Primary Sources - Africa - History - Research Guides at Temple University

Primary Source Databases for African History

Apartheid South Africa (1948-1980) This link opens in a new window
Apartheid South Africa makes available British government files from the Foreign, Colonial, Dominion and Foreign and Commonwealth Offices spanning the period 1948 to 1980.
Black Abolitionist Papers This link opens in a new window
Black Abolitionist Papers Contains writings and publications of African American activists against slavery, covering the period 1830-1865. The articles, documents, correspondence, proceedings, manuscripts, and literary works of Black abolitionists show the full range of their activities in the United States, Canada, England, Scotland, Ireland, France and Germany.
Confidential Print: Africa (1834-1966) This link opens in a new window
Confidential Print: Africa includes single-page letters or telegrams to comprehensive dispatches, investigative reports and texts of treaties that were circulated immediately to leading officials in the Foreign Office, to the Cabinet and to heads of British missions abroad.
Slavery, Abolition and Social Justice, 1490-2007 This link opens in a new window
Slavery, Abolition and Social Justice, 1490-2007 contains resources pertaining to slavery and abolition studies, bringing together documents and collections covering 1490-2007, from libraries and archives across the Atlantic world.

Free Online Primary Sources for African History

Digital Schomburg - New York Public Library
Relying on the expertise of distinguished curators and scholars, Digital Schomburg provides access to trusted information, interpretation, and scholarship on the global black experience.
Endangered Archives: Africa
British library effort to digitize endangered materials including photographs, manuscripts, and government documents from various countries.
Images of Colonialism
This visual record of early European contacts with Africa and Asia is a primary visual resource for historical and socio-cultural studies.
Wilson Center Digital Archive
The Digital Archive contains once-secret documents from governments all across the globe, uncovering new sources and providing fresh insights into the history of international relations and diplomacy.

North & East African Newspapers

Global Press Archive: Middle Eastern and North African Newspapers This link opens in a new window
The Middle Eastern and North African Newspapers (MENA) collection is predominantly in Arabic, but also includes key titles in English and French. The collection comprises mostly out-of-copyright, orphaned content from 1870 on, and Temple users can also access five in-copyright titles from the region: Jumhuriyah (الجمهورية, Egypt), Filastin (فلسطين, Palestine), Al Akhbar (الاخبار, Lebanon), Al Riadh (الرياض, Saudi Arabia), and Ad Dustour (الدستور, Jordan).
Global Press Archive: East African Newspapers This link opens in a new window
The East African Newspapers features key newspapers from the region from the 1940s to the early 2000s. This growing collection currently includes over 475,000 pages total from three titles: Daily Nation (Kenya), The Ethiopian Herald, and The Monitor (Uganda).