A study guide to assist students and instructors working with D.T. Niane's text _Sundiata: An Epic of Old Mali

Contains over 800 reviews and links to Africa-related resources for teachers on topics such as Introducing the Region, Geography & Maps, Connections: Media, Connectons: Schools, History, Issues, Literature, Art & Music, and more.

Edited by Brenda Randolph,Africa Access was founded in 1989 to help schools, public libraries, and parents improve the quality of their children's collections on Africa. Our online database, Africa Access Review, contains over 1000 annotations and reviews of books for children. These critiques and descriptions are written by university professors, librarians, and teachers most of whom have lived in Africa and have graduate degrees in African Studies. In recent years, we have expanded beyond our original mission to include Research and Reading projects. To learn more our programs and initiatives, click on the icons below.

Africa Access is responding to the need for quality materials by publishing AFROPHILE. Only those materials receiving favorable recommendations from scholars on Africa are included in AFROPHILE. Entries are arranged first by grade level and then alphabetically by author.

The MSU community has worked to bring rich resources about Africa to life at this site. Here, teachers interested in bringing the diversity of Africa into the classroom will find suggested curriculums, activities, and resources to aid in the development of their own teaching plans.

Collection of primary and some secondary sources on African history. Categorized.

frica Focus brings together, in digital form, two categories of primary and secondary resources: research and teaching materials collected by University of Wisconsin faculty and staff; and unique or valuable items related to these fields held by the University of Wisconsin Libraries. This collection contains more than 3000 slides, 500 photographs, 50 hours of sounds from forty-five different countires, as well as a large number of difficult to find texts that librarians, scholars, and other subject specialists have deemed important to these fields of study. It is hoped that the search features of the collection will be a convenient aid to scholarship, study, and teaching of these disciplines.

Primary and secondary source electronic texts

Catalog, with essays, of West African (Yoruba and Akan) art

Poetry and the history of the Eastern Cape and the world, aimed at an African and global audience.

History of the South African city of East London, including list of immigrants/settlers.

A listing of over 5000 websites describing holdings of manuscripts, archives, rare books, historical photographs, and other primary sources for the research scholar. All links have been tested for correctness and appropriateness.

Africa Research Central has as its goal to centralize and constantly update information about institutions with African primary source collections so as to facilitate international research in African Studies. Research in African primary sources--be they records, manuscripts, personal papers, photographs, film, or artifacts-- has posed challenges to the research community since the dawn of African Studies as a discipline. Scholars outside Africa struggle to learn about the holdings, services, and clearance procedures of African repositories, while scholars within Africa must cope with the fact that much of the African primary source heritage is housed beyond the borders of Africa. The core of the site is the Repositories section with its searchable database of African archives, libraries and museums with primary source collections. Although far from comprehensive, links to the web sites of North American and European repositories are also provided.

EJAB is a refereed online journal of bibliographies created by the late John Howell, University of Iowa Libraries. Coverage includes any aspect of Africa, its peoples, their homes, cities, towns, districts, states, countries, regions, including social, economic sustainable development, creative literature, the arts, and the Diaspora.

This is a list of published guides to the archives of Africa, especially those in microform and including inventories, records, catalogs, lists both finding- and special-, indexes, annual reports (and for South Africa, also archivalia and trials), arranged by regions, primary international language, and countries, excluding only Egypt, with titles in English, French, and Portuguese, but not those solely in Arabic. No titles were found for Spanish-speaking Africa.

e African and Middle Eastern Reading Room is the primary public access point for materials housed in the the African and Middle Eastern Division (AMED) which include a variety of vernacular scripts, such as Amharic, Arabic, Armenian, Georgian, Hebrew, Persian, Turkish, and Yiddish. Covering more than 70 countries, from Morocco to Southern Africa to the Central Asian republics of the former Soviet Union, the division's three sections--African, Hebraic, and Near East--offer in-depth reference assistance, provide substantive briefings on a wide range of subjects relating to these languages and cultures, produce guides to the Library's vast resources and cooperate in developing and preserving the Division's unparalleled collections.

AJOL is a database of African-published journals, publishing in a range of academic disciplines. The objective of AJOL is to give greater visibility to the participating journals, and to the research they convey.

Links to archives throughout Africa and UNESCO documents

What effect do maps have on the world they try to represent? In the case of Africa, the mapping and remapping of the continent under colonial rule continues to negatively affect the process of forming meaningful, modern boundaries. In an essay adapted from a lecture given at the Maps, Identity and World Studies workshop at the University of Chicago, history professor Ralph Austen describes the ways in which European cartography perpetuated colonial power structures, disregarding not only indigenous representations of space, but the integrity of indigenous societies and cultures. Austen explains why cartography is essential to understanding both the natural and political forces within Africa that persistently place this region at a global disadvantage.

AODL benefits a wide variety of scholars, students, and institutions by producing multilingual, multimedia materials for both scholarly research and public viewing audiences. AODL serves scholars and students conducting research and teaching about West and South Africa as well as teachers and students of African languages in both the United States and Africa. It also provides a valuable model for creating and distributing a diverse array of materials in a region with very limited electronic connectivity.

Speeches, Statements, and Writings of Chief Albert John Lutuli, the beloved President-General of the African National Congress (SA); one of Africa's greatest political figures of our times; the undisputed leader of and respected spokesman for South Africa's 14 million oppressed, exploited and humiliated inhabitants, passed from the scene of active struggle for political rights and national liberation in July,1967, when it is alleged he was run over by a train.

Postcards, organized by theme and region, from French West Africa

Krotoa, called Eva by the Dutch with whom she was a business partner, was the first Khoikhoi woman to appear in European records of the early Cape settlement as an individual personaltiy and active participant in cultural and economic exchange. Learned fluency in Dutch and Portuguese allowed her to act as an interpreter for the Dutch and aid their commercial interests.

This multi part compilation gives a comprehensive look at speeches and presentations given by Oliver Tambo. Given is a brief biography for Oliver Tambo, and over one hundred various speeches and radio transcripts. The compilations ends with the Mandela eulogy for Tambo.

This page links to numerous speeches, statements and writings dating from 1964 to 2005 by Thabo Mbeki, president of the African National Congress. Also given is an index to twelve photographs, some black and white and some colour.

"Mokingi mwa Mputu" (Boloki for "A trip to Europe"), is the story of a Congolese young man, Buntungu, who writes about his visit to England in 1895-1897.

An interview translated from French and Swahili covering such topics as work, language, government, religion, and interaction with europeans.

A Sketch of Sixteen Years' Residence in the Interior of Africa,a Journey from the Cape of Good Hope to Loanda on the West Coast;Then Across the Continent, Down the River Zambesi, to the Eastern Ocean. Published in 1857.

The following documents are a small selection of some of the early archival sources available that relate to the Mambila of the Cameroon Nigerian border.

A list of goods and natural resources produced in Africa and considered for possible export

Guidelines for addressing chiefs concerning abolition of the slave trade and the founding of forts along the Niger River.

An extract from instructions issued by the British Admiralty for the guidance of officers in their negotiations with local Chiefs in forwarding the suppression of the slave trade from coastal Africa.

An example of a ready-made blank document carried by colonial agents presented to local rulers for signing from 1880s.

An extract from the (1891) book of Paul Leroy Beaulieu on 19th century colonization illustrateing rationalizations of imperialism.

The extract from Friedrich Fabri's book Does Germany Need Colonies, published in 1879, makes the German argument for colonial expansion, one similar to those made by English and French writers of the period

The extract demonstrates the common thread that served to rationalize the continued hold of the leading European powers on territories they had won both by guile and force of arms.

Two examples of protests against British administration by chiefs of Brass and Temne in West Africa.

The narrative of an enslaved West African, from Bornu to the Gold Coast and into the Atlantic

International rivalry and diplomatic infighting such as developed out of competition for influence prompted France and Germany to suggest the notion of a European conference to resolve contending claims and provide for a more orderly ‘carving up’ of the continent. The Conference met at Berlin from November 1884 through Februart 1885 and resulted in the following agreement--The Berlin Act of 1885.

English account of the court at Benin

Chapters 2 and 5 of "The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, The African", 1789. This text has become increasingly controversial in recent years.

A statement by Hendrik Witbooi on the German administrationa and a letter by Samuel Mahahero on 6 March 1904 in reply to a letter of the German Governor Leutwein asking him why he had started a rebellion.

A collection of excerpts from slave narratives, relating to Africa, the Atlantic, and the Americas. Organization is by theme.

During the years he spent in Africa, Stanley signed 'treaties', according to his own claim, with over 450 native chiefs, thus acquiring for Leopold sovereignty over their territories in accordance with the general terms of the sample treaty.

Excerpts from de Gama's first voyage 1497-1498.

This webpage contains eight seminal documents issued by or related to the South African Indian Congress, one of the five components of the Congress Alliance as it existed before the banning of the ANC in 1960. Also given is a brief biography of five major South African Indian Congress leaders - Molvi Ismail Ahmed Cachalia 1908- Yusuf Dadoo 1909-1983 Ahmed Kathrada 1929- MP Naicker 1920-1977 Debi Singh - 1971

Explorer's account of locusts and humans in Morocco

The dispatch expresses displeasure with British imperial policies in the Congo State.

Explorer's account of central Africa

The Report of the British consul sent to investigate the accumulating reports of torture, murder and virtual enslavement was published to the world in 1904.

The African National Congress Women's League website home page gives a short history for the League, the April 1997 Constitution, contact information, and a list of various documents dating from 1997 to the present.

Excerpt from Stanley's book, about his meeting with Livingstone

An account of traversing the cataracts of the Nile by boat

This website gives links to over twenty five documents written by different authors that give the history and viewpoints of the Congress of South African Trade Unions, which has linked a number of labor unions in South Africa with over half a million members.

This website documents the campaigns against the apartheid pass laws involving protests, demonstrations and the burning of pass books. 9 August 1956, when women first petitioned for the end of the pass law is now celebrated as South African Women's Day. Three important documents regarding this topic - The Demand of the Women of South Africa for the Withdrawal of Passes for Women and the Repeal of the Pass Laws", Petition Presented to Prime Minister, Union Buildings, Pretoria, 9 August 1956 "The Struggle Against Passes". Report of the National Consultative Committee to the Joint Executives of the ANC, SAIC, SACPO, SACOD, and SACTU, December 1956 and "Repeal the Pass Laws..." - Flyer Issued by the FSAW and ANCWL, 13 June 1957 are given.

This African National Congress webpage gives access to two documents related to the African Miners' Strike of 1946, - M. P. Naicker, from "Notes and Documents", No. 21/76, September 1976 and "A Distant Clap of Thunder". Fortieth Anniversary of the 1946 Mine Strike. A Salute by the South African Communist Party to South Africa's Black Mine Workers, 1986.

This ANC webpage gives seven documents relating to the Defiance Campaign against Unjust Laws which was launched on 26 June 1952 by the ANC together with the South African Indian Congress. More than 8,500 volunteers or 'defiers' were imprisoned for peacefully refusing to obey apartheid laws. The campaign, which carried on into 1953, attracted thousands into political activity. The seven documents are - Exchange of Correspondence between the African National Congress, the South African Indian Congress, and the Prime Minister of the Union of South Africa between 21 January and 20 February 1952 The Story of Defiance, Drum, October 1952 'We defy', Ten Thousand volunteers protest against 'unjust laws', by Nelson Mandela, Drum, August 1952 The Defiance Campaign Recalled. Paper by M.P. Naicker, from "Notes and Documents", No. 11/72, June 1972. Published in connection with the twentieth anniversary of Defiance Campaign in 1972. American Supporters of the Defiance Campaign. Statement by George Houser at a meeting of the United Nations Special Committee against Apartheid on 25 June 1982, to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the "Campaign of Defiance against Unjust Laws". Defiance Campaign in South Africa, Recalled. Article by E.S. Reddy, Asian Times, London, 26 June 1987 The Defiance Campaign: After 50 years, the spirit of service and sacrifice lives on. Article in ANC Today, Vol.2, No.25, 21 June 2002

This ANC website provides twenty three documents relating to the The Congress Alliance that came together in the 1950s to organise the Congress of the People - a conference of all the people of South Africa - which presented their demands for the kind of South Africa they wanted. These demands were drawn together in the Freedom Charter which was adopted at the Congress of the People at Kliptown on 26 June 1955. The government claimed that the Freedom Charter was a communist document. Communism had been banned in 1950, so they arrested ANC and Congress leaders and brought them to trial in the famous Treason Trial.

First published in 1964, The Peasant's Revolt is an early study of apartheid in South Africa. The preface is written by Ruth First, and the ten chapters - The Great Deception: The Worst of Two Worlds, Place in the Shadow: The Segregation Story, From Dynamite to Toy Telephones: Chiefs Give Way to the Council System, Old Shapes in New Rags: Instruments of Apartheid Rule, Sleight of Hand in the Transkei, Peasants in Poverty, The 'Fraud' of Separate Development: Feathering the Nationalist Nest, Chiefs in the Saddle: Transkei Test Case, Resistance and Rebellion: The Peasants Rise and Dilemma of 'Self-Government': The Constitution and the Elections are followed by extensive appendices.

This webpage gives "Boycott The SAIC!", an article first published in Jana Shakti, an underground bulletin distributed amongst the Indian community in 1980.

This webpage contains key African National Congress documents dating from 1986 to 1995 relating to the transition period from the late 1980s to 1994 that saw the transformation of South Africa from an apartheid society to a new democratic dispensation. Included is the "Mandela Document", Mandela/de Klerk working papers and numerous Goldstone Commission reports.

This webpage links a short biography of Father Trevor Huddleston, President of the Anti-Apartheid Movement in London, responsible for bringing world attention of the problem of South African apartheid, Father Huddleston's acceptance speech for 1994 Indira Gandhi award and several eulogies given upon his passing in April 1998. Also given is an autobiography drawn from "Father Huddleston's PICTURE BOOK"

This page contains a commemorative biography written for the 80th birthday of Ambrose Reeves, "our Bishop", as many Africans called him, Bishop of Johannesburg for eleven years, until the South African Government deported him in September 1960. His work against apartheid continued after his deportation making him a hero to the South African nation.

This webpage links numerous documents that trail Western European, United Nations, American and other global efforts to end apartheid dating from 1959 to 2003. The documents show diplomacy, activism, and economic sanctions undertaken to force an end to the apartheid South African regime.

This webpage links numerous documents related to academic, consumer, economic, cultural, sports and intellectual international boycotts against the apartheid South African regime dating from 1959 to 1988. The boycotts were an important international support for the struggle against apartheid.

Biographies for African National Congress leaders and activists. Natoo Babenia 1924-1999 David Hlahane Bopape 1915 - 2004 Mannie Brown 1926-2003 Sonia Bunting 1922-2001 Molvi Ismail Ahmed Cachalia 1908-2003 Yusuf Dadoo 1909-1983 John Langalibalele Dube 1871-1946 Ruth First 1925-1982 Joe Nzingo Gqabi 1929-1981 Josiah Tshangana Gumede 185?-1930 Chris Hani 1942-1993 Helen Joseph 1905-1992 Vincent Khumalo 1924-1974 Wolfie Kodesh 1917-2002 Moses Kotane 1905-1978 Alex LaGuma 1925-1985 James La Guma 1894-1961 Anton Lembede 1914-1947 Albert Lutuli 1898-1967 Solomon Mahlangu -1979 Johnstone Mfanafuthi Makatini 1932-1988 Sefako Mapogo Makgatho 1861-1951 Dumisani Makhaye 1955-2004 Molefe Levi Makinta 1932-2004 Maurice Mavuso 'Mfundisi' -1979 Charlotte Maxeke 1874-1939 Govan Mbeki 1910-2001 Vuyisile Mini 1920-1964 Florence Mkhize 1932-1999 Thami Mnyele 1948-1985 Joe Modise 1929- 2001 Sello Moeti 1953-1988 Kate Mohale 1928-1980 Mofapa France Mohlala Peter Mokaba 1959-2002 Bernard Molewa 1921-2004 Mary Moodley 1913-1979 Florence Mophosho 1921-1985 George Naicker 1919-1998 Marimuthu Pragalathan 'MP' Naicker 1920-1977 Beyers Naude 1915-2004 Curnick Ndlovu 1932-2002 Lilian Masediba Ngoyi 1911-1980 Johnson Ngwevela -1987 Hector Sikhumbuzo Nkula 1910-1988 Duma Nokwe 1927-1978 Gert Nsibande 1901-1987 Dorothy Nyembe 1931-1998 Alfred Nzo 1925-2000 Dullah Omar 1934-2004 James Madhlope Phillips 1919-1987 Solomon Tshekisho Plaatje 1876-1932 Maggie Resha 1923-2003 Robert Resha 1920-1973 Walter Benson Rubusana 1858-1936 Marius Schoon 1938-1999 Pixley KaIsaka Seme 1881-1951 Dulcie September 1935-1988 Mark Shope 1918-1998 Ntela Sikhosana 1964-1998 Debi Singh -1971 Walter Sisulu - 1912-2003 Ray Alexander Simons - 1913-2004 Joe Slovo 1926-1995 Oliver Tambo 1917-1993 Selope Thema 1886-1955 Steve Tshwete 1938-2002 Sheila Weinberg 1945-2004 Masabalala Bonnie Yengwa 1923-1987 Alfred Bitini Xuma 1893-1962

This webpage gives three biographies for ANC personages Makana (Makanda Nxele)drawn from Sechaba December 1979; Sekhukhune, drawn from Sechaba, October 1982 and Enoch Sontonga, Author of the national anthem, Nkosi sikelel' iAfrika.

A chronological listings of Presidents and Secretaries General of the African National Congress from 1912 to 1997.

Selected Speeches, Statements and Writings of Nelson Mandela. [1950s] [1960-1964] [1964-1990] [1990] [1991] [1992] [1993] [1994] [1995] [1996] [1997] [1998] [1999] [2000] [2001] [2002] [2003] [2004] Also given is a link to the South African Government on-line, Honours, Awards and other forms of Recognition,ANC Historical Documents Archive, Articles About and Letters to Nelson Mandela, 'Long Walk to Freedom' - The Autobiography of Nelson Mandela, The Long Walk of Nelson Mandela, An Autobiographical Note, 1964, Biography of Nelson Mandela, Nelson Mandela, 1965, Article by Oliver Tambo,'Mandela for President' - 1994 election poster, Nelson Mandela Children's Fund, Nelson Mandela Foundation, Time 100 Leaders & Revolutionaries and seven photographs in jpg format.

This is the Earl of Cromer's (first British Viceroy of Egypt) account of why the British took over Egypt.

In I882 there arose in the Soudan, a province of Upper Egypt, one Mohammed Ahmed, who called himself the Mahdi or Messiah, and invited all true believers to join in a holy war against the Christians. Thousands of wild tribesmen flocked to his banner, and in the following year he annihilated an army of eleven thousand English and Egyptians that had attempted to subdue the revolt. Rather than send more soldiers to die in the deserts of the Upper Nile, England decided to abandon the province. But first the thousands of Europeans who had taken refuge in Khartoum and other towns of the Soudan must be rescued from their perilous position. In this crisis the Government turned to the one man who could effect the withdrawal if it was still possible, and in January, 1884, appointed General Gordon to superintend the evacuation of the Soudan.

Colonial account of the British conquest and acquisition of Kenya and other sections of the East African colonies

An early account of the roles, agency, participation, and experiences of indigenous peoples in the South African War.

De Gaulle's address to the people of France and Algeria

1948 campaign/election statement that established framework of apartheid in South Africa

A justification for apartheid made in a speech in London, 1953.

An attempt to set back independence movements in French Africa by accomodating some demands of the politicized classes but without committing to future independence.

Jomo Kenyatta's 1952 Mau Mau speech, condemning liquor distribution by colonial authorities.

Illustrates/declares the principles of Ujama (villagization)in Tanzania

Excerpts from a discussion on the place of Africa in world history

Short collection of articles on the history of modern Africa. Separated by region and country. Drawn from a number of contemporary sources and news media. wide variety of topics including child slavery and economic concerns. Mostly modern, broken down by region, state, period, and topic.

Short collection of articles on the history of North Africa by region etc. Drawn from a number of contemporary sources. Mostly modern, broken down by region, state, period, and topic.

Short collection of articles on the history of Africa by region etc. Mostly modern, broken down by region, state, period, and topic.

Short collection of articles on the history of Africa by region etc. Mostly modern, broken down by region, state, period, and topic.

Short collection of articles on the history of Africa by region etc. Mostly modern, broken down by region, state, period, and topic.

Short collection of articles on the history of Africa by region etc. Mostly modern, broken down by region, state, period, and topic.

Short collection of articles on the history of Africa by region etc. Mostly modern, broken down by region, state, period, and topic.

Maps, in French, from various sources. Focus on French West Africa, but covers the entire continent. Historical.

Resources developed and collected for 2000 conference. Includes web sites, lists of syllabi.

Historiographic essay by historian of the British Empire and sometime Africanist William Roger Louis.

A brief but comprehensive history of the peoples and state of Botswana, by a faculty member of the University of Botswana.

Brief article on nineteenth century ethnographic study of habits of the Gold Coast region including the Bakatue celebration.

A links database specifically oriented towards music, dance and theater in and from Africa and to some degree the diaspora. Useful for K-12 education especially.

BBC's somewhat reductionist history of Africa, from the television series.

Lesson plans developed in 1992. Includes a number of plans relating to Africa, aimed at middle school topics of human and environmental geography.

One of several lesson plans focused on topics of geogrpahy in Africa, aimed at middle school audiences.

One of several lesson plans focused on topics of geography in Africa, aimed at middle school audiences.

One of several lesson plans focused on topics of geogrpahy in Africa, aimed at middle school audiences.

One of several lesson plans focused on topics of geography in Africa, aimed at middle school audiences.

One of several lesson plans focused on topics of geogrpahy in Africa, aimed at middle school audiences.

One of several lesson plans focused on topics of geography in Africa, aimed at middle school audiences.

One of several lesson plans focused on topics of geogrpahy in Africa, aimed at middle school audiences.

This site gives short abstracts of current best sellers on the subject of Africa. Content is updated frequently.

Homepage for the African Studies Centre at Leiden, Netherlands. A large number of abstracts from modern Africa journals.

Afrika Zamani is a yearly journal published by CODESRIA for the Association of African Historians. Devoted to the history of Africa, the journal covers all periods. It solicits articles that analyse historical processes, reflect critically on methodological approaches and historiography. Its languages of publication are English, Arabic, French and Portuguese.

Main web page for ANKH magazine, a scholarly journal dedicated to the study of ancient Egypt.

Bulletin d'Anthropologie et d'Histoire Africaines en langue française - scholarly journal with numerous historical articles on a wide range of topics. Articles and web site are in French.

Main web page for the Cold War International History Project, part of American think tank Woodrow Wilson Institute. Features articles on modern Africa that can be searched for on the site. Excellent for current up to date foreign policy.

Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East (CSSAAME) is an interdisciplinary journal dedicated to critical and comparative analyses of the histories, cultural productions, social and gender relations, politics, and economies of Africa, South Asia, and the Middle East.

EJAB is a refereed online journal of bibliographies created by the late John Howell, University of Iowa Libraries. Coverage includes any aspect of Africa, its peoples, their homes, cities, towns, districts, states, countries, regions, including social, economic sustainable development, creative literature, the arts, and the Diaspora.

LFM publishes articles and manuscripts in French and English. It looks at religion at large, with a strong emphasis on Christian missions and their legacy. Geographically, it focuses on the African continent though it tries to compare the latter with other areas as well. It offers a wide range of analytical perspectives, with contributions from disciplines such as history, anthropology, sociology, political science and theology.

Main web page for FERNAND BRAUDEL CENTER for the Study of Economies, Historical Systems, and Civilizations, Binghamton University, State University of New York. The Fernand Braudel Center was founded in September 1976 to engage in the analysis of large-scale social change over long periods of historical time. A number of articles pertaining to colonial and modern Africa are included.

La Gazette du MALD is an monthly electronic journal in FRENCH with numerous scholarly articles on colonial and modern Africa. After re-establishment in 2000-2001, its mission is to inform students and professors of research and activities conducted by the laboratoire Mutations Africaines dans la Longue Durée (Unité Mixte de Recherche 8054 CNRS-Université Paris I Panthéon Sorbonne).

The Journal of the Ghana Studies Council - A peer-reviewed, multidisciplinary journal of scholarly work on Ghana, the country and its people. Appears annually.

Web page for L"Historie, scholarly magazine in FRENCH that carries articles on colonial and modern Africa. Index can be searched in English.

Selections from the official diary kept by the Dutch Commander Jan van Riebeeck and his council at the Cape. The selections chronicle the life of Krotoa, called Eva by the Dutch, the first Khoikhoi woman to appear in the European records of the early settlement at the Cape as an individual personality and active participant in cultural and economic exchange.

Citations from various letters dated 1710, written by Johanna Maria van Riebeeck (1679-1759), from an elite family in the Dutch colonial network. In these letters, which she wrote during a stop at the Cape on her journey to Holland, we get a sense of elite colonial views and observations in her descriptions of the Cape to her family.

Lucy Lloyd and Wilhelm Bleek, German ethnographers who lived in Cape Town, were the first people to systematically write down Khoisan folklore, beliefs and customs. The extract that follows, dating from the late nineteenth century is a firsthand account of the San Dance experience by a participant, giving a view of pre colonial San beliefs and culture.

Shown is a Khosian rock drawing that is accompanied by a late twentieth century new interpretation of its imagery drawn from more recent studies of oral tradition. Oral Khoikhoi tradition tells us the imagery shown is a depiction of a sacred trance dance led by a shaman, where a hallucinogenic state is achieved during the dance with the purpose of communing with the godforces of the khoikhoi cosmovision.

Given is an 1894 drawing by Ratzel of a Khoikhoi woman's digging stick, with text highlighting the divisions of labor in Khoikhoi culture.

A seventeenth century drawing by an anonymous artist taken from The Khoikhoi at the Cape of Good Hope: Seventeenth-century drawings in the South African Library, Text by Andrew B. Smith and Translations by Roy H. Pheiffer. Cape Town: South African Library, 1993. The drawing shows a series of impromptu sketches and set pieces showing Khoikhoi at the Cape of Good Hope showing actual articles of Khoikhoi clothing or activities in which they engaged.

Excerpt from the narrative of Peter Kolb, a German astronomer and mathematician who lived at the Cape from 1705 to 1713, taken from Kolb, Peter. “On the Manners and Customs which are observed among the European Inhabitants…” Letter Eight, Part Three in Caput Bonae Spei Hodiernum. Translated by Anne Good Nuremberg: Peter Conrad Monath, 1719. The excerpt describes pre colonial Khoikhoi child rearing practices.

Excerpt from the narrative of Peter Kolb, a German astronomer and mathematician who lived at the Cape from 1705 to 1713, taken from Kolb, Peter. “On the Ceremonies and Customs that the Khoikhoi Observe at the Birth of a Child…” Letter 8, Part Two in Caput Bonae Spei Hodiernum. Translated by Anne Good Nuremberg: Peter Conrad Monath, 1719. In the following excerpts, Kolb discusses Khoikhoi practices during and after the birth of a child.

Given is the testament of Beletje Frederikszoon dated 1711, which shows the legal treatment of African slaves in the Cape Town region. The will dictates the fate of an African slave owned by Frederkszoon to be passed on to her death as property to her son and upon his demise, manumission and freedom for the slave were dictated.

Given is colonial era Cape Town law that regulates who may sell or serve alcoholic drinks, particularly prohibiting slave and Khoikhoi women from being involved. This law is an interesting response to colonial perceptions of rampant abuse by the Khoikhoi after the introduction of European alcohol and use; the Khoikhoi abuse of alcohol in turn may be rooted in genetic and cultural causes.

This 1766 citation from Cape Town law dictates the treatment of mixed blood slave descendancy, according mixed European Africans a separate status forbiding their sale as common slaves and also dictating their education.

Given is the British Victorian era painting “The Secret of England’s Greatness” (1863) by Thomas Jones Barker. This painting showing a kneeling African chief before British monarch Queen Victoria. This image became an emblematic icon of the British colonial peception of cultural and racial superiority and African inferiority.

This excerpt is from a 1828 letter written by the wife of a British missionary working among the Tswana nation at Kuruman in Southern Africa. Her narrative gives a look at initial settlement of the region by Europeans establishing eurocentric agricultural cultivation.

Mary Kingsley (1862-1900) is one of the best known British women to have visited West Africa during the period historians call the Age of New Imperialism. The excerpt given in this citation gives her view that Africans were equal match of Europeans in their own environment. In its time, this view was a radical change to the popular sentiment of African inferiority.

Buchi Emecheta was born in Nigeria in 1944 and emigrated to Britain where she received her doctorate in sociology, and is an internationally renowned novelist who has published many books mostly set in Africa. She also published an autobiography about her life in Britain called Head Above Water, which documents her experiences as an immigrant in Britain in the 1960s. In this excerpt Buchi Emecheta describes her expectations before she arrived in Britain, and the very different reality she experienced.

In 1988, Tsitsi Dangarembga achieved success as a novelist with the publication of Nervous Conditions, the first novel to be published in English by a black Zimbabwean woman. In 1989, Nervous Condition won the African section of the Commonwealth Writers Prize. The book this excerpt is drawn from depicts a picture of colonial education from the perspective of a young girl.

Excerpts from a narrative set between 1877 and 1891, giving a personal statement of African life in colonial South Africa. The narrative describes the trail of a young Xhosa woman through assimilation and colonialization, in her path as an educator.

This book focuses on a nineteenth-century Muslim woman in West Africa who was a legend in her own time. Nana Asma’u (1793-1864) was a respected public figure of significant authority. The excerpts given Nana Asma’u show her achievements may not be unique in the Sufi Saharan culture, but document the influential role of women in Saharan Africa.

A short narrative given by meteorologist Albert Bergman describing travel from New York to western Africa to observe the 22 December 1890 solar eclipse off the west coast of Africa. At this time western Africa was under colonialism and was perceived as far off, remote and aboriginal, which shows in the prose of the narrative.

Translated text giving an eye-witness account consisting of two books by Alexander Bulatovich: From Entotto to the River Baro (1897)and With the Armies of Menelik II (1900. Unique and detailed first-hand account of Ethiopia in 1896-98 at the change of an era, by a Russian officer with remarkable understanding for the many varied people who lived there and keen insight into their destiny.

This site provides access to the raw data and documentation which contains information on slave ship movement between Africa and the Americas from 1817-1843. Specifically, the data file contains information on the ship's port of arrival, date of arrival, type of vessel, tonnage, master's name, number of guns, number of crew, national flag, number of slaves, port of departure, number of days of voyage, and mortality.

Master index for US Department of State documents relating to African policy for years 1964-1968. Documents are indexed by nation or regional area.

The site is listed as "passporttoparadise" due to an working title, but is a teaching tool for the NEH-funded book and exhibition, "A Saint in the City: Sufi Arts of Urban Senegal" that opened in 2003 and is traveling through 2007.