Research Guides: African Studies Research Guide: Primary Sources

What is a Primary Source?

Historians make distinctions between what they call primary sources and secondary sources. Primary sources are firsthand accounts of events, recorded or produced by witnesses or recorders who were present at the time of the event or experienced the conditions being documented. Primary sources are characterized by their content, regardless of whether they are available in original, microfilm/microfiche, digital format, or published format. Historians carefully read and evaluate primary sources to make decisions about how and why things happened as they did.

A secondary source is a work that interprets or analyzes an historical event or phenomenon. It is generally at least one-step removed from the event. Examples include scholarly or popular books and articles, reference books, and textbooks.

Emory Only African Studies Primary Source Collection (ACCESS LIMITED TO BY EMORY ID & PASSWORD)

World Newspaper Archive : African Newspapers, Series 1 This link opens in a new window
Contains newspapers published between 1800 and 1922 in various countries in Africa, including Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, and more.

World Newspaper Archives African Newspapers Series 2
2nd series of African newspapers 1835-1925

African History and Culture Imprints from the Library Company of Philadelphia (1540-1921) This link opens in a new window
Contains books, pamphlets, almanacs, broadsides and ephemera related to the history of Africa. This collection is a subset of the database Afro-Americana Imprints.
African Newspapers: The British Library Collection This link opens in a new window
African Newspapers: The British Library Collection features 64 newspapers from Djibouti, Egypt, Mauritius and Saint Helena, as well as Ghana, Nigeria, Sierra Leone and South Africa, all published before 1901.
African Newspapers: The British Library Collection includes publications from Djibouti, Egypt, Mauritius and Saint Helena, as well as deep new coverage of Ghana, Nigeria, Sierra Leone and South Africa. Africa produced comparatively few newspapers in the 19th century, each page in this collection is significant, offering invaluable insight into the people, issues and events that shaped the continent. Through eyewitness reporting, editorials, letters, advertisements. obituaries and military reports, the newspapers in this one-of-a-kind collection chronicle African history and daily life as never before. Students and researchers will find news and analysis covering the European exploration of Africa, colonial exploitation, economics, Atlantic trade, the mapping of the continent, early moves towards self-governance, the growth of South Africa and much more.
Aluka: Digital Library of Scholarly Resources from and about Africa This link opens in a new window
Resources from and about Africa. Also features scholarly descriptions and images of historical and cultural sites from the African Cultural Heritage. Accessible though JSTOR.
Apartheid South Africa 1948-1980 This link opens in a new window
Contains British government files from the Foreign, Colonial, Dominion and Foreign and Commonwealth Offices from British government files from 1948 to 1980. Some of the materials here were previously restricted.
Archives Unbound, Evangelism in Africa: Correspondence of the Board of Foreign Missions, 1935-1910 This link opens in a new window
Access the Board of Foreign Missions records of the Presbyterian Church. Features correspondence, diary accounts, sermon manuscripts, field accounts, and more.
Archives Unbound: Liberia And The US: Nation-Building in Africa 1864-1918 This link opens in a new window
Consists of documents sent and received by the United States’ diplomatic post in Liberia, including correspondence and telegrams.
British Online Archives This link opens in a new window
Contains a variety of government documents including selected Blue Books for various colonies, 1821-1953. Blue Books are important annual documents containing statistics and the general status of each colony prepared by the colonial governor. Also Gold Coast records from the archives of the USPG, 1886-1951and other missionary records. Currently Emory does not have access to all BOA's online collections.
Confidential Print: Africa, 1834-1966 This link opens in a new window
Access the UK’s correspondence relating to Africa between 1834 and 1966. Contains official documents on colonization, imperial expansion, indigenous resistance, and more.
East African Newspapers This link opens in a new window
The East African Newspapers collection features key newspapers from the region from the 1940s to the early 2000s.
Foreign Broadcast Information Service (FBIS) Full-Text This link opens in a new window
Contains the daily reports issued by the U.S. Government from 1941-1996, including translated broadcasts, news agency transmissions, newspapers, periodicals, and more from the Middle East & Africa, Middle East & North Africa, Near East & South Asia Africa (Sub-Sahara), South Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa Eastern Europe, East Europe Soviet Union, and Central Eurasia.
New York Times Historical This link opens in a new window
Access New York Times articles dating back to 1851. Materials from 1851-1980 are available in either full-text or partial articles. Full text articles are available for all content post-1980.
Full-text searching and browsing capabilities are available. Users may choose to display and download in PDF format either the full image of any page or just the individual article they need. Additional years of coverage will be added annually.
ProQuest History This link opens in a new window
Contains 38 historical databases covering primary sources such as newspapers, magazines, government documents, first-hand accounts, and more.

South Africa: The Making of U.S. Policy, 1962–1989
This collection provides a contemporary record of changing U.S. responses to historical events in South Africa from 1962 to 1989.

The Times Digital Archive This link opens in a new window
Full page and article images of the Times (London) with searchable full text, including searchable advertisements and photographs, back to the first issue.
The collection includes digital reproductions providing access to every page from every available issue. This archive does not include the Sunday Times, a newspaper independent of the Times. Coverage: 1785-1985. (Use Nexis Uni for Times issues July 1, 1985 to present)
Voyages: Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database This link opens in a new window
Provides comprehensive data on the Atlantic slave trade, including information on ships, crew, slave cargo, and routes along with maps and other resources.
World News Connection This link opens in a new window
Offers English translations of news originally published in other languages culled from articles, broadcasts, online sources, and more. Successor to the Foreign Broadcast Information Service. COVERAGE ENDS IN DECEMBER, 2013.
Compiled from thousands of non-U.S. media sources, the information in WNC covers socioeconomic, political, scientific, technical, and environmental issues and events.

African Origins African Origins contains information about the migration histories of Africans forcibly carried on slave ships into the Atlantic

Rand Daily Mail (Newspaper) - Microfilm 927 (1970-1981) Found in the microfilm cases in the basement (1st floor) of Woodruff Library