African Studies - Research Guide: Gov't Documents & Statistics

(Institute of Historical Research, 2020).
An essential guide to understanding the British Colonial Office and its documentation.

The Blue Books — annual statistical compilations — for the British colonies of Basutoland (now Lesotho), Cape of Good Hope (now part of South Africa), Gambia, Gold Coast (now Ghana), Kenya, Nigeria, Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia), Nyasaland (now Malawi), Sierra Leone, Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), Tanganyika and Zanzibar (now Tanzania), and Uganda.

Also, print at LIBRA 328.42 .G797.2.
British Colonial Office non-parliamentary report series on the administration of individual British colonies. Reports are serially numbered. Stanford University Libraries prepared a helpful table of each African colony's Colonial report numbers.

Command papers and House of Commons papers include annual reports for British colonies and reports by special commissions on African affairs.

These collections present annual reports from departments and commissions within each British colony, generally organized as Administration, Finance, Judicial and Police, Natural Resources, Social Services, Transport and Public Works, Communications and Post Office Savings, Commerce, and Miscellaneous (including Staff Lists).
• Gambia Under Colonial Rule, in Government Reports, 1881-1966
• Ghana and Togo Under Colonial Rule, in Government Reports, 1843-1957
• Kenya Under Colonial Rule, in Government Reports 1907-1964
• Nigeria and Cameroon Under Colonial Rule, in Government Reports 1887-1962
• Zimbabwe under colonial rule, in Government reports, 1897-1980
• Malawi under colonial rule, in Government reports, 1907-1967
• Sierra Leone under colonial rule, in Government reports, 1893-1961
• Uganda under colonial rule, in Government reports, 1903-1961

British colonial official gazettes for the East Africa High Protectorate and Commission (including Kenya and Uganda), Nigeria, Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia), Nyasaland (now Malawi), Sierra Leone, Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), Gambia, Gold Coast (now Ghana), Zanzibar and Tanganyika (now Tanzania), and Basutoland (now Lesotho). Official Gazettes published colonial laws, ordinances, appointments, court judgements, financial records, and other official notices that were official pronouncements of the colonial administration.
• Colonial Law in Africa, 1808-1919
• Colonial Law in Africa, 1920-1945
• Colonial Law in Africa, 1946-1966

This digitized law collection includes colonial-era official gazettes and law codes, listed under current country names.

British Colonial Office, Foreign Office, Dominions Office, and War Office (National Archives UK, Adam Matthew Digital). Complete or extract copies of selected correspondence and other papers.
• Confidential Print on Africa (Foreign Office only, 1841-1956). Print, not online.

An annotated selection of official documents from the UK National Archives, charting British withdrawal from its colonial territories.

(Adam Matthew Digital)
Digitized government documents and personal papers from several collections. Includes de Brazza papers (Archives nationales d'outre-mer), official correspondence of Gouvernement du Congo à Libreville (Bibliothèque nationale), Lguard papers (Bodleian Library), Charles Gordon papers (British Library), Mungo Park letters, David Livingstone papers and the papers of the Livingstonia Mission (National Library of Scotland), selected London Missionary Society papers and correspondence (SOAS), Joseph Chamberlain papers (University of Birmingham Library), selected Foreign Office, Colonial Office, and War Office records (National Archives UK), including the Casement files on the Congo Free State (FO 629), military reports on foreign colonies in Africa (WO 33, WO 106).

Includes selections from Cabinet Papers and Colonial Office, Dominions Office, India Office, War Office files, and maps and plans files extracted from these records.
This collection also includes materials on French and German colonies in Africa:
• Selections from the Kolonialbibliothek (Colonial Library) Collection.
• Deutsche Kolonialzeitung (Kolonialverein periodical).
• Bulletins du Comite de l'Afrique francaise.

Digitized documents from the National Archives (UK), including Security Service (MI5)Personal, Subject and Policy files (1905-1978), Ministry of Defence Communications and Intelligence Records (1912-2002), Special Operations Executive (1935-1988), Colonial Office Intelligence and Security Departments Registered Files (1954-1966), and Cabinet Office Joint Intelligence Committee, Special Secret Information Center Policy and Strategy files, and Miscellaneous Papers (1936-1974).

British Security Service (MI5) files, including some African politicians. See also:
• Security Service Personal Files on Benjamin Nnamdi Azikiwe, Jomo Kenyatta, Francis Nwia Kwam Nkrumah, and Peter Mbiyu Koinange (Penn Libraries).

(Adam Matthew Digital).
Digitized UK Foreign, Colonial, Dominion and Foreign and Commonwealth Offices files.

Microfilm, at Center for Research Libraries (request through Resource Sharing / Interlibrary Loan : Books).
The digitized records of the German Ministry for Colonial Affairs, 1867-1945.

Digitized UK Colonial Office correspondence, National Archives (UK) reference C.O. 583/240-261, covering many topics.

A handy listing of African national constitutions and constitution revisions, with source bibliographic citations and links to fulltext. Covers from independence to c. 2013.

A collaborative project, assembling digitized issues of official gazettes from African countries.

Microfiche. 3 parts. (Library of Congress, 1994-1999).
A collection of reports issued by governmental and non-governmental organizations documenting conditions in Somalia in the post-Barre period, 1991-1994. Finding aids available online include chronologies and organization descriptions:
• Part 1 finding aid.
• Part 2 finding aid.
• Part 3 finding aid.

Annotated bibliography of primary sources and scholarly publications on U.S. foreign relations.

(Library of Congress, 1978)
Also:
• The United States and Sub-Saharan Africa : ... 1976-1980 / Julian W. Witherell, comp. (LC, 1984).

Includes despatches from U.S. Consuls in :
• Bathurst, Gambia, British Africa, 1857-1889
• Boma, Congo, 1888-1895
• Cape Town, Cape Colony, 1800-1906
• Gaboon, 1856-1888
• Goree Dakar, French Africa, 1883-1906
• Grand Bassa, Liberia, 1868-1882
• Lourenco Marques, Mozambique, Portuguese Africa, 1854-1906
• Pretoria, The Transvaal, 1898-1906
• Santiago, Cape Verde Islands, 1818-1898
• Sierra Leone, British Africa, 1858-1906
• St. Helena, British West Africa, 1831-1906
• St. Paul de Loanda, Portuguese Africa, 1854-1893
• Tamatave, Madagascar, 1853-1906
• Zanzibar, British Africa, 1836-1906

(Archives Unbound, Gale Cengage)

(Archives Unbound, Gale Cengage)

(Archives Unbound, Gale Cengage)

(Archives Unbound, Gale Cengage)

(Archives Unbound, Gale Cengage)

(Archives Unbound, Gale Cengage)

(Archives Unbound, Gale Cengage)

(ProQuest History Vault)

(Archives Unbound, Gale Cengage)

(ProQuest History Vault)

(ProQuest History Vault)

(Archives Unbound, Gale Cengage)

(ProQuest History Vault)

(Archives Unbound, Gale Cengage)

(ProQuest History Vault)

(ProQuest History Vault)

(ProQuest History Vault)

(ProQuest History Vault)

(ProQuest History Vault)
Also:
• John F. Kennedy National Security Files, 1961-1963 : Africa, First Supplement.

(ProQuest History Vault)

(ProQuest History Vault)

(Digital National Security Archive)

Palgrave Macmillan, 2013.
National time series on many topics for African countries (and their predecessor colonies), 19th century-2010.