI National Resource Centers for African Studies. (via Matrix, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan)- "...a multi-partner project focusing on the promotion and documentation of literature and literacy in the languages of Africa. It further serves to assist African language authors and publishers in publicizing and distributing their work."
- See also: ALMA e-books--original site of the ALMA collection, produced by the West African Research Center (Dakar, Senegal), Columbia University, CAORC--Council of American Overseas Research Centers, and the Digital Library for International Research at The Center for Research Libraries, Chicago, Illinois; with support from the U.S. Department of Education and UNESCO. The e-books presented here are in major languages of West Africa: Bamanankan, Jula, Fula, Fulfulde, Kriolu, Mandinka, Mooré, Pulaar, and Wolof.
- "...a multi-partner project focusing on the promotion and documentation of literature and literacy in the languages of Africa. It further serves to assist African language authors and publishers in publicizing and distributing their work."
- African Language Research Project (1992-2009) (Department of English and Modern Languages, University of Maryland-Eastern Shore, Princess Anne, Maryland)The site includes information on the project history, African language publications, conference/workshop proceedings, and newsletter. From 1992-1994, [the ALRP] focused primarily on Namibia (Herero, Kwanyama Languages); Cameroon (Ewondo); and Nigeria (Nupe and Isoko)...[As of 2009] the project has published level two and three readers in Yoruba, Hausa, Lingala, Sudanese Arabic, and a forthcoming reader in Igbo [is planned, as well as] a manuscript ...in the Wolof language (Senegal)."
- African Online Digital Library (Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan)A website about a new digital library project (begun in 2000/2001) at Michigan State University, l'Institut Fondamental d'Afrique Noire, and the West African Research Center in Dakar, Senegal. The site includes thus far: materials relating to West African history and cultures mostly from the private archives of individual scholars: selected photographs, unpublished research papers and conference proceedings, field notes, and short audio files of informants and interviews with scholars.
--See also: African Online Digital Library Projects Gallery: including Diversity & Tolerance in the Islam of West Africa. - African Poetry Digital Portal (University of Nebraska, Lincoln)"The APDP is a project of the African Poetry Book Fund. The Portal is a resource for the study of the history of African Poetry providing access to biographical information, selected poetry, artifacts, news, video recordings, images and other documents related to African poetry from antiquity to the present."
--See also: African Poetry Book Fund's African Poetry Libraries--Africa - African Studies Association of the United Kingdom: Africanist Theses Recently Accepted at UK Universities (2005-2014)
- African Studies Collection -- University of Wisconsin Digital Collections (Madison, Wisconsin)This site offers digitized works selected from the University's library, encompassing the Africana Digitization 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)
-- See also: South African Voices below. - Afro-Louisiana History and Genealogy 1719-1820 (University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill and the Center for the Public Domain, Durham, North Carolina)An online database--downloadable--to search for African heritage in Louisiana. "The Afro-Louisiana History and Genealogy online search engine was designed to provide the general public free access to valuable historic records. Users can locate individual slaves who lived in Louisiana between the years of 1718 and 1820 through this easy-to-use, free, public database. Find valuable historical data from over 100,000 descriptions of slaves found in documents in Louisiana between 1718 and 1821 by searching identifiers such as gender, racial designation, or plantation location. Users can even search the origin of the slaves brought to Louisiana in the 18th and 19th centuries to work the New World."
- Aluka -- The Struggle for Freedom in Southern Africa ; African Cultural Sites and Landscapes ; and African Plants (Ithaka, New York, New York and Princeton, New Jersey)A website about the project: "Aluka’s principal audience is the higher education and research community, both in Africa and around the world, including colleges, universities, research and policy centres, and cultural institutions. The materials are selected primarily with undergraduate students and their instructors in mind, but the content is also valuable to graduate students and upper-level secondary students." Funded by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, and Stavros S. Niarchos Foundation.
- American Geographical Society Library--Digital Photo Archive: Africa (University of Wisconsin Libraries, Milwaukee, Wisconsin)"A selection of images from the extensive photographic holdings of the American Geographical Society (AGS) Library. Images are drawn from several collections, including Richard U. Light and Mary (Light) Meader Collection, the Harrison Forman collection, and the Edna Schaus Sorensen and Clarence W. Sorensen Collection."
- 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 database is searchable in English or in Arabic.
- Archive of Malian Photography MATRIX: Center for Digital Humanities & Social Sciences (Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan)"[Spanning the 1940s-90s]...Archive of Malian Photography provides access to preserved & digitized collections of five important photographers in Mali. Since 2011, our collaborative team of US and Malian conservators has been cleaning, scanning, cataloging, and rehousing circa 100,000 photographic negatives from the archives of Mamadou Cissé, Adama Kouyaté, Abdourahmane Sakaly, Malick Sidibé, and Tijani Sitou for long-term preservation and access."
- ASK-DL: Africa's Sources of Knowledge Digital Library (African Language Program, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts)"[With funding from the US Department of Education TICFIA program since 2009, this pilot project will provide online access to]...information contained in rare handwritten and out-of-print African language documents of non-latinate scripts ; an endeavor to digitize, catalog and index collected documents in an accessible online library." The site includes sample texts in the following languages: Wolof, Bamana, Amharic, Tigrinya, Tamasheq, and Swahili.
- Bibliothèque Nationale de France: Gallica Voyages en Afrique (Paris)
- << Le dossier Voyages en Afrique propose une large sélection de documents de toute nature, majoritairement francophones, ponctuellement en langues étrangères...Le but est de rendre aisément accessibles des sources souvent éparses en un corpus pluridisciplinaire, centré sur l'histoire de la découverte de l'Afrique depuis les premières connaissances laissées par les Arabes ou les Européens naviguant le long des côtes jusqu'aux explorations de l'intérieur du continent, le partage de l'Afrique entre les puissances européennes et les différentes étapes de la colonisation jusqu'en 1914. >>
- Bibliographie: catalogues, bibliographies, études, et corpus complémentaire
- Accès catalogue, accès gégraphique et par un parcours thématiques, et accès spécifique par un parcours pour les revues
- Bioline Publications Abstracts, Full Text, and Document Service (Centro Referência Informação Ambiental, Brazil ; Electronic Publishing Trust for Development, UK)A selection of African studies journals in the medical, food, and biological sciences from Nigeria, Senegal, Kenya, Uganda, and South Africa. View the abstracts without charge; view online full texts from selected journals.
- The British Library, Endangered Archives Programme: "Major Project to Digitise and Preserve the Manuscripts of Djenné" (2011-2013) -and- Archival Records from Djenné and Surrounding Villages (2013-2015) (London, UK)These web pages explain the two projects and provides open access to the completed digital archive, consisting of 2,303 items in the first phase and 3,303 in the second phase.
- CAMES-Conseil africain et malgache pour l'enseignement supérieur---Bibliothèque numérique (2012) (Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso)Une petite archive de thèses et mémoires, en plus des articles qui sont parus dans deux revues du CAMES pour les pays du réseau universitaire francophone en Afrique
- Center for Research Libraries--Cooperative Africana Materials Project: Slavery and Manumission Manuscripts of Timbuktu (Chicago, Illinois)"The Center for Research Libraries and the Cooperative Africana Materials Project (CAMP) present a collection of 19th century manuscripts relating to slavery and manumission in Timbuktu. The collection of 206 manuscripts from the Bibliothèque Commémorative Mama Haidara in Timbuktu, Mali, were loaned to John Hunwick, Professor of History and Religion, Northwestern University, with the hope that the manuscripts would receive conservation treatment and be digitized in order to make them accessible via the Web. The materials, in Arabic, provide documentation on Africans in slavery in Muslim societies."
- Centre Aequatoria: Centre de Recherches Culturelles Africanistes (Brussels, Belgium; Mbandaka, Democratic Republic of Congo)
- "...est spécialisé dans l'étude des langues, des cultures et de l'histoire (pre-coloniale et coloniale) de l'Afrique sub-saharienne. Il regroupe une bibliothèque, des archives et un guesthouse [à Bamanya, 10 km de Mbandaka]."
- Publications, 1937-2009: index et les textes intégraux
- Colonial Film: Moving Images of the British Empire (London, UK)--Also known as "Colonial Film Database"
"This website holds detailed information on over 6000 films showing images of life in the British colonies. Over 150 films are available for viewing online. You can search or browse for films by country, date, topic, or keyword. Over 350 of the most important films in the catalogue are presented with extensive critical notes...The Colonial Film project united universities (Birkbeck and University College London) and archives (British Film Institute, Imperial War Museum and the British Empire and Commonwealth Museum) to create a new catalogue of films relating to the British Empire." - Columbia University Libraries and The Center for Research Libraries--Cooperative Africana Materials Project:
West African Digitization and Preservation Training Pilot (New York)In April and May 2008, Columbia and other CAMP member institutions sponsored a refresher course in best practices for a senior archivist from the Archives du Sénégal. This is a brief report on the experience at Columbia. - Connecting-Africa (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.
- Cyberthèses: publication et diffusion en ligne des thèses (Lyons, France ; Montréal, Canada)For more information, see: Actualités
- Selected French language theses in full text and abstracts from a project based at Université Montréal, Université de Genève, and Université Lumière de Lyon II.
- See also: Thèses malgaches en ligne: Thèses doctorales et mémoires de maitrise soutenus depuis 2002 devant les six universités publiques de Madagascar. (Antananarivo, Madagascar; via Organisation internationale de la Francophonie, Paris)
- 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.
***Note: As of July 2023, only a handful of institutional repositories in Ghana and Nigeria are participating.
- A pilot project currently under way by the AAU, following a feasibility study and a series of meetings.
- Directory of Research Data Repositories in Africa (2017) (UK)"...developed by Chevening Research Fellow Oluwaseun Obasola in 2017 with support from Chevening and the British Library in the United Kingdom. DODRIA provides links to data portals, brief description of each portal, publishing organisations, areas covered and access policies (open, licensed and enclaved data) on available datasets from each country in Africa."
- DISA: Digital Innovation South Africa (University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, South Africa)
- Originally called "Digital Imaging Project of South Africa": The site offers 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.
- Mayibuye: the journal of the African National Congress. Archive, 1967-1994. -- [Marshalltown, South Africa: ANC, 1967-1994]
- The New African: the radical monthly. Archive: 1962-1969."...[first] published in January 1962. The four founders, Randolph Vigne, Neville Rubin, James Currey and Timothy Holmes wrote copiously - leaders, articles and reviews - often under pseudonyms The first subscribers to the periodical were drawn from the Liberal Party circle [in South Africa]. Contributors to those early issues were mostly South Africans, with a few from Britain and only three from elsewhere. The magazine’s character, largely English-speaking South African and liberal, was forward looking in the post- Sharpeville time of hope, and original in its commingling of culture and politics."
- "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).
- e-Granary Digital Library (WiderNet Project, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill)
"Through a process of garnering permissions, copying Web sites, and delivering them to intranet Web servers INSIDE our partner institutions in developing countries, we deliver millions of multimedia documents that can be instantly accessed by patrons over their local area networks at no cost." - ELDIS: Electronic Development and Environment Information System (Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex, Brighton, UK)
- An indexing service provided by IDS. Papers are selected from all over the Internet based on topics in African, Asian, and Latin American studies. Documents are produced by research institutes or international organizations. Some documents are electronic versions of printed works, while others are full online documents--with citations and bibliographies. The Africa country guides provide links to Web sites, as well. Note: Some documents listed in the search are only accessible at the IDS library, University of Sussex.
- ELDIS Home Page -- USE "Pick a topic" ; "search page" ; or, "issues page".
- Country guides
- Electronic journal of Africana bibliography. (Online). -- Iowa City, Iowa: University of Iowa Libraries, 1996-2014 ; New York: Columbia University Libraries, 2022-."EJAB is a refereed, online, open access journal of annotated bibliographies and bibliographic essays. The journal covers any aspect of Africa and the African Diaspora, including its peoples, their homes, cities, towns, districts, states, countries, and regions, and all subject areas, with a special interest in history, politics, social movements, sustainable development, technology, creative literature, and the arts."
- Eritrean Print and Oral Culture (Lwam Ghebrehariat & Joyce Tam, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada)A digital archive of book covers and selected excerpts from publications in the field of the Eritrean literature, culture, and history, with some online folktales in English and Tigrinya, as well as sound recordings of tales and proverbs.
- Érudit : promouvoir et diffuser la recherche = promoting and disseminating research (Montréal, Québec, Canada)Select "Advanced Search" or "Recherche détailée to look for open access, online full-text MA essays/mémoires de maîtrise from McGill University, Université Laval, & Université de Montréal...or journal articles published in major Canadian and French journals.
- The Ruth First Papers (Institute of Commonwealth Studies, University of London, UK)In partnership with the UWC-Robben Island Mayibuye Archives and the Centro de Estudos Africanos, Universidade Eduardo Mondlane, Mozambique.
"It will consist of at least 5,000 pages, digitised and presented as academically rigorous clusters of material, and will electronically publish two of her books currently out of print. This resource will be freely accessible worldwide, accompanied by a website with secondary material including conference items and short academic essays about First’s life and work." - Ford Foundation International Fellowships Archive, Columbia University and Thesis Library (New York, USA)The digital components of a larger repository of the Ford Foundation's International Fellowship program, 2001 to 2013. About 33% of the fellows were from Africa and the Middle East. "...a decade-long program that offered advanced study opportunities to more than 4,300 social justice leaders from the world’s most vulnerable populations in Asia, Africa, Latin America, the Middle East, and Russia."
--See also: Summary guide to the IFP Records at Columbia University's Rare Book and Manuscripts Library.
-- Plus: IFP Alumni Tracking Study, Report 1. (April 2016) 36 pages in PDF format (via Institute of International Education, New York, USA) - Gazettes.Africa (Laws.Africa and AfricanLII, Cape Town, South Africa)A digital library of government gazettes from 19 African countries, dating from the 1970s to the present.
- Genocide Archive of Rwanda (Kigali Memorial Center, Kigali, Rwanda; Human Rights Documentation Initiative, University of Texas Libraries, Austin, Texas)The web site features information about the project, sample interview transcripts and videos. "The Genocide Archive of Rwanda is a collaborative project of the Kigali Genocide Memorial Centre, Aegis Trust, and Rwanda’s National Commission for the Fight Against Genocide to document the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi."
--See also: Voices of Rwanda below. - German Colonial History -- Digital Archives for African Studies
- Kolonialbibliothek in der Universitätsbibliothek Frankfurt am Main (Frankfurt, Germany)An extensive colletion of digitized documents and images from the German colonial era, including 50,000-70,000 historical photographs from the German colonial empire in Africa and Oceania.
--See especially: Koloniales Bildarchiv - Sources on German Colonial History Online (April 19, 2016) ilissAfrica--Internet Library Sub-Saharan Africa
(Dr. Hartmut Bergenthum, Africa Librarian, Frankfurt University Library, Frankfurt, Germany)Universität Frankfurt am Main in Germany has digitized selected books and journals originally collected by the German Colonial Society (Deutsche Kolonialgesellschaft).
- Kolonialbibliothek in der Universitätsbibliothek Frankfurt am Main (Frankfurt, Germany)
- Global Music Archive, Vanderbilt University Libraries Anne Potter Wilson Music Library (Nashville, Tennessee)"The Global Music Archive is a multi-media archive and resource center for traditional and popular song, music, and dance of Africa and North and South America, with particular emphasis on the African Diaspora." The web site features a searchable database of the holdings of the digital collection of "East African recordings" (mostly Ugandan), streaming access to the recordings, a short bibliography, and a few related paper presentations. The archive has an on-going collection-fieldwork component in Uganda--"under the direction of Mr. Centurio Balikoowa, one of East Africa's most respected musicians of traditional Ugandan musical performance."
--See also: Papers - H-Africa Reviews (H-Net, Humanities & Social Sciences OnLine, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan)An archive of reviews of Africana books, electronic resources, exhibitions, and films since March 1995.
- Hill Museum and Manuscript Library: Islamic Manuscripts (Mali and Ethiopia) (Saint John's University, Collegeville, Minnesota)"HMML has partnered with SAVAMA-DCI in Bamako, Mali, to digitize the manuscripts evacuated from Timbuktu in 2012. These include the Abdelbakr Bin Said Library (7600 items), Abdullah Abdrahamane Library (12,700 items; project currently underway); Attaher Muaz Library (39,000 items); Mamma Haidara Library (37,500 items). New work with collections that remained in Timbuktu has begun with the Imam Ben Essayuti Library in a project co-sponsored by the British Library Endangered Archives Programme. The Sherif Harar City Museum contains hundreds of manuscripts gathered from families and shrines in the historic center of Islam in Ethiopia. Abdullahi Ali Sherif, founder of the museum, has deposited digital copies of manuscripts at HMML."
- Indiana University Libraries -- Projects (Bloomington, Indiana)
- The Digital Somali Library"...provides full-text, online access to 137 books from Indiana University Bloomington's Somali collection." The site also includes a list of the digitized publications and a searchable online finding list of all publications on Somalia and in the Somali language in the library cataloged through 2008.
- Liberian Collections Project (Archives of Traditional Music, IUL)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.'
- Nuer Field Notes -- Eleanor Vandevort (Marion Francis-Wilson et al., Digital Library Program, IUL)The digitized book, A leopard tamed (1968), field notes, grammar, and word lists of a woman missionary in southern Sudan.
- The Digital Somali Library
- International African Institute, University of London: African Digital Research Repositories, August 2021. School of Oriental & African Studies. (London, UK)
- International Documentation Network on the Great African Lakes Region = Réseau documentaire international sur la région des Grands Lacs africains (Geneva, Switzerland)"...born in 1994, at the initiative of Africanist scholars who were willing to keep track of, and make public, unpublished documents about this troubled part of Africa – so-called “grey literature”, i.e. texts from local NGOs, political parties, researchers, scholars, local press, individuals etc., most of them produced between 1990 and 2000...Hosted in Geneva from 1995 to 2009 by the former “Graduate Institute for Development Studies”, the Programme opened local offices in the field, i.e. in Burundi, Rwanda, DRC and Tanzania. It was offering a double opportunity: to collect more documents from the concerned countries, and to train local staff to document processing with the highest efficiency. The Programme stopped its activities in March 2009..."
- International Network for the Availability of Scientific Publications: African Journals On-Line (Oxford, UK)A tables-of-contents service, with an option for full text services through paid subscription. There is also a photocopy or document delivery service for individual journal articles of some titles. The following journals are covered: Afrique et développement=Africa Development; African Crop Science Journal; African Journal of Political Science; Bulletin of the Chemical Society of Ethiopia; CODESRIA Bulletin, Discovery and Innovation; Ghana Journal of Agricultural Sciences; Insect Science and its Applications; SINET:Ethiopian Journal of Science; and, Zimbabwe Veterinary Journal; and others.
- IslHornAfr: Islam in the Horn of Africa, A Comparative Literary Approach (Prof. Alessandro Gori and others, University of Copenhagen, Denmark)"...with the aim of producing a critical and comprehensive picture of the Islamic literary history of the Horn of Africa. The project has been funded by the European Research Council."
--See especially: Beta Version of the Database: "...allows the users to make a general search in both Arabic and Latin script. Results will be displayed according to the three main entities of the database: Texts, People and Manuscripts." - Islam West Africa Collection (Dr. Frédérick Madore et. al., Leibniz-Zentrum Moderner Orient, Berlin, Germany)"...a collaborative, open-access digital database that currently contains over 5,000 archival documents, newspaper articles, Islamic publications of various kinds, audio and video recordings, and photographs on Islam and Muslims in Burkina Faso, Benin, Niger, Nigeria, Togo and Côte d'Ivoire. Most of the documents are in French, but some are also available in Hausa, Arabic, Dendi, and English. The site also indexes over 800 references to relevant books, book chapters, book reviews, journal articles, dissertations, theses, reports and blog posts."
- Kenya National Archives and Google Arts & Culture (Nairobi, Kenya; USA)A selection of 1,043 items featured in this digital exhibition of black-and-white and color photos of people and objects from the KNA collections in Nairobi, Kenya; plus 8 illustrated "stories".
- Kenyan Universities -- Institutional Repositories
- Liberated Africans (Harvard University, Hutchins Center for African and African American Research, Cambridge, Massachusetts)A digital resource built around selected "proceedings for about 1,000 trials, registers containing biographical sketches for people removed from slave ships (including physical descriptions), labor contracts, anti-slavery legislation, correspondence on resettlement policies, images of captured slave ships, and even photographs of some liberated Africans."
- Little Known Black Librarian Facts (Michele Fenton, Indiana State Library, Indianapolis, Indiana)"A blog devoted to the history of African American librarians and library services to African Americans." The site includes a useful list of related links to organizations and other web sites...and the 2013 edition of a 164-page online book, which is a who's who of African American librarians in US history.
- Livingstone Online: illuminating imperial exploration (University of Maryland, College Park; University of Nebraska, Lincoln)"...a digital museum and library that allows users to encounter the written, visual, and material legacies of the famous Victorian explorer David Livingstone (1813-73). The site draws on recent scholarship and international collaboration...an academic resource for the study of African history, the British Empire, nineteenth-century intercultural encounters, and digital humanities practice."
--See especially: Resources, including: In His Own Words -and- David Livingstone: A Bibliography (2017) - Madarevues: le portail des revues scientifiques malgaches (Ministère de l'Enseignement Supérieur et de la Recherche Scientifique de Madagascar, Antannarivo, Madagascar)Un archive des articles des plus importantes revues de Madagascar qui sont interrogeables et téléchargeables en format PDF. Les archives comprend les vieux numéros des revues: Omaly Sy Anio ; Civilisation Malgache, série Sciences Humaines ; Annales de l'Université de Madagascar ; Revue médicale de Madagascar ; etc.
- Mali: Projet Archives des Femmes du Mali (Bamako, Mali; New York, USA)A work in progress: "...PAF preserves thousands of endangered papers and photographs belonging to a generation of Malian women who undertook anti-colonial activism in the 1950s and feminist social reform projects in the following decades."
- The Nelson Mandela Centre of Memory (The Nelson Mandela Foundation, Cape Town, South Africa)
- "...inaugurated on 21 September 2004, and endorsed as the core work of the Foundation in 2006. The Centre focuses on three areas of work: the Life and Time of Nelson Mandela, Dialogue for Social Justice and Nelson Mandela International Day."
- Nelson Mandela Digital Archive Project
This site features a photographic & video exhibition, as well as extensive selections from the digitized archive of Mandela's private papers.
--See also: "My Moment with a Legend" - Nelson Mandela: 20 Years of Freedom
An interactive web archive on Mandela's release from prison on February 11, 1990. "Users can explore archival documents, photographs as well as raw and edited news footage and other audio-visual material related to the release and the political events directly preceding and following it, much of which has not been seen by the public."
- 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 - Mara Cultural Heritage Digital Library (Prof. Jan Bender Shetler, Goshen College, Goshen, Indiana; MATRIX, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan)This website features a collection of primary resources from the Mara Region, Tanzania. "Dr. Shetler’s collection consists largely of audio, video, transcripts, notes in English and photographs from more than 300 interviews conducted between 1995 and 2010. The interviews were conducted in Swahili and various East Nyanza Mara languages as well as Temi, Dadog and Luo. Augmenting the interviews is a variety of cultural material collected from the region, including maps, manuscripts, music, video and linguistic sources."
- 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
- Mozambique History Net (Colin Darch, Cape Town, South Africa)"...to make available selected newspaper clippings and some other resources dealing with contemporary Mozambican history and presented in a thematically organised form. A high proportion of this material is in Portuguese...organised by subject, each with its own page on this website, where each document is briefly referenced, with a link to a viewable or down-loadable PDF or JPEG file."
- Nigerian Universities -- Institutional Repositories
- National Universities Commission of Nigeria: Nigerian Virtual Library (Abuja, Nigeria)The website includes selected Nigerian publications in wide variety of disciplines, links to Nigerian newspapers, and information on Nigerian universities. "The National Universities Commission is a parastatal of the Federal Ministry of Education charged with the responsibilities of orderly development of universities in Nigeria."
- University of Ibadan
- University of Jos (inc. Theses & Dissertations)
- University of Lagos
- University of Nigeria, Nsukka
- National Universities Commission of Nigeria: Nigerian Virtual Library (Abuja, Nigeria)
- Nordic Documentation on the Liberation Struggle in Southern Africa (Nordiska Afrikainstitutet, Uppsala, Sweden)The web site features general information about various projects, conference reports, and a searchable catalog of the archives on southern Africa held in Scandinavia.
- Northwestern University, Melville J. Herskovits Library of African Studies -- Special Collections and Digital Projects (Evanston, Illinois)
- 16th--20th Century Maps of Africa Government and Geographic Information and Data Services"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."
- Arabic Manuscripts from West Africa: A Catalog of the Herskovits Library Collection: The Umar Falke Collection, The John Paden Collection, The John Hunwick Collection, and The University of Ghana Collection.
- Historical Posters from Southern Africa
- Humphrey Winterton Collection of East African Photographs, 1860-1960An inventory and description of the collection of 7,610 photographs and sample images.
- 16th--20th Century Maps of Africa Government and Geographic Information and Data Services
- Princeton University: PEMM--Princeton Ethiopian, Eritrean and Egyptian Miracles of Mary Project (New Jersey)"PEMM, a digital humanities project, is a comprehensive resource for the 1,000+ miracle stories about the Virgin Mary in Ethiopia, Eritrea, and Egypt, and preserved in Gəˁəz between 1300 and the present...Drawing on manuscripts from the exceptional collection of Täˀammərä Maryam in Princeton’s Rare Books and Special Collections, PEMM collects information about these miracle tales to enable better scholarship on their contents across regions, languages, and time."
- Projeto Cultural Dacosta (José Luiz Pereira da Costa, Dacosta Comércio Exterior Ltda., Porto Alegre, Brasil)This site features an extensive digital library of texts selected and translated into Portuguese by a Brazilian businessman/scholar. The texts are by historic figures of African descent, reflecting their contributions to African cultural studies, pan-Africanism, and the liberation struggles of peoples of African descent. There are also selected works by Machado de Assis--the Brazilian literary icon and a library of selected Afro-Brazilian and African music files.
- Sabinet African Archives (Centurion, South Africa) Beta versionCurrently open access: "Sabinet African Archives is a growing index of thousands of consolidated African archives [mostly in South Africa and Namibia] as well as special collections consisting of manuscripts, newspaper clippings, photographs, articles and more, to researchers with an interest in Africa."
- Sabinet Reference -- Open Access Journal Collection (South African Journals in the Social Sciences and the Sciences) (Sabinet Gateway, Sabinet, Centurion, South Africa)
--See also: African Journal Archive above - Sankore Institute of African Islamic Studies International--Digital Archive (Shaykh Muhammad Shareef, USA and Nigeria)This site offers interpretive historical summaries on Islam in Africa and free downloads of selected works in English translation of the writings of Uthman dan Fodio, his brother Abdullahi, his son Muhammad Bello, and his daughter Nana Asmau of the Sokoto Caliphate, and several other Islamic intellectuals in West Africa. "....conceived December 15, 1985...as the result of conversations between the present Sultan of Maiurno al-Hajj Abu Bakr ibn Muhammad ibn Bello Maiurno ibn Attahiru ibn Ahmad Zuruku ibn Abu Bakr Attiku ibn Shehu Uthman Dan Fodio, our shaykh, Imam Muhammad al-Amin ibn Adam Karagh, Ahmad Abideen Hassan and the founding director Muhammad Shareef...to collect the Arabic and Ajami manuscripts of the Sokoto Caliphate from northern Nigeria and convey them to the town of Maiurno in order to be edited and republished...To date SIIASI has collected 3000 Arabic manuscripts and 123 Ajami manuscripts (Fulbe’, Hausa, Wolof and Mande’). Of these, more than 89 have been translated and published by the institute."
- The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, The New York Public Library -- Digital Projects
(New York)- The site provides information about this extensive research collection on global Africa, access to the online public catalog of the New York Public Library, and a variety of exhibitions and public programs.
- Center Home Page
- The New York Public Library Digital Gallery: Africana and Black History"Several thousand items ranging from historical documents and rare visual materials to contemporary photo-journalism, relating to the entirety of African American history from the 16th century to the present..."
- The African Diaspora in the Indian Ocean World (2011)
A multi-media web site, with bibliography, essays, images, web links, and videos. "Over the course of nearly 20 centuries, millions of East Africans crossed the Indian Ocean and its several seas and adjoining bodies of water in their journey to distant lands, from Arabia and Iraq to India and Sri Lanka." - African Americans and American Politics (2009)
A web site presentation with photographs and explanatory text on the history of African American politics from the 18th to the 21st century, including the 2009 presidential election of Barack Hussein Obama. - The Abolition of the Slave Trade"With the help of the essays, books, articles, maps, and illustrations gathered on this site, it becomes clear that the story of the eradication of the international slave trade to the Americas was not straightforward. It did not happen overnight because laws were passed. It was a long, arduous, and tortuous process that spanned almost nine decades."
- In-Motion: The African-American Migration ExperienceA multi-media presentation on the history of African diaspora migrations -- includes teaching resources. "In Motion: The African-American Migration Experience presents a new interpretation of African-American history, one that focuses on the self-motivated activities of peoples of African descent to remake themselves and their worlds. Of the thirteen defining migrations that formed and transformed African America, only the transatlantic slave trade and the domestic slave trades were coerced, the eleven others were voluntary movements of resourceful and creative men and women, risk-takers in an exploitative and hostile environment. Their survival skills, efficient networks, and dynamic culture enabled them to thrive and spread, and to be at the very core of the settlement and development of the Americas."
- Digital Schomburg: African American Women Writers of the 19th century
- Digital Schomburg: Images of African Americans from the 19th century
- Digital Schomburg: Studies Dedicated to Fernando Ortiz (1880-1969): A Bibliography of Afro-Cuban Culture
- Exhibition: Harlem 1900-1940: an African American community (via University of Michigan)
- Schomburg Center Video Oral History Gallery: Selected Clips from the Louis Armstrong Jazz Oral History Project
- SciELO--Scientific Electronic Library Online (Pretoria, South Africa)"...South Africa’s premier open-access (free to access and free to publish) searchable full-text journal database in service of the South African research community. The database covers a selected collection of peer-reviewed South African scholarly journals and forms an integral part of the SciELO Brazil project."
--See: Alphabetical list of journal titles - SierraLeoneHeritage.org (Freetown, Sierra Leone; via University College London and University of Sussex, UK)A collaborative project of The Sierra Leone National Museum, University College London, and University of Sussex, UK, containing a searchable database of digital images and videos. "...the main output of a research project (2009-2012) entitled ‘Reanimating Cultural Heritage: Digital Repatriation, Knowledge Networks and Civil Society Strengthening in Post-Conflict Sierra Leone’...concerned with innovating digital curatorship in relation to Sierra Leonean collections dispersed in the global museumscape. Building on research in anthropology, museum studies, informatics and beyond, the project considered how objects that have become isolated from the oral and performative contexts that originally animated them can be reanimated in digital space alongside associated images, video clips, sounds, texts and other media, and thereby be given new life."
- The Sierra Leone Memory Project (Tarrytown, New York)"The Sierra Leone Memory Project is an oral history project dedicated to recording testimonies from survivors of the brutal civil war that occurred in Sierra Leone from 1991-2002, including former child soldiers, amputees, and rape victims... Full-length testimonies, as well as shorter and more accessible video clips, will be available to the public, accompanied by written transcripts for easy browsing online."
- Slave Societies Digital Archive (Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee)"...dedicated to identifying, cataloging, and digitally preserving endangered archival materials documenting the history of Africans and their descendants in the Atlantic World [especially: Brazil, Colombia, Cuba, Spanish Florida, Ouidah (Benin), and Luanda (Angola) ] . The SSDA’s largest and oldest collections were generated by the Catholic Church, which mandated the baptism of African slaves in the fifteenth century and later extended this requirement to the Iberian New World. The baptismal records preserved in Slave Societies are the oldest and most uniform serial data available for the history of Africans in the Atlantic World and offer the most extensive information regarding their ethnic origins...other religious documentation such as confirmations, petitions to wed, wills, and even annulments."
- Slave Voyages -- The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database (Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia)The site provides free access to selected data on thousands of slave ship voyages; plus scholarly essays, illustrations, animated features, and maps. The latest version (2019) includes the "Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database" ; "Intra-American Slave Trade Database" ; "African Names Database" ; and, "Image Galleries". "[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..."
- The South African History Archive (SAHA) (Braamfontein, Johannesburg, 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. The SAHA website offers online finding aids to their collections, descriptions of archival projects, highlights from public exhibitions and related events, teacher and other educational resources, online publications (free downloads with registration), as well as several "virtual exhibiitions":
- SAHO: South African History Online (Pretoria, South Africa)This site offers online publications, photo and image exhibitions, brief historical summaries and biographies, and classroom suggestions (under construction). "SAHO is a peoples' history and internet-based project that consists of an open, non-partisan website linked to a schools' and community based outreach programme, which sets to build a comprehensive database on South African history and arts."
- South African Universities -- Theses & Dissertations Catalogs and Selected Electronic Full-Text
- Rhodes University eResearch Repository: full-text theses, journal articles, conference papers. (Grahamstown, South Africa)
- SEALS--Southeast Academic Libraries System Repository
- University of Cape Town Libraries--ETDs
- UPeTD: University of Pretoria
- University of South Africa---Electronic Theses and Dissertations (Pretoria)
- University of the Western Cape ETD
- WIReDSpace: ETDs at the University of the Witwatersrand (Johannesburg)
- South African Voices University of Wisconsin Digital Collections. (Madison, Wisconsin)"South African Voices is a three-volume work that includes: A Long Time Passed, Created in Olden Times, and The Way We Travelled: Oral History and Poetry. This work consists of electronic audio files and transcribed written texts of oral traditions and histories, poetry, folktales, and stories in Xhosa, Zulu, and Siswati collected, transcribed, and edited by Professor Harold Scheub.
- Stanford University Libraries: Maps of Africa Online 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."
- Sudan Historical Photography Archive University of Khartoum, Department of History (Khartoum, Sudan)"Begun in late 2016... The archive collects original photography that documents Sudan’s history, preserves them, and stores them digitally so they are accessible to researchers and students studying Sudan."
- Sudan Open Archive (Rift Valley Institute, London, UK & Nairobi, Kenya)"The first phase of the Archive involved the digitisation of technical reports on aid and development from Operation Lifeline Sudan (1989-2005). A library of contemporary and historical literature on environmental issues was added in 2006; a collection of reports on local peace processes in 2007. They will be followed by further ethnographic writing, grammars and dictionaries of Sudanese languages, and collections of documents in Arabic."
-- Includes an archive of e-books & documents and an extensive list of web sites - Timbuktu on the Internet
- Center for Research Libraries: Mamma Haidara Memorial Library Project -- Slavery and Manumission Manuscripts of Timbuktu (CRL/Cooperative Africana Microform Project, Chicago, Illinois, in cooperative with Northwester University Libraries, Evanston, Illinois)
- Ford Foundation Report: "Secrets of the Sahara" (Summer 2003). (New York)
- Google Arts & Culture: The Digital Archive of "The Timbuktu Manuscripts" (USA)Explore 69 digitized books on this site. "Over 40,000 ancient manuscripts (pages) from private collections and libraries in Timbuktu have been digitized, curated, and made publicly available."
--See also: "Mali Magic": Exploring Mali’s culture: manuscripts, music, monuments, and modern art (2022) - The Library of Congress: Islamic Manuscripts from Mali Collection (Washington, DC)The collection features 22 manuscripts from the Mamma Haidara Memorial Library and the Library of Cheick Zayni Baye of Boujbeha, in Timbuktu. See also: "Ancient Manuscripts from the Desert Libraries of Timbuktu, Mali" Exhibition, July--September 2003.
- The meanings of Timbuktu. (2008) Edited by Shamil Jeppie & Souleymane Bachir Diagne. -- Dakar, Senegal: CODESRIA; Cape Town, South Africa: Human Sciences Research Council Press, 2008. 416 pages. Each part in PDF format.
- SAVAMA-DCI (Timbuktu, Mali; Dakar, Senegal)"...a non-governmental organization that has a mission to protect and safeguard Mali's ancient manuscripts consisting of private libraries that own important historical manuscripts that document the rich legacy of West Africa's cultural and intellectual history."--See also: Hill Museum and Manuscript Library above
- "Timbuktu : a bibliography" (2001) by John O. Hunwick. Sudanic Africa: a journal of historical sources. (Online). Vol. 12 (2001). -- Bergen, Norway: University of Bergen, 1990-- (PDF format)
- Timbuktu: "In fabled city at the end of the earth, a treasury of ancient manuscripts." by Xan Rice.
The Guardian. (Online): July 2, 2007. (London, UK) ***Includes an audio slideshow.
- Tombouctou Manuscripts Project (University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa)
- This site offers a history of the project, recent project news, information about publications, and two full text e-books. "...[The project] first conceptualised in 2002, was officially established in 2003 to research and document manuscript tradition in Africa. Over the past seven years a Project team has been involved in the study of manuscript tradition in Africa, including manuscript translation, digitalisation and historical studies of book and library traditions."
- Timbuktu : script and scholarship: a catalogue of selected manuscripts from the exhibition. Edited by Lalou Meltzer, Lindsay Hooper, Gerald Klinghardt. Prepared by the Tombouctou Manuscripts Project and Iziko Social History Collections Department. -- Cape Town: Iziko, Museums of Cape Town; Pretoria: Department of Arts and Culture, Republic of South Africa; Timbuktu, Mali: Ahmed Baba, Institut des Hautes Etudes et de Recherchers Islamiques, 2008. 136 pages in PDF format
- From Istanbul to Timbuktu -- Ink routes. Prepared by the Tombouctou Manuscripts Project. Cape Town: TMP, University of Cape Town, 2009. 72 pages in PDF format
- Truth Commission Special Report (South African Broadcasting Corporation, in collaboration with The South African History Archive, Johannesburg, South Africa)This web site offers free access to the 87 episodes of this SABC TV news series; plus a digital document archive on the TRC, including transcripts from hearings and workshops. "Broadcast by the South African Broadcasting Corporation every week between 21 April 1996 and 29 March 1998, the 87-part 'Truth Commission Special Report' television series offers invaluable insights into the work of the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission during this period."
- UNESCO General History of Africa Collection, Volumes I-VIII (Paris, France)An open access version of the landmark series is now available in English, Arabic, Swahili, Portuguese, Fulfulde, and Hausa.
- United Kingdom. The National Archives: Africa Through a Lens (London)Digitized selections from an extensive archive of photographs from British colonial administrators and travellers in Africa, 1860-1960. See the digital image collection via Flickr.com.
- Universität Hamburg: Beta maṣāḥǝft: Manuscripts of Ethiopia and Eritrea Hiob Ludolf Centre for Ethiopian Studies. (Hamburg, Germany)A mounmental digital humanities project to catalogue and compile information on Ethiopian Orthodox Christian manuscript collections in Ethiopia, Eritrea, Germany and worldwide. " It aims at creating a virtual research environment that shall manage complex data related to the predominantly Christian manuscript tradition of the Ethiopian and Eritrean Highlands."
--See also: List of available digital images of Ethiopic manuscripts worldwide - Université Cheikh Anta Diop de Dakar (Dakar, Sénégal)
- Bibliothèque Numérique Université Cheikh Anta DiopRemarquez: en raison de la capacité du serveur, il se peut qu'on attende un petit moment pour accéder aux documents. "La bibliothèque numérique comprend plusieurs collections de documents: les thèses et les mémoires déposés à la bibliothèque, depuis la création de l'université le 24 février 1957 ; des articles publiés par les enseignants et chercheurs de l'Université; des publications de l'Université; des Ouvrages rares et précieux." Veuillez voir aussi: "Biens Culturels Africains" de l'IFAN ci-dessus
- Bibliothèque Numérique Université Cheikh Anta Diop
- University of California eScholarship Published in association with California Digital Library. (Berkeley, California)
- "Advanced Search" for all "African Studies" in the repository (books, conference papers, journal articles, etc.)
Includes full-text, online editions of books (usually without illustrations) such as:
-- Adam, Heribert & Kobila Moodley. The opening of the apartheid mind.
-- Butler, Jeffrey et al. The black homelands of South Africa...
-- Crehan, Kate. The fractured community ... rural Zambia.
-- Clancy-Smith, Julia A. Rebel and saint: Muslim notables, populist protest, colonial encounters (Algeria and Tunisia, 1800-1904).
-- Evans, Ivan T. Bureaucracy and race: native administration in South Africa.
-- Fadiman, Jeffrey. When we began, there were witchmen: an oral history from Mount Kenya.
-- Grinker, Roy Richard. Houses in the rainforest: ethnicity and inequality among farmers and foragers in central Africa.
-- Herbst, Jeffrey. The politics of reform in Ghana, 1982-1991.
-- Launay, Robert G. Beyond the stream: Islam and society in a West African town.
-- Leonard, David K. African successes: four public managers of Kenyan rural development.
-- Ntantala, Phyllis. A life's mosaic: the autobiography of ...
-- Sharp, Lesley. The possessed and the dispossessed ... Madagascar.
-- Schroeder, Richard A. Shady practices: agroforestry and gender politics in The Gambia.
-- Vail, Leroy. (ed.) The creation of tribalism in southern Africa.
-- Waltz, Susan E. Human rights and reform: changing the face of North African politics.
-- Widner, Jennifer A. The rise of a party-state in Kenya...
-- White, Luise. Speaking with vampires: rumor and history in colonial Africa.
- "Advanced Search" for all "African Studies" in the repository (books, conference papers, journal articles, etc.)
- University of California, Los Angeles: Modern Endangered Archives Program -- Africa Projects (Los Angeles, California)The website offers information about the program and provides access to all completed open access, archival projects in Burkina Faso, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ghana, Kenya, Lesotho, Mali, Nigeria, South Africa, and Sudan.
- University of Cape Town: UCT Libraries Digital Collections (Cape Town, South Africa)
- University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign -- Africana Digital Projects
- Africana: A Collection of Digitized Books -- Selected British Colonial Annual Reports and Despatches from The National Archives, USA, 1800-1939Browse records to access the full list and full texts in PDF or plain ASCII text formats.
- Maps of Africa to 1900 University Library, Library Digital Services and DevelopmentA 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).
- Africana: A Collection of Digitized Books -- Selected British Colonial Annual Reports and Despatches from The National Archives, USA, 1800-1939
- University of Kansas Libraries: Onitsha Market Literature--From the Bookstalls of a Nigerian Market (Lawrence, Kansas)"Onitsha Market Literature consists of stories, plays, advice and moral discourses published primarily in the 1960s by local presses in the lively market town of Onitsha, an important commercial site in the Igbo-speaking region of southeastern Nigeria. Twenty-one pamphlets appear here fully digitized and annotated to exemplify styles of expression found in this intriguing form of African popular literature. They are part of a unique collection of 101 pamphlets from Onitsha now held at the Spencer Research Library."
- University of London, School of Oriental and African Studies: Borno and Old Kanembu Islamic Manuscripts (London, UK)"...originates from Qur’anic manuscripts photographed by David Bivar in 1950s and donated to the SOAS Library in 2003. The initial collection consisted of four manuscripts represented by 230 folios in photographic and microfilm form, all subsequently digitised in 2005. In 2005-2007, in the course of fieldwork conducted by Dmitry Bondarev and Abba Isa Tijani in northern Nigeria, and in 2009-2013 by Dmitry Bondarev in Nigeria, Niger and the Republic of Chad, the corpus of digitised manuscripts was substantially increased to more than 5,000 folios."
- University of London, School of Oriental and African Studies: Swahili Manuscripts Project (London, UK)
- A digitized selection from the SOAS archives. "The collection includes about 450 manuscripts dating from 1790 to the late 20th century. The SOAS manuscripts originate from the Swahili coast and island archipelagos, in particular from Kilwa, Lamu, Mombasa, Pate, Siu and Zanzibar. The earliest manuscripts were collected in 19th century Mombasa by the scholar and member of the Church Missionary Society William Taylor and subsequently by scholars, editors and academics (including JWT Allen, William Hitchen, Jan Knappert, Alice Werner, Wilfred Whiteley, and Sheikh Yahya Ali Omar). SOAS Library acquired its first Swahili manuscript in 1920 and has continued to acquire manuscripts whenever possible since."
- University of Michigan, School of Information : "Music Time in Africa" Digitized Broadcasts, 1966-1996
(Ann Arbor, Michigan)
Part of: Music Time in Africa Archive."...a custom-built interface to digitized radio programs (1966-1996) and the associated scripts (if available)."
--See also: "Leo Sarkasian's Music Time in Africa: U-M Archivist, Anthropologist Revive Popular Voice of America Show, " November 14, 2019. University of Michigan, Office of the Vice President for Communications. (Ann Arbor, Michigan) - University of South Africa Institutional Repository (Pretoria, South Africa)
- University of Southern California Libraries, Digital Library (Los Angeles)
- Emerging Nationalism in Portuguese Africa, 1959-1965Digitized selections in "open access" from the Ronald H. Chilcote Papers held on microfilm: documentary ephemera on emerging nationalism in Portuguese Africa. Emphasis is on materials originating from the nationalist organizations of Angola and Mozambique with lesser amounts on the Cape Verde Islands, Guinea-Biasau, and Sao Tome and Principe. Also included are copies of United Nations documents relating to Portuguese Africa.
- International Mission Photography Archive, c1860-1960"...offers historical images from Protestant and Catholic missionary collections in Britain, Norway, Germany, France, Switzerland, and the United States. The photographs, which range in time from the middle of the nineteenth to the middle of the twentieth century, offer a visual record of missionary activities and experiences in Africa, China, Madagascar, India, Papua-New Guinea, and the Caribbean."
- Emerging Nationalism in Portuguese Africa, 1959-1965
- University of Stellenbosch Library---SUN Digital Collections (Matieland, Stellenbosch, South Africa)Selected digitized primary sources from the university archives and special collections ---in Afrikaans, Dutch, and English. The digital collections include Beyers Naudé Collection ; Andre Pretorius Collection ; Frederik van Zyl Slabbert Collection ; and, Institute for Democratic Alternatives Collection--Interviews and Photographs.
--See also: University of Stellenbosch Library - University of the Witwatersrand Library--Historical Papers Department: Collections Database (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 ; Records of the Anglican Church of Southern Africa ; and Traces of Truth: Documents relating to the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission
--See also above: South African History Archive - University of Wisconsin Digital Collections. (Madison, Wisconsin)--Africa Focus: Sights and Sounds of a Continent consisting of an archive of photographs, links to related material, African Studies Collection (e-books), and South African Voices (life history transcripts and audio files).
- University of Zambia Research Repository (Lusaka, Zambia) Since 2002
--See also: University of Zambia Home Page -and- University of Zambia Library - Voices of Rwanda (Kigali, Rwanda; USA)The web site offers a description of the project, sample video testimonies from Rwandan genocide survivors, and related information. "Voices of Rwanda recognizes Rwandans’ need to share their stories and the value of their histories for all people. Toward that end, Voices of Rwanda has begun a campaign to film testimonies of Rwandans and to archive them, in both Rwanda and the United States."
- West African Arabic Manuscript Project & Database (Prof. Charles C. Stewart and Bruce Stewart Hall, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, Illinois; University of California, Berkeley)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.
- World Digital Library on Africa -and- The Middle East and North Africa (Paris, France)This site offers a relatively small selection (122 items for Africa and 157 for the Middle East/North Africa) of digitized rare books, maps, and documents which can be downloaded. UNESCO, Bibliotheca Alexandrina, The Library of Congress of the USA, and many other institutions have partnered to launch this project.