Research Guides: Basic Guide to Research on Africa: News, Documents, & Statistics

Current & Historical News

Access world news--Africa. Newsbank. (Naples, Florida)
Plain text versions of news stories from selected major African media outlets around the continent, covering the last 10 years up to 1 week ago.
--See also, two South African historical newspapers:
The Sowetan archive, 1981-2019 -and- The Sunday Times archive, 1906-2019, both featuring digitized versions of the print

Africa commons: East African magazines, newspapers, and films:
The Hilary Ng'weno Archive. ([Washington, D.C.] : Coherent Digital, [2023]-)
"The archive presents more than 100,000 pages of digitized publications from Hilary Ng'weno's media company in Nairobi, Kenya...Highlights include: The Weekly Review, 1975-1999 ; The Nairobi Times, 1977-1983 ; Making of a Nation documentaries and oral histories."

Africa confidential. (London)
1996 to present ( via Publisher)
2003 to 3 years ago (via EBSCO)
Print, 1964-2011

Africa research bulletin: economic, financial & technical series. (Oxford: Blackwell, 1964-)
1997 to present (via Wiley-Blackwell)

Africa research bulletin: political, social & cultural series. (Oxford: Blackwell, 1964-)
1997 to present (via Wiley-Blackwell)

African American newspapers, 1827-1998. (Naples, Fla. : Readex, a division of NewsBank)

AllAfrica.Com News (Washington, DC)
Selected articles from electronic African newspapers & other sources since 1996, with searchable archive, in English and French.
--See also: Factiva below

The Center for Research Libraries--Cooperative Africana Materials Project

AFRINUL: African Newspapers Union List
A list of holdings of currently or recently subscribed African newspapers in US academic libraries.
CRL Catalog--Newspapers on Microfilm.

Columbia University

African Diaspora News on the Internet
Electronic Newspapers of Africa
Lehman Social Sciences Library--Recent African Newspapers in Print
- The East African. (Nairobi)
- Rai. (Dar es Salaam ; Swahili weekly)
- Sud quotidien. (Dakar)
- The Sunday Independent. (Johannesburg)
- The Sunday Nation. (Nairobi)
- The Sunday Vision. (Kampala)
News and Information Services on the Internet for Africa

Newspapers of Africa on Microfilm at Columbia

East View & The Center for Research Libraries--Global Press Archive. [Minneapolis, Minnesota]: East View Information Services.
Daily Observer (Monrovia) -and- East African Newspapers, 1943-2003: Daily Nation (Nairobi) ; Ethiopian Herald (Addis Ababa) ; Monitor (Kampala).

Factiva.Com. (New York: Dow Jones and Reuters, c2002--)
NOTE: Select "Sources" and "Languages" before searching.

Foreign Broadcast Information Service (FBIS) daily reports. Online (Naples, FL : Readex, 2010.)
Selected newspaper articles and radio broadcast transcripts in English or English translation, covering the period 1941-1996.

The New Humanitarian (Geneva, Switzerland) Formerly IRIN News

United Nations. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA)

ReliefWeb -- Countries
This searchable site provides links to full-length reports on areas of the world affected by humanitarian "emergencies"

University of California, Los Angeles, Modern Endangered Archives Program:
McMillan Memorial Library Newspaper Collection (1947-2005), Nairobi, Kenya (Los Angeles, California)

World News Connection, 1996-2013. (Springfield, VA: NTIS; via East View Information Services)
English language (or translated) news from non-US media: inc. newspapers, periodicals, & television and radio broadcasts.

World Newspaper Archive -- Africa's Historical Newspapers In collaboration with The Center for Research Libraries and The British Library. (Naples, Florida: Readex, 2010-)

Plus: Rand Daily Mail, 1902-1985 (Johannesburg)

Documents from Governments, IGOs, & NGOs -and- Statistics

African Commodity Trade Database, 1737-2010 Sponsored by the African Economic History Network
- "The database provides export and import series at product level for more than two and a half centuries of African trade (1737-2010).
  ***Note: As of April 1, 2021, the available data covers the period 1737-1939 only.

African Development Bank -- Statistics Division (Tunis, Tunisia ; Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire)
- African statistical yearbook, 2009 to present (online) -- Tunis, Tunisia ; Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire: African Development Bank ; Addis Ababa, Ethiopia: United Nations Economic Commission for Africa.
  --See also: African statistical yearbook = Annuaire statistique pour l'Afrique. Print edition. (Addis Ababa: Economic Commission for Africa, United Nations, 1974--).
- AfDB Statistics Pocketbook, 2006 to present (online). -- Tunis, Tunisia ; Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire : Statistics Department, Economic Governance and Knowledge Management Complex, African Development Bank.
- Gender, Poverty, and Environmental Indicators on African Countries, 2005 to present. (Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire: African Development Bank, 2005--).
- Selected statistical publications on African countries, 2006--

African Economic Outlook (African Development Bank, Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire; Tunis, Tunisia)
- "The website provides comprehensive and comparable data and analysis of 50 African economies..."
  --See also: Previous AEOs

African Elections Database (Albert C. Nunley, via Tripod.Com, USA)
A compilation of electoral results by country; frequently updated, with some results from the 1990s. Sources include various other election monitor websites; see links.

AFRISTAT: Observatoire économique et statistique d'Afrique Subsaharienne (2017) (Bamako, Mali)
This archived French-language site provides recent historical official statistics and text summaries from the member states of the CFA Zone.

Council on Foreign Relations: Sub-Saharan Security Tracker: Mapping Violence in Sub-Saharan Africa (Washington, DC)
The SST draws on data from the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data (ACLED) Project, which documents violent events across Africa by surveying open sources, such as the media, reports from nongovernmental organizations, and publicly available material from governments and international organizations.

Data Africa (HarvestChoice, IFPRI-International Food Policy Research Institute, Washington, DC. ; University of Minnesota, Minneapolis)
'An open data platform designed to provide information on key themes, such as: agriculture, climate, poverty and child health.' Provides recent data on the following countries: Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Mali, Mozambique, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Tanzania, Uganda, and, Zambia.

Demographic & Health Surveys (DHS) (Macro International, Calverton, MD)
Search especially under individual countries of North African or Sub Saharan Africa regions.

The Economist Intelligence Unit Publications (London, UK)
- EIU Viewpoint on Africa -and- Middle East
- EIU Country Reports Archive, 1952-1995

Emerging Markets Information Service (New York: Internet Securities, 2000-)
In English, French, and Arabic. Selected business and economic news in full text from newspapers, company reports, banks and brokerage houses, and research services.
Search by keyword from top box. Or, select "Markets" on left panel, scroll down for Countries, and select "News" or other categories.

Foreign relations of the United States. 1910-1980. (Washington, DC: US State Dept.).
See especially: v. X (Africa, 1955-57); v. XII (Arab-Israeli/North Africa, 1958-60);
v. XVI (Africa, 1958-60); v. XX (Congo Crisis, 1961-63); v. XXI (Africa, 1961-63) ;
v. XXIV (Africa, 1964-68).
- HeinOnline provides full online text of this series and other US legal history to present.
- See also: US Foreign Policy

France. Agence française de développement (Paris)
Site in French and English; publications primarily in French. Search within the portal of each country in Sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East.

France. Ministère des Affaires étrangères: Actualités, dossiers et textes récents sur les relations franco-africaines (Paris)

International Documentation Network on the Great African Lakes Region = Réseau documentaire international sur la région des Grands Lacs africains (The Graduate Institute, Geneva, Switzerland)
An archive of documents from governments, local and international NGOs, scholars, and other individuals from the early 1990s to the present.

International Monetary Fund. IMF eLibrary. (Washington, DC)

Inventaire des recensements et enquêtes démographiques en Afrique (CePeD--Centre Population et Développement, Université Paris Descartes, France)
IREDA is an inventory of the demographic censuses and surveys realized in West and Central Africa: Benin, Cameroon, Democratic Republic of Congo, Côte d'Ivoire, Mali, and Niger.

Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. OECD iLibrary (Washington, DC, USA ; Paris, France : OECD)
--See especially: OECD iLibrary--Statistics

PARLINE Database on National Parliaments (Inter-Parliamentary Union, Geneva, Switzerland)
A searchable directory of national assemblies and parliaments.

Peace Agreements Database on Sub-Saharan Africa (University of Edinburgh, Scotland, UK) 614 agreements
--For individual countries, including those in North Africa, search by Country

South Africa. Central Statistical Service (Pretoria)
- Statistics South Africa Home Page

South Africa.Government Gazettes. (via Sabinet Legal, Centurion, South Africa)
- 1994 to the present.
- Provincial Gazettes, 1995 to present.
- Retrospective Government Gazettes, 1910-1993.

United Kingdom. Foreign & Commonwealth Office -- Publications. (London)

United Kingdom. Foreign, Commonwealth, & Development Office (London) Formerly DFID and ODA
- FCDO General Home Page
- Search by Country: International Development Funding
- Development Tracker : search for current and recent UK aid projects

United Kingdom. Overseas Development Institute. (London)

United Nations Conference on Trade and Development: Economic development in Africa report, 2001 to present. (Geneva, Switzerland: UNCTAD, 2001-).

United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization: UNESCO Institute for Statistics. (via Montreal, Quebec, Canada)
Regional and country statistical data and a searchable document library.

United Nations Environment Programme: UNEP World Environment Situation Room. (Geneva, Switzerland)
A major source for research and policy statements from UNEP and its partners.
--See also: Global Environment Outlook 6th edition (2019)

United Nations Statistics Division -- Search all publications . (New York, NY)

USAID Development Experience Clearinghouse. (Washington, DC)
An extensive, updated archive of all available USAID reports on individual projects and countries.

US Congressional Hearings -- via LexisNexis. (Washington, DC)
"The LexisNexis Congressional Hearings Digital Collection includes abstracting, indexing, bibliographic information, and searchable PDFs for Congressional hearings from 1824-2003."

US Government Agencies on Africa -- Internet Resources. (Compiled by Columbia University Libraries)

The World Bank Publications -- African Statistics. (Washington, DC)
- African development indicators. 1994-2007. Annual. (1994-).
  See also: Print edition, 1992 ; 1994-1995 online ; 1997 online ; and, 2008-2013 online.
- Worldwide Governance Indicators, 1996-2013
  Data on 212 countries and territories, with charts and tables for 6 major "governance indicators".
- World databank (All)
  "A complilation of a number of World Bank data products, the most significant one being World development indicators (WDI)."
- Open Knowledge Repository (All)

World Christian database. Compiled by The Center for the Study of Global Christianity, Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, Hamilton, Massachusetts. (Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 2020)
A searchable database with detailed information on 9,000 Christian denominations and on religions in every country of the world.
World religion database. Compiled by The Institute on Culture, Religion, and World Affairs, Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts. (Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 2020)
The WRD contains detailed statistics on religious affiliation for every country of the world. It provides source material, including censuses and surveys, as well as best estimates for every religion to offer a definitive picture of international religious demography.