Primary Sources: World History

A collection of posters created by African governments and international agencies, as well as political/labor/social/religious/educational/ cultural organizations. Topics include anti-apartheid movements; HIV/AIDS; Lusophone African liberation movement; Nigerian social values; 1994 South African elections; and South Africa under apartheid.

Testimonies, videos, audio, photographs, documents, and interactive maps about the 1994 genocide as well as post-genocide reconstruction efforts in Rwanda.

Assembled by the British collector Humphrey Winterton over about 30 years, the collection depicts the breadth of African experience; documents African life; European life in Africa in all its manifestations; and the African landscape, in particular as it changed over time. Included are photographs showing the building of East Africa’s railways, the growth of its urban centers and the development of European colonial administration. The photographs extensively document rural life as well as the travels and work of European colonial officials and private businessmen. There are outstanding examples of portraiture, some of which were taken by commercial studios. Other photographs produced by commercial studios were specifically taken for sale and distribution in Europe and North America. The Winterton Collection also provides an unsurpassed resource for the study of the history of photography in East Africa. The Winterton Collection complements the exhaustive resources in print and microform in the Herskovits Library for the study of East Africa.

Africa is both the most clearly defined of continents - in its geography - and the hardest to pin down in historical terms. Human beings originated in Africa and, as a result, there is more diversity of human types and societies than anywhere else. It is not possible, in any non-ideological way, to claim any one of these peoples or societies as more essentially "African" than others; nor is it possible to exclude a given society as "not really African". On this site historical sources on the history of human societies in the continent of Africa are presented, when available, without making prejudgements about what is "African".

Collection of print and visual resources. Use limiters in left column to focus search on a specific geography, date range or topic.