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African Studies - Research Guide: Home

Databases & Article Indexes

Africa-focused Bibliographic Databases

International African Bibliography (IABO)
Covers 1971-present. De Gruyter, in cooperation with Centre for African Studies, University of Cape Town, South Africa.
AfricaBib (aka Bullwinkle)
Free online index to African studies journals, created by Davis Bullwinkle, now hosted by the African Studies Centre Leiden (ASCL). Combines several databases:
• AfricaBib : the general database, 242K+ records.
• Africana Periodical Literature. Includes Library of Congress's Quarterly Index of African Periodical Literature (1991-2011), and ASCL's African Studies Abstracts Online (1950s-2017).
• African Women.
• Women Travelers to Africa.
• Islam in Africa.
• Kenya Coast.
• Water and Africa.
• Education in Africa.
Africa Bibliography
Covers 1984-present. Cambridge University Press for International African Institute (UK). Focuses on social and environmental sciences, development studies, humanities and arts, with some coverage of the medical, biological and natural sciences. Indexes periodical articles, books and pamphlets, and chapters.
• Africa Bibliography (1984-2020). Online version of print annual volumes.
• Africa (1928-current). Pre-1984 issues include "Bibliography of current publications".
African Studies Centre Leiden catalogue
The ASCL library catalogue combines bibliographic records for books and for articles in journals to which ASCL subscribes. The library catalogue is strong social sciences and history, and reflects the status of the ASCL Library as one of the top few African studies libraries in the world.
• ASCL Library Catalogue Thesaurus. Useful for identifying journal article subject terms in the catalogue.

Specialized Databases with African Studies Content

Database of African Theses and Dissertations and Research (DATAD-R)
Produced by the Association of African Universities. A digital repository for dissertations and theses produced or held at African higher education institutions, documents from the AAU, and scholarly output from Africa Centers of Excellence.
African Index Medicus (AIM)
Produced by the World Health Organization and Association for Health Information and Libraries in Africa (AHILA). An international index to African health and medical literature.
National Museum of African Art Library catalog (SIRIS)
This library catalog includes articles from journals to which the NMAA Library subscribes.
HINT. At the SIRIS search page, be sure to set the location limiter to "African Art Library".
Index to South African Periodicals (ISAP Online)
The Bibliography of Slaving and World Slavery
A bibliography identifying all known printed scholarly materials on slavery since 1900 as well as digitally-available journal articles.

General Databases with African Subject Content

Major Primary Source Collections

Major Microform Sets in the Penn Libraries : Africa
Endangered Archives Programme (British Library)
CAMP collections at CRL
Africa Commons : History and Culture
Decolonization: Politics and Independence in Former Colonial and Commonwealth Territories
Pamphlets, research papers, and documents from political organizations and trade unions in African colonies and successor independent nations, 1898-2017.
Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland archive (Wiley Digital Archives)
Anthropological Fieldwork Online
Includes the Victor Turner, Max Gluckman, and Charles Seligman papers and selected UK Colonial Office and other agency records.
Europe and Africa : Commerce, Christianity, Civilization, and Conquest
(19th Century Collections Online)
Global Commodities : Trade, Exploration and Cultural Exchange
Royal Geographical Society (with IBG) (Wiley Digital Archives)
Travel accounts ... and many, many maps.
Mapping the World : Maps and Travel Literature
(19th Century Collections Online)
Royal College of Physicians (Wiley Digital Archives)
Environmental Science and History (Wiley Digital Archives)
Digitized materials on deforestation, agriculture, livestock, and fisheries (food production); ecology, botany, biodiversity, and extinction; water sources, irrigation, wetlands, and hydrology from C.A.B. International (formerly Commonwealth Agricultural Bureaux), Commonwealth Forestry Institute (University of Oxford), Royal Botanic Gardens (Kew), and National Archives UK.
World Heritage Sites : Africa (JSTOR Primary Sources)
Aluka : Struggles for Freedom : Southern Africa (JSTOR Primary Sources)
Slavery and Anti-Slavery : A Transnational Archive

E-book Collections

Online Reference Works

Guides to the Literature + Annotated Bibliographies

EJAB : Electronic Journal of Africana Bibliography
Each issue of this refereed open access journal is an annotated bibliography or bibliographic essay. See especially:
• "African ethnonyms and toponyms : an annotated bibliography" / Atoma Batoma. EJAB 10 (2006).
• "Guides, collections and ancillary materials to African archival resources in the United States" / John Bruce Howell & Yvette Scheven. EJAB 1 91997).

Encyclopedias (General on Africa)

History + Politics Reference Works

Africa South of the Sahara (Europa World Year Book)
Africa Yearbook Online (Brill, 2004- )
Cambridge History of Africa and UNESCO General History of Africa
Oxford Handbook of Modern African History
Cambridge History of South Africa
The History of African Development (AEHN open textbook)

Geography Reference Works

Literature + Arts Reference

Cambridge Companion to the African Novel
Cambridge History of African and Caribbean Literature
Routledge Encyclopedia of Post-Colonial Literatures in English (LION)
Africa Book Link - New African literature, drama & criticism
Cinemas d'Afrique: l'encyclopedie du film africain
Garland Encyclopedia of World Music Online
Dictionary of Literary Biography - individual author entries from multiple volumes on African writers in the DLB series.

Anthropology Reference Works

Ethnographic Survey of Africa
A monograph series published for the International African Institute, 1950-1977.

Oxford Handbook of African Archaeology

Religion Reference Works

Arabic Literature of Africa Online (bibliography)
Encyclopedia of Islam
New Cambridge History of Islam
Oxford Islamic Studies Online

Related Research Guides

20th Century African History and Politics
Health and Society in Africa
Food (In)security, Famine and Drought in Africa (ASC Leiden web dossier)
Christian Missions in Africa
Indian Ocean
Islam in sub-Saharan Africa (ASC Leiden web dossier)

Middle East/North Africa (MENA) and Sub-Saharan Africa Business and Internet Archive version
China in Africa
China in Africa (ASC Leiden web dossier)

Africana Studies Librarian

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