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African Online Primary Sources

Guide to how and where to find Africa related online primary sources

Online searching tips!

Digitized primary source collections are scattered all over the Internet so there is no one way of finding materials. You will find in this section some tips to focus your search to find materials in online primary source collections.  Use any search engine to search by topic, author/organization or date.

Find primary source by topic.

Search terms to use should include words that identify materials as primary source:

  • Diaries
  • Testimony
  • Personal narratives
  • Correspondence
  • Memoirs
  • Letters.
  • Interview

Example: Women apartheid South Africa personal narratives

Find primary source by author/organization

Search terms should include name of organization that curated the collection

Example: President William Tubman personal correspondence Indiana University

Find primary source by date

Add date to search terms

Example: Aba women's riots 1929