UCLA Library Collections and Internet Resources in:

African Studies

(Africana Collections at UCLA and Selected Internet Resources on Sub-Saharan Africa)

Contents

[ball icon]UCLA Research Collections on Sub-Saharan Africa
[ball icon]UCLA Library Africana Collections
[ball icon]Other UCLA Campus Africana Collections
[ball icon]Internet Resources on Africa
[ball icon]General Africana and Reference
[ball icon]News Sources
[ball icon]Electronic Journals and Newsletters
[ball icon]Arts and Humanities
[ball icon]Social Sciences
[ball icon]Selected Library Guides and Online Catalogs
[ball icon]UCLA Academic Units and Programs in African Area Studies

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[Ball Icon]UCLA Research Collections on Sub-Saharan Africa

UCLA Library Africana Collections
Other UCLA Campus Africana Collections

UCLA Library Africana Collections

Description:

Africana collections at the UCLA Library provide information for African studies, here defined as the study of Sub-Saharan Africa and the adjacent islands of the Indian and Atlantic Oceans. Materials on North Africa are included in the Middle Eastern Studies collections. African-American and other African diasporan studies are separate and distinct from African area studies. UCLA Library holdings are listed in MELVYL® , the University of California system-wide library information system.

UCLA Africana collections are distributed throughout the Library system. The Charles E. Young Research Library (YRL) houses materials in the humanities and social sciences to support faculty research and graduate programs. Africana research materials in other subject areas are held in the Arts, Biomedical, Law, Management, Music, and Science & Engineering Libraries. College Library collections contain materials in all subject areas, including African area studies, to support undergraduate instruction in all disciplines.

The African Studies Bibliographer is responsible for the development and management of the collection of Africana books and bound journals in the YRL stacks, current journals, magazines and newspapers in the Periodicals Room, and materials in non-print formats, such as microform sets, electronic files and audiovisual materials. Some non-print materials acquired in the YRL are housed in other campus collections for ease of access. For example, video collections are housed in the Instructional Media Library.

Range:

YRL Africana collections include materials in about 70 African and 15 non-African languages. The Library collects original primary source materials, such as diaries, correspondence, official documents and field notes whenever possible. In some cases, reproductions in microform, photocopy, printed editions, or electronic databases are the only practical options available for local acquisition of such materials. Librarians are able to provide information on demand regarding the location of the original documents. Categories of microform sets include data collections and research documents: Sahel: Documents and Dissertations, a collection of over 900 documents from the Sahel Documentation Center at Michigan State University and various organizations, and 100 American doctoral dissertations on the Sahel region; British Government official documents: Colonial Office Confidential Print on Africa, 1642-1922 and Foreign Office General Correspondence on the Slave Trade, 1816-1892; missionary society records and archives: Joint International Missionary Council and Conference of British Missionary Societies (IMC/CBMS) Archives: Africa and India, 1910-1945 and London Missionary Society Records, 1796-1907; US Government official documents: Despatches from United States Consuls in Cape Town, 1800-1906; .... in Pretoria, 1898-1906 and sets of US Department of State Records Relating to... various European interests in Africa, dating from 1910. Records of parliamentary proceedings, e.g. The Cape of Good Hope Official Publications, are also available.

Subscriptions to Africana journals, magazines and newspapers number about 1,000 titles. These include scholarly journals on Africa, such as the Journal of African History, the Review of African Political Economy and Research in African Literatures, and news bulletins and magazines, such as Africa Confidential, West Africa, Jeune Afrique and the Weekly Review.

Newspaper holdings include titles in African languages, European languages of Africa's former colonizers, and creoles of the latter. Here are just a few examples:

Newspaper backfiles are available at UCLA for most titles, or by interlibrary loan from other locations.

As a member of the Center for Research Libraries (CRL), and the Cooperative Africana Microform Project (CAMP) which is administered by CRL, the UCLA Library participates with other major libraries in the cooperative acquisition and preservation of a wide range of research materials from and about Africa, including archives and manuscripts, theses and dissertations, newspapers, official gazettes and other government documents, collections of personal and/or official papers of important scholars, authors and political figures, and political ephemera. Individuals with borrowing privileges at the UCLA Library may obtain CAMP and CRL materials through interlibrary loan.

The UCLA collection on African Literature includes the full range of primary creative writing of African-born authors and related secondary literature, including history and criticism, biography and bibliographical compilations. Literary works are acquired in the original language whenever possible, eg., Aminata Sow Fall's La Greve des Battus, ou, Les Dechets Humains, and Andre Brink's Kennis van die Aand. English translations of literary works are provided selectively.

The Collections, Research, and Instructional Services Department houses bibliographic indexes, encyclopedias, language dictionaries, factbooks, directories, biographical dictionaries, and printed library catalogs. A cluster of CD-ROM workstations provides access to several resources including Dissertation Abstracts International, Ethnic Newswatch, and SocioFile.

This department also provides access to cartographic materials (maps, atlases and electronic databases), documents of US and foreign governments (budget estimates, expenditures, censuses, parliamentary proceedings, investigative hearings and reports, press releases, legislative acts, etc.), publications of international organizations, such as the United Nations and its agencies, information on non-governmental organizations, as well as an outstanding collection of pamphlets from around the world.

The Department of Special Collections holds many rare or unique materials related to Africa. Manuscript and archival collections include the Ralphe Bunche papers; the Ralph Skene papers; Hilda Kuper's Field notebooks of anthropological research in Swaziland and South Africa, 1931-1985, containing notes and photographs on Swazi culture and the Indians of Natal (also available on microfilm without photographs); the White Fathers' Records relating to "Table d'enquete sur les moeurs et les coutumes indigenes" [An Enquiry into the indigenous traditions and customs of peoples of West and Central Africa], 1950-1960; and the Roland Stevenson papers containing linguistic, cultural and political material from Sudan and other parts of Northeastern Africa. The Children's Literature collection contains such notable award-winners as David A. Anderson's The Origin of Life on Earth: An African Creation Myth.

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Other UCLA Campus Africana Collections

The Ethnomusicology Archive collects sound recordings from around the world. African music in this collection includes religious ritual and other ceremonial music, as well as popular genres, such as Highlife music. The Archive also subscribes to a good number of specialized publications on ethnic music.

The Instructional Media Library holds approximately 280 audiovisual titles related to Africa. These include feature and documentary films and video productions, as well as audiovisual adaptations of literary works. The Library has the Nigerian Television Authority's rendition of Chinua Achebe's famous novel Things Fall Apart. The complete video collection of South Africa Now, a now-defunct weekly television news program from the late 1980's and early 1990's, provides primary source material from inside South Africa on the anti-apartheid struggle of that period.

The Fowler Museum of Cultural History, established in 1963, holds some of the most impressive collections of artworks and material culture from around the world, including Sub-Saharan Africa. Exhibitions at the Museum are typically accompanied by fine, informative catalogues, which may be found in the collection of the Museum Library. The Library also houses publications on museum development and curatorship in Africa, and on collections of African art and material culture worldwide.

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[Ball Icon]Internet Resources on Africa

General Africana and Reference
Africana Internet Guides
General Bibliographies Online
Books Online
Directories Online
Travel Information
Organizations
Online Discussion Groups and Listservs
News Sources
News Agencies and Regional Coverage Publications
News by Country
Electronic Journals and Newsletters
Arts and Humanities
Social Sciences
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General Africana and Reference

Africana Internet Guides

Africa Research Central
A clearinghouse of African primary sources.
Africa South of the Sahara: Selected Internet Resources
an excellent guide, compiled by Karen Fung of Stanford University's Hoover Institution, for the Electronic Technology Group of the African Studies Association (USA).
contains information on a variety of sites with African content, including news, scholarly publications, travel and regional information, and a directory of institutions.
African Links on the Internet
brings together Africa-related sites.
African Studies Center (U. Penn)
Links, found under "Resources," include Africa Web Links: an Annotated Resource List and Black/African Related Resources, among other useful listings, maintained by Ali B. Ali-Dinar.
The Electronic African Bookworm - A Web Navigator
Electronic African Bookworm is no longer available, but the site has a list of "organizations, networks, and associations that support African publishing and book development."

General Bibliographies Online

Electronic Journal of Africana Bibliography (EJAB)
edited by John Bruce Howell, University of Iowa Libraries.

Directories Online

International Directory of African Studies Scholars
compiled and maintained by Joseph Caruso, Columbia University.

Organizations

Africa Renewal - A United Nations Publication
African Studies Association [USA]

Association of Concerned Africa Scholars (ACAS)
provides information about Africa to promote understanding and involvment in contemporary African issues.
The Commonwealth
contains serial publications and other information on the organization, its membership, and its activities and projects worldwide.
Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR)
works with agricultural research centers worldwide, mostly in developing countries, to support research and promote food security. CGIAR publishes and distributes material on agricultural development and food supply issues.

Life in Africa
"A growing network of organizations using Webbed Empowerment strategies together to engage the online world in creative uplift and support to self-help for vulnerable African children, families and communities"
Oxfam
"a confederation of 13 organizations working together with over 3,000 partners in more than 100 countries to find lasting solutions to poverty and injustice" (from Oxfam Homepage). Its activities include a publication program.
U.S. State Department Bureau of African Affairs
Washington Office on Africa (WOA)
is an advocacy organization for Africa-related causes. It is involved in the production and distribution of information documents to individuals and institutions.
The World Bank
is a major player in development policies and programs affecting Sub-Saharan Africa. This site provides access to World Bank resources.
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News Sources

News Agencies and Regional Coverage Publications

AFRICA CONFIDENTIAL
Reporting the Africa that other newspapers don't reach.
Africa Economic Analysis
includes full text of various articles on economic conditions in Africa.
allAfrica
is a service that provides news on African countries and regions. A list, with links, of allAfrica's content providers (including a large number of newspapers and other news publications) can be found here.
Africa Newspapers Currently Received By American Libraries
compiled by Mette Shayne. For more recent information please see the African Newspapers Union List (AFRINUL).
BBC News: Africa
for current affairs, arts, and magazine programs.
The Christian Science Monitor
is a daily newspaper that frequently carries, among other things, articles on African societies and issues related to contemporary African development.
Voice of America: Africa News & Features
provides news coverage of African affairs and developments in U.S./Africa relations.

News by Country

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Electronic Journals, Newsletters, and Broadcasts

African Technology Forum
from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has the full text of the current magazine feature articles, as well as the complete table of contents of current and back issues.
Africa Update
is a quarterly publication by the African Studies Program of Central Connecticut State University. Archived issues going back to winter 1993 are also available at the site. Articles in individual issues focus on a central theme, eg., "Languages of Africa," "Democracy in Botswana."
BBC Radio World Service: Africa
for current affairs, arts, and magazine programs.
Deutsche Welle Online
Live audio and video news broadcasts.
Findings and Best Practices Infobrief
is a publication of concise information of progress in development activities by the World Bank.
Ijele: Art eJournal of the African World
is an online journal that focuses on the contemporary art and architecture created by artists in Africa and other regions of the world.
Irinkerindo
provides a forum for scholarly articles that document the relevance of African migration to global social, political and economic systems.
Jenda: A Journal of Culture and African Women Studies
The Journal of African Travel-Writing
publishes true narratives, fiction, poetry and reviews of literary writing.
Periodicals Archive Online (formerly PCI Full Text)
Indexes thousands of periodicals in the social sciences and humanities from 1770-1995, and currently offers full text of articles for 200 complete journal runs.
Safundi: The Journal of South African and American Comparative Studies
A quartely peer-reviewed academic journal.
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Arts and Humanities

Art and Life in Africa
is a multimedia project at the University of Iowa with extensive material on African peoples, their arts and their social and cultural institutions.
Modern African art: a basic reading list
Compiled by Janet L. Stanley, National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC.
Sudanic Africa: A Journal of Historical Sources
The electronic version of each issue includes the table of contents and the sections "Notes and communications" and "Recent books."
The UCLA Language Materials Project
is a database "containing more than 11,000 citations covering over 900 languages," providing bibliographic information on materials for teaching less commonly taught languages, many of which are African. It includes language-distribution maps for some languages, and descriptive profiles with historical information. Holding locations of cited materials are provided.
West Africa Review
is an academic ejournal which promotes "research and scholarship of importance to the global African community and friends of Africa."
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Social Sciences

Development and Environment

CEDPA
The Centre for Development and Population Activities.
CIESIN
Center for International Earth Science Information Network.
Oxfam Australia: Southern Africa
has country-specific information on Oxfam Australia's projects in African countries.
Eldis - [Africa]
is an Africa-related section of the Electronic Development and Environment Information System at the Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex.
European Forum on International Cooperation
provides access to resources on development cooperation, including publications from governments and NGO's working in developing countries and based in Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain and the United Kingdom.
Global Population Distribution Database
was prepared by Yi-Fan Li for the UN Environment Programme in Nairobi, Kenya, with support from the Canadian Global Emissions Inventory Centre (CGEIC).
USAID Initiatives in Africa
"Central to USAID’s assistance programs in Africa are several initiatives to improve education, increase agricultural productivity, reduce government corruption, promote U.S. trade with Africa, promote the use of information technology, and protect the Congo Basin Forest."
ReliefWeb
is a project of the United Nations Dept. of Humanitarian Affairs, designed to improve the preparedness and responsiveness of humanitarian relief organizations in major crises, and to promote the prevention and control of disaster. It provides tracking information on various crisis situations, a map center with over 150 maps, and numerous bulletins and reports.
United Nations Development Programme: Sustainable Human Development
This site provides access to several databases on the UNDP, its projects and publications dealing with poverty and its eradication in developing areas.

Human Rights

University of Minnesota Human Rights Library
houses one of the largest collections of more than twenty-five thousand core human rights documents, including several hundred human rights treaties and other primary international human rights instruments.
Women's Human Rights Resources, at the Bora Laskin Law Library, University of Toronto.
collects, organizes and disseminates information on women's human rights law to facilitate research, teaching and cooperation.
Yale University Law School Project DIANA
"An Online Human Rights Archive."
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[Ball Icon]Selected Library Guides and Online Catalogs

Basler Afrika Bibliographien (BAB) Namibia Resource Centre - Southern Africa Library [Basel - Switzerland]
The British Library: [Department of Asia, Pacific & Africa Collections]
The Center for Research Libraries
COPAC (UK and Ireland) National cooperative online public access catalog, combining catalog records of over 20 major universities.
British Library for Development Studies (Institute of Development Studies, Sussex)
The Institute of Commonwealth Studies Library
Northwestern University Herskovits Library of African Studies
School of Oriental and African Studies Library, University of London
Stanford University -- Hoover Institution
University of Florida - Key resources for African Studies
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign - Center for African Studies, Africana Reading Room

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[Ball Icon]UCLA Academic Units and Programs in African Area Studies

The UCLA African Studies Center is a National Resource Center established in 1959 to educate undergraduate and graduate students and the general community about Africa, and to serve as an organized research unit for faculty and researchers. African studies faculty at UCLA reside in their respective academic departments and professional schools but are affiliated to the Center, which provides a forum for interaction and exchange of ideas among faculty, the Center's visiting scholars and fellows, students and members of the community.

UCLA's interdisciplinary program in African area studies offers courses at the graduate and undergraduate levels in a wide range of fields, including arts and humanities, social sciences, and professional fields. The program offers a Master of Arts in African Studies (MAAS), as well as an articulated degree program with the School of Public Health combining the MAAS and the Master of Public Health degree. In addition to these degree programs, academic departments and professional schools offer African area specialization in Master's and doctoral programs.

At the undergraduate level students have the opportunity to enter the African Studies Minor Program. Students completing this program will receive a B.A. degree combining a major in a selected discipline with a Minor in African Studies.

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Page created and maintained by Ruby Bell-Gam, African Studies Bibliographer, (rbellgam@library.ucla.edu)
and Lukowa Kidima, (lkidima@library.ucla.edu)

Last updated: March 1, 2008

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