African Studies Research Guide

The purpose of this guide is to introduce some of the resources available in Pickler Memorial Library that relate to some aspect of the field of African Studies. This guide is not a comprehensive listing of sources but a starting point for finding information on African Studies topics.

Bibliographies: are lists of books and /or other types of materials dealing with a particular subject. If a bibliography is annotated, then a summary of each source listed will also be included.

African International Relations : an Annotated Bibliography - Reference DT31 .A657 1997
Bibliographies for African studies, 1987-1993 - General Collection DT351 .S345 1994
Democracy in Africa--Recent Analyses : a Bibliography with Annotations - Internet Resource
Reference Guide to Africa : a Bibliography of Sources - General Collection DT4 .K35 1999

Encyclopedias & Dictionaries: provide brief definitions or overviews of the topic often followed by lists of further references.

Encyclopedia of African History and Culture - Reference DT3 .P27 2001
Encyclopedia of African Nations and Civilizations - Reference DT14 .E43 2002
Encyclopedia of African Peoples - Reference DT15 .E53 2000
Encyclopedia of Precolonial Africa : Archaeology, History, Languages, Cultures, and Environments - Reference DT2 .E53 1997
Encyclopedia of Twentieth-century African History - Reference DT29 .E53 2003

An African Biographical Dictionary - Reference DT18 .B76 1994
African States and Rulers - General Collection DT31 .S7859 1999
From Afar to Zulu : a Dictionary of African Cultures - Reference GN645 .H27 1995
The Peoples of Africa : an Ethnohistorical Dictionary - Reference GN645 .O47 1996
Political Leaders of the Contemporary Middle East and North Africa : a Biographical Dictionary - Reference DS61.5 .P65 1990

Statistical Sources: provide facts and data.

African Statistical Yearbook (pt2-5) - Reference HA1955 A49
Demographic yearbook (United Nations) - Reference HA17 .D45
Elections in Africa : a Data Handbook - General Collection JQ1879.A55 E44 1999
International Historical Statistics : Africa, Asia & Oceania, 1750-1993 - Reference HA4675 .M55 1998

Finding Books:
To find books, journal holdings, music, videos or other materials located in Pickler Memorial Library, search the Library Catalog. You can search the catalog by author, title, subject, and keywords.

Subject searching in the Library Catalog uses the Library Congress subject headings. Below are some useful subject headings for African Studies. Each link performs the subject search in the catalog.

Africa east	Africa Civilization	Africa Religion
Africa west	Africa Description and Travel	Africa Social Conditions
Africa central	Africa economic Conditions	African Languages
Africa south	Africa foreign relations	African Literature
Africa north	Africa History	Art Africa
AFRICA sub saharan	Africa Politics	Music Africa

You may also find materials in the Library Catalog through Keyword searching. Use keyword searching when you don't know the appropriate subject headings or want to combine different concepts. For example:

africa and human rights
sierra leone and missions
politics and africa and 19th century

Click here for information on Keyword searching principles.

Finding Articles:
A List of databases useful for finding articles on African Studies topics.

EBSCOhost Academic Search Elite
A multi-disciplinary database offerings full text for nearly 1,850 scholarly journals covering virtually every area of academic study.

EconLit 1969+
Indexes economics journals, books, and working papers.

Historical Abstracts 1955+
Indexes journal articles and other sources concerning historical topics from 1450 to the present for all countries of the world except the U.S. and Canada.

Humanities Abstracts 1984+
Contains citations from more than 465 periodicals in archaeology and classical studies, area studies, communication, folklore, history, language, literature, performing and visual arts, philosophy, religion and theology.

JSTOR Years vary by journal title, but do not cover the most recent issues.
A collection of full text scholarly journals from most subject disciplines. Some of the African Studies journals include: African Affairs, Journal of African Cultural Studies, Journal of African History, and Journal of Modern African Studies.

MLA International Bibliography. 1921+
A bibliography of scholarship in literature, language, linguistics, and folklore, produced by the Modern Language Association of America. Approximately 75% of all MLA records are journal articles; the remainder include books, book chapters, and dissertation abstracts.

SocIndex with Full Text. A comprehensive sociology research database with more than 1.9 million records and the full text for over 400 journals dating back to 1908

Social Sciences Abstracts 1983+
Covers about 550 journals in the areas of anthropology, area studies, community health and medical care, criminal justice, economics, geography, international relations, law, political science, psychology, social work and public welfare, sociology, and related topics.

eHRAF-- An electronic version of the microfiche collection, Human Relations Area File ( HRAF)
Currently eHRAF contains information on 137 cultures. This unique cross-cultural database contains more than 350,000 pages of descriptive information on cultures and ethnic groups. Source documents include books, articles and dissertations that have been indexed and organized according to HRAF's culture and subject classification systems The eHRAF User Guides can be found at www.yale.edu/hraf/userguides.html

The easiest way to use eHRAF is to browse by culture. Click Browse along the top then click on Browse Cultures by Regions. Africa is divided by country then by cultures (i.e. Niger-Hausa, Kanuri)

Finding Primary source material:
Primary sources are generally considered to be firsthand accounts of an event or the actual documents associated with an event.

Firsthand accounts can be found in diaries, memoirs, letters, speeches, autobiographies, scholarly articles giving the results of research, etc.
Documents might be laws, treaties, transcripts of hearings, court cases, etc.

To find these in the Library Catalog:

Speeches, letters, journals, diaries, etc. of an individual may be found by looking for the name of that person as an author.

            Mandela, Nelson

Books which are collections of personal stories or reminiscences of an event are listed under the event with the subdivision PERSONAL NARRATIVES. Because it is difficult to get the subject heading exactly right, it is easiest to use keyword.

            south africa and personal narratives
            slave trade and personal narratives

Books which are collections of various documents from a particular country are entered under the country name with the subdivision HISTORY perhaps a time designation is next, then the subdivision SOURCES.

Africa, West -- History -- To 1884 -- Sources.

Missions -- Sierra Leone -- History -- Sources.

Because these are complicated, you can add sources   to a keyword search.

         s:africa history and s:sources

        nigeria and s:sources

Use the S: to have your search term found in the subject field.

Below is a list of some of the text and microform primary source collections available in Pickler Memorial Library

Abolition & Emancipation - Microfilm HT 1025 A26 1996
Includes papers of Zachary Macaulay (1768-1838), Scottish philanthropist who was the Governor of the Sierra Leone colony that had been established in 1788 for freed slaves. He held the post of Governor for six years, and then Secretary of the Sierra Leone Company for a further nine years. In 1823 he was instrumental in the founding of the Anti-Slavery Society

Africa through Western Eyes - Microfilm DT 32.5 A37 1999

British documents on foreign affairs--reports and papers from the Foreign Office confidential print. Series G, Africa.
Part I, From the mid-nineteenth century to the First World War. 1848-1914 General Collection JX632 .B769 1995
Part II, From the First to the Second World War. 1914-1939 General Collection JX632 .B769 1994
Part III, From 1940 through 1945 General Collection JZ632 .B767 1998

Church Missionary Society Archive - Africa Missions - Microfilm BV2500.A2 C58

Colonial Discourses, Series One: Women, Travel & Empire, 1660-1914 - Microfilm PN 6071 W72 C64 1998

Other examples of primary sources including travel writings:

An account of the native Africans in the neighbourhood of Sierra Leone by Thomas Winterbottom - General Collection - DT516.42 .W53 1969
British Policy Towards West Africa : select documents - General Collection DT502 .B74 1992
Documents from the African Past - General Collection DT1 .D55 2001
Maiden voyages : Writings of Women Travelers - General Collection G465 .M336 1993
Travels in West Africa by Mary H. Kingsley - General Collection DT472 .K53 2003

You can ask for further assistance at the Reference Desk or contact the Reference librarian for History.

Reference Desk
(660) 785-4051

Janet Romine, Reference Librarian for History
(660) 785-7418
jiromine@truman.edu

jir