Primary sources are first-hand or contemporary accounts of an event or topic. They are authentic, original materials. Historians use them to learn more about past events, people, or topics. They form the "raw materials" from which historians draw to analyze and interpret the past.
One of the easiest ways to find primary sources is to search these resources, which provide access to free digitized collections online:
African Online Digital Library
Manuscripts, printed documents, images, oral histories and interviews on various aspects of African history.
Africa Focus: Sights and Sounds of a Continent
Slides, photographs and sound recordings.
African National Congress
Archive of documents relating to South Africa's liberation movement.
South African History Online digital archive
Endangered Archives
Includes African collections at the British Library.
Foreign Relations of the United States
Documents about US foreign policy and diplomacy, including with African countries.
African Collections
(Stanford University)
African Activist Archive Project
Records of activism in the United States to support the struggles of African peoples against colonialism, apartheid, and social injustice from the 1950s through the 1990s (MSU)
African Studies Multimedia Archives
Maps, images of art, wildlife, artifacts, and much more.
The Humphrey Winterton Collection of East African Photographs, 1860-1960
Images of Colonialism
Late-19th and early-20th century trade cards and illustrated European newspapers that document how popular perceptions of Africa were propagated.
Maps of Africa
Maps from 16th-20th centuries (Northwestern University)
African Politics Web Archive
Archived websites of election campaigns in Africa since 2014.
