Africana Resources

Catalog

Subject Search Terms Examples:

  • Africa; Africa ‘+’ (i.e. Economic Conditions; Ethnology; History; Politics and Government; Social Conditions)
  • Africa Sub Saharan; Africa Sub Saharan ‘+’ (see the first example)
  • Africa West (or North, Northeast, East, Southern, Central); Africa West ‘+’ (see the first example)
  • Specific Country on the African continent (i.e. Nigeria; ‘Nigeria’  ‘+’; ‘Kenya’ ‘+’).
  • Apartheid

Keyword Search Terms Examples:

  • African Art
  • Genocide Rwanda
  • Sahara

Dictionaries & Encyclopedias

Africa South of the Sahara 2012  REF DT 351 .A37 2001
Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African and
African American Experience
DT 14 .A37435 1999
The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Africa REF DT 3 .C35 1981
Encyclopedia of Africa South of the Sahara (4 Vols.) REF DT 351 .E53 1997
Encyclopedia of Precolonial Africa: Archaeology,
History, Languages, Cultures, and Environments
REF DT 2 .E53 1997
Encyclopedia of World Cultures Vol.9: Africa and the Middle East REF GN 550 .E53 1991
Historical Dictionary of Civil Wars in Africa  REF DT 21.5 .A76 1999
Historical Dictionary of (specific African Country) Search catalog
Microsoft Encarta Africana (2 CD Roms) REF DT 14 .M527 1999
The Peoples of Africa: An Ethnohistorical Dictionary REF GN 645 .O47 1996
Political Leaders in Black Africa: A Biographical
Dictionary of the Major Politicians Since Independence
DT 352.8 .W57 1991


 
Databases & Indexes

ProQuest

FirstSearch

JSTOR

WorldCat

Periodicals 

  • Search a data base such as ProQuest to find online issues.
  • Titles followed by Print may be found in the library’s Periodical Section and may also be found online.
  • The library has current issues of some but not all periodicals in the collection.
  • Africa
  • Africa Report Print
  • Africa Today
  • African Affairs Print
  • African Studies Print
  • Journal of African History Print
  • Journal of Modern African Studies Print
  • Journal of Southern African Studies
  • Transition
  • West Africa

Web Resources 

Arts

Smithsonian
The National Museum of African Art website. Links on current exhibitions and permanent collections. Many graphics.

E-Journals

Africa Update.
Quarterly newsletter of the African Studies Department, Central Connecticut State University. Since 1993

African Studies Quarterly
A peer reviewed e-journal for Africa Studies. It has a well-known editorial board and has been published online since 1997.

Education

African Virtual University
The African Virtual University is a project sponsored by the World Bank in cooperation with selected US and European universities to promote information technologies in the class room. There are currently over 23 participating African universities.

Association of African Universities
Homepage of the AAU, an international non-governmental organization based in Ghana. Numerous documents, links to newsletters and university web sites.

Environment

African Forest.
Information and maps on the state of African forests. Logging, mining and general development also covered.

History

Africa Research Central.
A clearinghouse of African primary sources. An excellent guide to the holdings of archives, research libraries and special collections in Africa. Provides also general information on the archival system in Africa.

African History Documents
Selection of full-text primary sources from the World History Archives site. Texts are fairly contemporary. Organized by region and history sub-discipline.

Languages

Ethnologue
Information on the African languages in individual African countries. From the Summer Institute of Linguistics in Dallas. 

Metasites

AfricaBib
Website from the Institute for Economic Advancement at the University of Arkansas–Little Rock that provides access to several African Studies databases. The Africa Women’s Bibliographic Database offers more than 35,000 citations 1986 to present while the Africana Periodical Literature Bibliographic Database lists more than 55,000 articles drawn from 485 journals 19th century to date. The final database is a full-text version of Davis Bullwinkle’s Women Travelers, Explorers and Missionaries to Africa 1963-1999: A Comprehensive English Language Bibliography.

African Studies Department, Stanford University
One of the best metasites available. Provides a multitude of links in over 20 sub-categories. Numerous country specific resources. Well designed and frequently revised.

African Studies Department, University of Pennsylvania.
Another excellent metasite from an African Studies department; greater focus on the African diaspora than Africa per se.

Norwegian Council for Africa.
An excellent metasite from this Norwegian non-for-profit organization that attempts to raise the public awareness of Africa. Organized by country and subject areas. Includes searching capabilities.

Miscellaneous

Currency Converter
A useful tool for all travelers. Converts a currency into any other given currency. Most African currencies are included.

Images & Sounds
A selection of images and sounds from the site Africa Focus hosted at the University of Wisconsin – Madison Libraries. Organized and searchable by collection, subject or country.

Maps
Numerous maps of Africa from the Perry Castaneda Map Collection. Posted at the University of Texas (Austin). For the continent and for individual countries. (Careful, these are large files).

Travel Health
Provides information on health problems in given countries and precautions to take when traveling there. Listing by country.

News Sources

All Africa
(Previously called ‘Africa News Online’). Though this site is based in the US, it is a major source for the dissemination of news from African newspapers throughout the world. Provides links to 40 African newspapers, 25 with URL’s. Very comprehensive site. Regional collections are also given, for example for West Africa 

BBC Africa section.
Current information on events and developments in Africa. The BBC also provides radio broadcasting in five African languages through its worldservice

Daily Mail & Guardian
Web site of the major South African newspaper Daily Mail & Guardian. Emphasis on South Africa.

New York Times Africa section
The Africa section of the New York Times is similar to the BBC site. Provides current events and background coverage on specific topics. 

Politics & Policy

Political Resources on the Net
Political information on individual countries in Africa. Links to country government sites as well as local political parties, political organizations and media sources.

Societies & Society

African Women
Comprehensive list of links on women and gender in Africa from the Stanford metasite.

Fourth World Documentation Center
Web site of the Fourth World Documentation Center. Documents on selected smaller ethnic groups throughout Africa. Anthropological Focus.