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Kiberu Serugunju Simeon, Busomba, Uganda, c. 1950

Kiberu Serugunju Simeon, Busomba, Uganda, c. 1970

African Studies Program (ASP)

The African Studies Program (ASP), a constituent program of the University of Iowa International Programs, was established in 1979 to promote the interdisciplinary study of Africa at The University of Iowa. It helps students gain a broader understanding of traditional and contemporary life in Africa and provides an environment of cooperation and collaboration among students and faculty that leads to increased opportunities for research and teaching.

NEW RESOURCE: UNESCO General History of Africa Online

The UNESCO General History of Africa was the first of its type to present the entire history of the African continent. The collection sheds light on the pre-colonial era and interweaves Africa’s destiny with the rest of humanity’s, examining its interaction with other continents and the role of Africans in the dialogue between civilizations. The entire collection is published in eight volumes and is freely available online.

Featured Resources

Africa South of the Sahara
Perhaps the most intensively annotated and frequently updated portal to Internet resources on Africa, with browsable Topic and Country lists.
African Studies Abstracts Online (ASC Leiden)
ASA Online succeeds the printed abstracts journal of the African Studies Centre Leiden, published since 1968, first as Documentatieblad, then as African Studies Abstracts (1994-2002). It provides a quarterly overview of journal articles and edited works on Africa in the field of the social sciences and the humanities available in the ASC library.
Africa Wide Information (Africa-Wide: NiPAD)
Africa-Wide: NiPAD, produced by NISC South Africa, combines bibliographic databases from around the world to form a multidisciplinary aggregation offering unique and extensive coverage of all facets of Africa and African studies. This includes content from South African Studies, African Studies, and African HealthLine, which focuses on all aspects of health relating to Africa and other developing nations.
African Historical Dictionaries (print)
Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press.
Very useful resources for locating specific information about people, places and events. Most are located in the Reference Room in the DTs, but some will be found in the circulating collection.
African Newspapers
More than 70 nineteenth- and early twentieth-century African newspapers. Featuring titles from Angola, Ghana, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Sao Tome and Principe, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanganyika, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.
African Writers Series
The publication of this historic collection in online form restores access to a substantial body of literature, much of which is out of print and only accessible in specialist research libraries, opening up new possibilities for scholarship and teaching in the fields of African and literary studies.
Africana Conference Paper Index
The Africana Conference Paper Index is an index to the individual papers -- in western European languages -- of the conference proceedings held by Northwestern's Melville J. Herskovits Library of African Studies. The database includes conference papers from the earliest period of the Northwestern Africana collections to the present, including 245,000 volumes, 2,500 current serials, 275 current African newspapers, 10,500 books in African languages, as well as other research materials.
Art & Life in Africa Project
Art and Life in Africa Online contains information about African Art and Culture. Some of the material on this site has been adapted from similar material developed for the Art and Life in Africa CD-ROM being produced at The University of Iowa. Additionally, some material is specific to this site (and not found on the CD), as noted below. Links to further resources on the web have been added where appropriate.
ArtMattan Productions
ArtMattan Productions distributes films that focus on the human experience of black people in Africa, the Caribbean, North and South America and Europe. All films are shown at the annual African Diaspora Film Festival in New York. The Main Library owns most of their films, which can be located in InfoHawk and checked out from Media Services.
Black Drama - 1850 to present
This edition of Black Drama, Second Edition contains approximately 1,462 plays by 233 playwrights, together with detailed, fielded information on related productions, theaters, production companies, and more. The database also includes selected playbills, production photographs and other ephemera related to the plays. Some 600 of the plays are published here for the first time, including a number by major authors.
Black Studies Center
Black Studies Center combines three invaluable resources for research and teaching in Black Studies: Schomburg Studies on the Black Experience, International Index of Black Periodicals (IIBP), and The Chicago Defender. This fully cross-searchable gateway to Black Studies includes scholarly essays, recent periodicals, and historical newspaper articles.
California Newsreel -- Library of African Cinema
California Newsreel is the most important distributor of African film and documentary. The Main Library owns all of their titles, which can be located in the InfoHawk Catalog and checked out from Media Services.
Cambridge History of Africa
This unique historical reference compendium allows instant access to the renowned texts of the Cambridge Histories series. With access to the most up to date and authoritative scholarly content, Cambridge Histories Online is an invaluable resource, for undergraduates, graduates, lecturers and researchers alike.All the available volumes are grouped into topics, making it quick and easy to search and browse through an array of historical subject areas. The extensive bibliographic referencing and other leading functionality, enhances usability and makes this resource ideal for any type of historical research.
Confidential Print: Africa, 1834-1966
Confidential Print: Africa, 1834-1966 covers the whole of the modern period of European colonization of Africa: from coastal trading in the early nineteenth century, through the Conference of Berlin of 1884 and the subsequent Scramble for Africa, to the abuses of the Congo Free State, fights against tropical disease, Italy’s defeat by the Abyssinians, World War II, apartheid in South Africa and colonial moves towards independence. The Confidential Print series, issued by the British Government between c. 1820 and 1970, originated out of a need to preserve the most important papers generated by the Foreign and Colonial Offices. Documents range from single-page letters or telegrams to comprehensive dispatches, investigative reports and texts of treaties.
Confidential Print: Middle East, 1839-1969
Confidential Print: Middle East, 1839-1969 covers the whole of modern British involvement in North Africa and the Middle East: from the Egyptian reforms of Muhammad Ali Pasha in the nineteenth century, the Middle East Conference of 1921, the Mandates for Palestine and Mesopotamia and the Suez Crisis in 1956, to the partition of Palestine, post-Suez Western foreign policy and the Arab-Israeli conflict. The Confidential Print series, issued by the British Government between c. 1820 and 1970, originated out of a need to preserve the most important papers generated by the Foreign and Colonial Offices. Documents range from single-page letters or telegrams to comprehensive dispatches, investigative reports and texts of treaties.
Cooperative Africana Materials Project (CAMP)
The Cooperative Africana Materials Project (CAMP), founded in 1963, is a joint effort by research libraries throughout the world and the Center for Research Libraries (CRL) to promote the preservation of publications and archives concerning the nearly fifty nations of Sub-Saharan Africa. UI researchers may borrow CAMP materials; contact the bibliographer for details.
Government Publications Relating to African Countries Prior to Independence (microform)
British colonial documents (in microform) pertaining to Kenya (1897-1963), Tanganyika (1919-1961), Uganda (1900-1962), Zanzibar (1860-1963), the Gambia (1822-1965), Sierra Leone (1808-1961), the Gold Coast (1846-1957), and Nigeria (1862-1960). See bibliographer for assistance.
Literature of travel and exploration : an encyclopedia (print)
Jennifer Speake, ed. 3 vols. New York: Fitzroy Dearborn, 2003.
Call Number: Main Reference Collection. Folio G465 .L565 2003

“More than 600 alphabetically arranged entries—ranging in length from 1,000 to 5,000 words—each include an essay analyzing current thinking about a particular subject, as well as a thorough bibliography of source material that gives students and researchers a starting point for further study”.
Oxford Encyclopedia of African Thought


The Oxford Encyclopedia of African Thought offers a comprehensive view of African thought, covering the intellectual tradition on the continent and throughout the diaspora. All major trends in African philosophy, political theory, and religion will be covered, as well as significant historical figures and social movements.
Regional and District Books, Tanganyika (microform)
Beginning in 1922, British colonial officers at the provincial and district levels were directed to compile background information on the historical, social, political and economic circumstances of their jurisdictions. The resulting "handing over reports" or handbooks comprised the institutional knowledge of local colonial administration. See bibliographer for assistance.
Slavery, Abolition and Social Justice, 1490-2007
This digital collection documents key aspects of the history of slavery worldwide over six centuries. Topics covered include the African Coast, the Middle Passage, the varieties of slave experience, religion, revolts, abolition, and legislation. The collection also includes case studies from America, the Caribbean, Brazil, and Cuba.