LibGuides: African Studies: Digital Archives and Collections

Digital Collections

Africa Embracing Obama
This collection documents the extraordinary cultural outpouring of celebratory materials from across the continent of Africa. They represent Africa’s pride in, ownership of and hopefulness for the candidacy and presidency of Barack Obama.
Africa Focus: Sights and Sounds of a Continent
Thousands of images and audio files from 45 countries in Africa.
Africana Historic Postcard Collection
Provides a visual record of Africa and Its people during the historically intensive years of European colonialism, from 1895 to 1960
African Digital Research Repositories
Repositories within the African continent compiled by the International African Institute as a service to African studies research and scholarship.
African Government Web Archive
The African Government Web Archive provides links to information from key African government ministries, institutions and organizations for the 51 countries in Africa south of the Sahara.
Emerging Nationalism in Portuguese Africa, 1959-1965
Documentary ephemera on emerging nationalism in Portuguese Africa, collected by Ronald H. Chilcote in the course of research he did for his book, Emerging Nationalism in Portuguese Africa, Documents are primarily from Angola, Guiné-Bissau, Cabo Verde, and Mozambique.
Endangered Archives Programme
Digitized material from British Library. Search or browse collections using the filters on the left (ex. Project country or Related placaes)
Images of Colonialism
Digitized photographs from Harvard Library
Images of Commemorative Fabrics from Africa
A collection of digitized commemorative textiles from various African countries. From University of Wisconsin-Madison
International Mission Photography Archive
ca. 1850-1960.
National Archives (UK)
Images from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office photographic collection
Voyages en Afrique | Gallica
Collection of historic books including early travel accounts, images, and maps of Africa. In French.

American Museum Congo Expedition 1909-1915
Scientific texts, maps, and images relating to the expedition.
Archives of French Equatorial Africa (Brazzaville)
The archives of the general government of the AEF kept in Brazzaville. These archives constitute a heritage shared between Congo-Brazzaville, Gabon, the Central African Republic, Chad and France.
British Documents on the End of Empire Project: Central Africa
“This volume traces British policy towards Northern Rhodesia (Zambia), Southern Rhodesia (Zimbabwe), and Nyasaland (Malawi) from the end of the Second World War to Southern Rhodesia’s unilateral declaration of independence (UDI) in November 1965. The principal focus of the volume is the rise and fall of the Central African Federation, which from 1953-1963 brought these three territories together in an unhappy and ill-fated marriage.”
H. K. Banda Archive, 1924-2005
This collection consists of the papers of Dr. Hastings Kamuzu Banda, former Life President of Malawi, and those of his official biographer, Dr. Donald Brody, dating mostly from the 1950s to the 1990s.
Livingstone Online
A digital museum and library that allows users to encounter the written, visual, and material legacies of David Livingstone (1813-73).

IFRA Nairobi Press Archive
French Institute for Research in Africa (IFRA) has gathered East African newspapers since the late 1970s. Their collection includes clippings from Kenyan Newspapers (Daily Nation, the Standard, the East African, Kenya Times), Ugandan Newspapers (New Vision, The Monitor) and Tanzanian Newspaper (The Guardian).
Kenya Gazette
Partial collection of the Kenya Gazette, an official publication of the government of the Republic of Kenya. It contains notices of new legislation, notices required to be published by law or policy as well as other announcements that are published for general public information.
Kenya National Assembly Official Record
Partial collection of the official records of the proceedings of the Legislative Council of the Colony and Protectorate of Kenya, the House of Representatives of the Government of Kenya and the National Assembly of the Republic of Kenya.
Mozambique History Net
Includes selected newspaper clippings and other resources dealing with contemporary Mozambican history and presented in a thematically organised form. Most content is in Portuguese.
Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o Manuscript Collection
1950s-2104. The Ngũgĩ mss. consist of the papers of Kenyan author, playwright, essayist, educator, and activist Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o.
Uganda Christian University Archives
Digitized documents of the Church of Uganda that date back to its foundation, in 1877, by the Church Missionary Society of the Church of England.
Voices from the Rwanda Tribunal Project
The Voices from the Rwanda Tribunal collection contains 49 video interviews conducted with personnel from the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR). Collected in 2008, these interviews reveal the challenges of striving for justice and reconciliation after genocide.

Horn of Africa

Archivio Somalia
Contains documents and research materials gathered by the Centre of Somali Studies at the University of Roma Tre. There is also an archive of Somali Law Bulletins from 1950-1989.
Ethiopic Manuscripts
The manuscripts range in date from the sixteenth to the twentieth centuries, with bulk dates in the 1700s and 1800s. The codices are primarily service books of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church and also include a few rare Jewish manuscripts written in Ge’ez and Agaw, and fourteen magical prayers
Horn of Africa Crisis
This is a collection of primary source documents related to the conflict between Somalia and Ethiopia in the late 1970s (also known as the 1977-1978 Ogaden War or the Ethiopian-Somali Conflict).
Martin Rikli Photograph Collection
Photographs by filmmaker Martin Rikli (1898-1969) include descriptions from his voyage to Ethiopia, 1935-1936. He documented defensive preparations in Addis Ababa during the Second Italo–Abyssinian War along with the ensuing chaos.

al-Ahrām
1956-2014. This has long been regarded as Egypt’s most authoritative and influential newspaper, and one of the most important newspapers in the Arab world, with a circulation of over 1 million.
Barbary Treaties 1786-1836
British Documents on the End of Empire Project: Egypt & the Defence of the Middle East
1945-1956. British government documents related to Egypt and the greater Middle East.
British Documents on the End of Empire Project: Sudan
1942-1956. Documents related to Sudanese decolonization from Britain
Crisis in Darfur 2006 Web Archive
The web archive preserves documentation of the early phase of this humanitarian crisis for future historians with websites of key organizations, a sampling of news reports, and the responses of government, international organizations and the general public in the U.S. and worldwide
Documents - President Gamal Abdel Nasser
Primary documents, photographs and speeches from the life of Gamal Abdul Nasser
Duke Papyrus Archive
The archive provides electronic access to texts about and images of nearly 1400 papyri from ancient Egypt
Sudan Archive
The Sudan Archive was founded in 1957, the year after Sudanese independence, to collect and preserve the papers of administrators from the Sudan Political Service, missionaries, soldiers, business people, doctors, agriculturalists, teachers and others who had served or lived in the Sudan (now Sudan and South Sudan) during the Anglo-Egyptian Condominium (1898-1955).

African National Congress
Historic documents, speeches, and other materials can be found under the "Documents" drop-down.
British Concentration Camps of the South African War
A database of those registered in the camps during the war. This database was designed to investigate mortality and morbidity in the camps during the war.
Digital Innovation South Africa
DISA is a freely accessible online scholarly resource 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, providing a wealth of material on this fascinating period of the country’s history.
Digital Namibian Archive
A collection of 13k documents
National Library of South African Digital Collections
Primarily 19th and 20th century South African newspapers, as well as postcards, posters and more
Nelson Mandela Centre of Memory Online Archive
Ongoing project to digitize the personal and official papers of Nelson Mandela.
SALDRU Clippings Collection, 1975 - 2000
Newspaper clippings gathered by the Southern Africa Labour and Development Research Unit at the University of Cape Town. This collection documents a crucial quarter century of South Africa's history
Sharpeville Massacre Collection
Complete transcripts from the trial related to the 1960 Sharpesville massacre in South Africa. The documents are from the testimony presented to the Commission of Enquiry and to the courts in the case Regina vs. Monyake.
South Africa: Overcoming Apartheid, Building Democracy
Interviews with South African activists, raw video footage documenting mass resistance and police repression, historical documents, rare photographs, and original narratives tell a remarkable story.
South African History Archive
SAHA's archival collections are largely made up of documents, posters, photographs, ephemera and oral histories donated to SAHA by individuals and organizations involved in past and ongoing struggles for justice in South Africa.
South African History Online
The SAHO archive is a unique feature of its website. It contains more than 50.000 documents, videos and images. The material in the archive is linked to features and acts as reference for articles, biographies, and other section of the website.
South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission
Documents from the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
Southern Rhodesia Government Gazette
1957-Apr 17, 1980 issues digitized at the Center for Research Libraries
University of Cape Town Digital Collections
UCT Libraries Digital Collections represent a selection of material available through UCT’s archival holdings.
University of South Africa Library Digital Collections
Includes document collections like the Thabo Mbeki Presidential Collection, Marivate Papers, scans of The Light and Valdezia Bulletin, and more.
Zambian Storytellers
Video and audio recordings from professor of African and Comparative Literature Robert Cancel's research in Zambia and other regions of Africa. Footage documents oral histories and folk tales of a culture rich in oral traditions.

Ancient Manuscripts from the Desert Libraries of Timbuktu (Library of Congress Online Exhibition)
Dating from the 16th to the 18th centuries, the ancient manuscripts presented in this exhibition cover every aspect of human endeavor and are indicative of the high level of civilization attained by West Africans during the Middle Ages.
Atlantic Slave Trade and Slave Life in the Americas: A Visual Record
1200 images depicting the slave trade in Africa and the Americas
British Documents on the End of Empire Project: Ghana
1941-1957. This collection of documents is intended to illuminate some of the processes which led to the end of British colonial rule in the Gold Coast on 6 March 1957.
British Documents on the End of Empire Project: Nigeria
1943-1960. The book series of this name (London, 1992–) consists of multiple volumes of selected source material from the UK National Archives dealing with British decolonization in Nigeria.
Daily Observer Digital Archive
Founded in 1981, the Daily Observer is Liberia’s best-known, independent, national newspaper. The Daily Observer is notable for its coverage of the modern history of Liberia—including the Liberian Civil War and through its current phase of development.
G.I. Jones Photographic Archive of Southeastern Nigeria Art and Culture
The photographs were taken in the 1930s by the late G. I. Jones. The photographs are unique for the quality of the photography, and the cultural and historical significance of photographic records from this time period in Nigeria.
Islam Burkina Faso Collection
This is an open access digital database containing over 2,900 archival documents, newspaper articles, Islamic publications of various kinds, and photographs on Islam and Muslims in Burkina Faso since the 1960s.
A Liberian Journey
A Liberian Journey offers a look into the lives and landscapes transformed by the arrival of Firestone Plantations Company in Liberia and includes exhibits, photographs, films, oral histories, and documents.
Liberian Letters
Two collections of letters written by former slaves from Virginia who settled in Liberia: Samson Ceasar's letters to David S. Haselden and Henry F. Westfall, 1834-1835 and Letters from the former slaves of Terrell, 1857-1866.
Liberian Photograph Collections
The collection holds over 30,000 images from the 1940s to the present. Photographers include Liberian and American government officials and employees, private citizens, missionaries, development workers, concessions employees and ethnographic researchers.
Omar Ibn Said Collection
The Omar Ibn Said Collection consists of 42 digitized documents in both English and Arabic, including an 1831 manuscript in Arabic on "The Life of Omar Ibn Said," a West African slave in America, which is the centerpiece of this unique collection of texts.
Open Source Guinea
A PhD researcher's collection of archival sources gathered during their studies. The sources trace amongst other things, the migrants and labourers in and around the plantation island of Fernando Pó, moving along the intersections of the Spanish, British and French empires and through numerous societies in Equatorial Guinea, Nigeria, Liberia, Cameroon and Gabon for most of the twentieth century.
Slavery and Manumission Manuscripts of Timbuktu
Digitized versions of approximately 200 19th-century manuscripts (in Arabic) relating to slavery and manumission in Timbuktu. These provide documentation on Africans in slavery in Muslim societies.
Voyages: The Transatlantic Slave Trade Database
Information on more than 30,000 voyages with enslaved people
West African Arabic Manuscript Database
A database/union catalogue of Arabic and Arabic-script writing from West Africa
William V.S. Tubman Papers, 1904-1992
Tubman was Liberia's longest serving President and this collection includes papers from the years of his presidency, his personal correspondence and memorabilia from Tubman’s family.

Local Archives

African Studies Materials at the Harry Ransom Center, UT Austin

The Harry Ransom Center (HRC) at UT Austin has numerous materials important to the study of African history, cultures, and literary traditions.

Of special note are the papers of writer Amos Tutuola, The Transcription Centre Collection which includes extensive correspondence with Wole Soyinka, and the papers of poet Christopher Okigbo.

See their African Studies research guide for an overview of holdings at the HRC.