African Studies

From 1936 to 1938 over 2,300 former slaves from across the American South were interviewed by writers and journalists under the aegis of the Works Progress Administration. This web site provides an opportunity to read a sample of these narratives, and to see some of the photographs taken at the time of the interviews, and to hear sound files of some interviews.

Includes video interviews of survivors, photographs, maps and textual documents.

Interviews featuring scholars and their work on aspects of history, culture and politics of Africa, and Africans; hosted at Michigan State University by historians Peter Limb and Peter Alegi. Highly recommended for students and faculty alike.

A collection of images of the experiences of Africans who were enslaved and transported to the Americas and the lives of their descendants in the slave societies of the New World.

A collection of 590 posters reflecting the culture and politics of contemporary African nations (from Northwestern University)

“The 7,000-plus photographs in this extraordinary collection document the changing relationships among Africans and between Africans and Europeans during 100 years of dramatic historic change,” says Herskovits Library curator David Easterbrook. Northwestern University

James J. Ross Archive of African Images 1590 - 1920. A database of published images of African art.

"A set of thousands of images taken from a broader photographic collection of British Foreign Office and Commonwealth Office images, held at The National Archives [of Great Britain]. Starting with some incredible early photographs from the 1860s, the images span over 100 years of African history. These images are now available, for the first time, to view online."--The National Archives website.

The Library, Documentation and Information Department of the African Studies Centre Leiden (ASC) has compiled this web dossier to coincide with the 40th anniversary of the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie (OIF).

2 volumes. To download, print pages, etc., click on desired volume number; > "See full PDF document (opens in new window)."

A very useful primary source on West, East and South Africa esp. mission history: “SIM International Archives For a growing collection of periodicals, theses, manuscripts and books”

The Southern African Legal Information Institute (SAFLII) collects and publishes legal materials from Southern and Eastern Africa for free online access.

This site is based on the work carried out by ECOWAS ECOWAS and the SWAC in order to promote regional integration in West Africa. Subjects already worked out include: transport, telecommunications, the ecologically vulnerable zone of Sahelian countries, cotton, migration, transboundary river basins, languages, Africa-China, oil and gas, rural areas, coffee, cocoa, demographic trends, climate and communicable diseases.

Guide to the collections and services at the Zanzibar National Archives.

The African Activist Archive is preserving and making available online the records of activism in the United States to support the struggles of African peoples against colonialism, apartheid, and social injustice from the 1950s through the 1990s.

"206 manuscripts selected by Abdel Kader Haidara, Curator of the Bibliotheque Commemorative Mama Haidara and John O. Hunwick, Professor of History and Religion, Northwestern University, from the Bibliothèque Commémorative Mama Haidara in Timbuktu, Mali, a collection of 19th century manuscripts relating to slavery and manumission in Timbuktu. The materials, in Arabic, provide documentation on Africans in slavery in Muslim societies. Description and content notes are provided in English."--from product description

Swahili literary manuscripts in Arabic script selectively digitized; includes some audio files. From the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London. Microfilm edition available at the UCLA Library.