Africa

Guides and Bibliographies: General Guides and Bibliographies  --  Local Government Documents  --  Archival Sources  --  Biography

Document Collections:  General Document Collections  --  Central Government Sources  --  Treaties  --  Local Government Sources  --  Statistics  --  Pamphlets  --  Personal Accounts  --  Literature

Guides and Bibliographies

General Guides and Bibliographies

Bibliographical Essays and Bibliographies in:
The Cambridge history of Africa. Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press. 8 v. 1975-1986.
--v. 1. From the earliest times to c. 500 B.C -- v. 2. From c. 500 B.C. to A.D. 1050 -- v. 4. From c. 1600 to c. 1790 -- v. 5. From c. 1790 to c. 1870 -- v. 6. From 1870 to 1905 -- v. 7. From 1905 to 1940 -- v. 8. From c. 1940 to c. 1975
HOLLIS Record with Online Access

Africa : a guide to reference material, by John McIlwaine. 2nd ed. Lochcarron, Scotland : Hans Zell, 2007, 608 p.
Widener | RR 3970.1.20
HOLLIS Record 
Lists government and colonial yearbooks and other publications. Post-1938 material only. Pre-1938 publications are listed in the 1st ed.

Africa : a guide to reference material, by John McIlwaine. London ; New York : Hans Zell Publishers, 1993, 507 p.
HOLLIS Record

Africa: Reference lists reference works in print about the African collections of the British Library, and about African studies generally. See separate pages for internet links for African studies, and for e-resources and the British Library's African collections in general (text from BL website).

A bibliographical guide to colonialism in Sub-Saharan Africa, by Peter Duigan and L.H. Gann. (Colonialism in Africa, 1870-1960, v. 5) Cambridge, Univ. Press, 1973, 552 p.
HOLLIS Record 
Internet Archive Full Text

Local Government Documents

Library of Congress African Section guides

Official publications of British East Africa, compiled by Helen F. Conover and Audrey A. Walker. Washington: Library of Congress, 1960-63, 4 v.
Location : Documents (Lamont) Afr Doc 3002.5
Location : Widener Harvard Depository Ref 688.35
--Pt. 1. The East Africa High Commission and other regional documents.
--pt. 2. Tanganyika.
--pt. 3. Kenya and Zanzibar.
--pt. 4. Uganda

"government publications" and Uganda and bibliography  (Bibliography must be searched as a Subject keyword)

Bibliographies of African Official Publications (Stanford guide)

Archival Sources

Guides, Collections and Ancillary Materials to African Archival Resources in the United States

Accidental archives: tracing Africa in the India Office Private Papers in the British Library, by Marion Wallace. African Research & Documentation. 2005, Issue 98, p. 23-39.
Location :  Widener Afr 28.162  (Obtainable via Scan&Deliver; online only since 2006)

.A guide to manuscripts and documents in the British Isles relating to the Middle East and North Africa, by Noel Matthews and M. Doreen Wainwright; ed. by J. D. Pearson. Oxford; NY: Oxford University Press, 1980, 482 p.
Widener | WID-LC | CD1048.N4 M37

A guide to manuscripts and documents in the British Isles relating to Africa, by J.D. Pearson. London; NY: Mansell, 1993-1994. 2 v.
Widener | WID-LC | CD1048.A3 P43 1993
--v. 1. London -- v. 2. British Isles (excluding London).

Biography

The Anglo-African who's who and biographical sketch-book. (1905, 1910) - Google Books version (1905)  - Online version (1907)  - HOLLIS record

Central and East African who's who, 1955. - HOLLIS record

The Central and East African directory, 1956- . - HOLLIS record

African leaders: a bibliography with indexes, ed. by Stephen N. Colamery and Tatiana Shohov. Commack, NY: Nova Science Publishers, 1999, 249 p. 
HOLLIS Record with list of those included

Document Collections

General Document Collections

Great Britain. Colonial Office. The exploration and colonization of Africa (1794-1844). 14 microfilm reels + 1 guide (38 p.)
CRL (Ctr for Research Libs)

Central Government Sources

Confidential print: Africa, 1834-1966 contains printed material, from single letters to large volumes, circulated to officials in the Foreign or Colonial Office, to the Cabinet, and to heads of British missions abroad. Nature and Scope

Treaties

The map of Africa by treaty, by E. Hertslet; revised and completed to the end of 1908 by R. W. Bryant and H. L. Sherwood. 3rd ed. London, Cass, 1967. 3 v. [Originally published, London, H.M.S.O., 1909]
v. 1. Nos. 1-94: British Colonies, Protectorates and possessions in Africa.
v. 2. Nos. 95-259: Abyssinia to Great Britain and France.
v. 3. Nos. 260-382: Great Britain and Germany to United States appendix, and index to the three volumes.
Widener | Afr 500.7.4
--Includes texts of treaties between African and European countries and between European countries pertaining to Africa. Illustrated with large fold-out maps.

Local Government Publications

Documents published by the colonial administrations are findable in a variety of ways.

Do a HOLLIS search: "government publications" and Uganda.

Do a HOLLIS Author search on Uganda.

Do a call number browse on the HOLLIS at Starts with/Browse:  Widener Call Number Afr Doc 4002.

Government Publications Relating to African Countries Prior to Independence. This list can be browsed and publications found looked up in HOLLIS. If Harvard does not own them, they can be obtained via Interlibrary Loan from the Center for Research Libraries..

Microfilm collections in the series Government Publications relating to African Countries prior to Independence can be searched as a phrase (in "") in HOLLIS with your country added as a keyword. Material not held by Harvard can be obtained via Interlibrary Loan from the Center for Research Libraries

Government publications relating to Basutoland, 1868-1966
Government publications relating to Kenya and the East Africa High Commission, 1897-1963.
Government publications relating to Nigeria, 1862-1960
Government publications relating to Nyasaland, 1891-1964
Government publications relating to Sierra Leone, 1808-1961
Government publications relating to Southern Rhodesia, 1889-1963
Government publications relating to the Cape of Good Hope to 1910
Government publications relating to the Gambia, 1822-1965
Government publications relating to the Gold Coast, 1846-1957
Government publications relating to Uganda, 1900-1962
Government publications relating to Zanzibar, 1860-1963.

Statistics

The country Blue Books contain statistical and other information on agriculture, education, transport, imports and exports, crime, hospitals, health, laws passed, expenditures and revenue, etc., together with the name, date appointed, and salary of colonial officials.

:Colonial Africa in Official Statistics, 1821-1953: Reports by colonial governors (Blue Books) on the condition of their colonies.

Find them in HOLLIS by searching the country and the phrase “blue book”. Example:

Nyasaland. Blue book.
Documents (Lamont) | Afr Doc 3603.5 F (Holdings:  1904/5-Dec. 1929 incomplete)

Pamphlets

Pamphlets relating to Egypt, 1884-90 / Great Britain, Parliament. --Includes documents and letters of the British Parliament, Adjutant-General, Treasury Dept. Foreign Office, Colonial Office, and War Office.

Great Britain Colonial Office pamphlets about Africa : microfilm 698, Duquesne University Library : contents listing / by Donald Vrabel. Pittsburgh, PA : Duquesne University Library, 1974. 180 leaves in various foliations.
CRL (Ctr for Research Libs) | [To obtain CRL items, submit an Interlibrary Loan request

Personal Accounts

African voices on slavery and the slave trade, by Alice Bellagamba et al., Sandra E. Greene. NY: Cambridge University Press, 2013, 563 p.  
HOLLIS Record
--Offers first person accounts with introductions and contextualization drawn from memoirs, oral histories, interviews, proverbs, folklore, court records and other sources

African voices on slavery and the slave trade. Volume 2, Essays on sources and methods, edited by Alice Bellagamba, Sandra E. Greene and Martin A. Klein. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2016, 288 pages.
HOLLIS Record

Five hundred African voices: a catalog of published accounts by Africans enslaved in the Transatlantic slave trade, 1586-1936 Author(s):     , Aaron Spencer Fogleman and Robert Hanserd. Philadelphia : American Philosophical Society Press, 2022, 513 pages

African voices of the global past: 1500 to the present, ed. by Trevor R. Getz Boulder, Colorado : Westview Press, A Member of the Perseus Books Group, 2013, 223 pp.
--Each chapter has section with personal accounts

Tales from the Dark Continent, ed. by Charles Allen and Helen Fry. New York : St. Martin's Press, 1979, 166 pages
Based on a series of interviews with British colonial officers in Africa which was first broadcast on BBC radio in 1979.
HOLLIS Record

Africa through Western eyes: manuscript records of traders, travellers, soldiers, missionaries and diplomats in Africa. Marlborough, Wiltshire, England: Adam Matthew Publications, 1999-
HOLLIS Record

Literature

African voices; an anthology of native African writing, ed. by Peggy Rutherfoord. New York, Vanguard Press, 1960, 208 p.
First published in 1958 under title: Darkness and light.
Subjects
African literature -- Translations into English
Africa -- Literary collections
HOLLIS Record