Research Guides: Economic Development and Histories of Poverty & Wealth in Africa: Home

General Reference, Bibliographies, Encyclopedias, Handbooks, & Textbooks

Africa contemporary record. Annual. (London: Africana Publishing, 1968/69-2002)

Africa south of the Sahara. Annual. (London: Europa, 1971-)

See also: Europa world plus (described below)

African folklore: an encyclopedia. Edited by Philip M. Peek and Kwesi Yankah. New York : Routledge, 2004.

Africana: the encyclopedia of the African and African-American experience. 5 vols. Edited by Kwame Anthony Appiah and Henry Louis Gates, Jr. Oxford, UK; New York: Oxford University Press, 2005.

See also: Oxford African American studies center

Area Handbook series [historical]. Prepared by the Library of Congress and sponsored by the US Dept. of the Army. (Washington)

For the handbook of a country, search in CLIO: use country name and "area handbook".
For available online handbooks on Africa, see section on US Dept. of the Army in "US Organizations on Africa," compiled by Columbia University Libraries.
See also: The Library of Congress: Country Profiles, 2004-2008

Decker, Corrie and Elisabeth McMahon. The idea of development in Africa : a history. Cambridge, United Kingdom ; New York, NY : Cambridge University Press, [2021]
--See also: E-book

Encyclopedia of African history. 3 v. Ed. by Kevin Shillington. (New York : Fitzroy Dearborn, 2005)

Encyclopedia of the Middle Passage. Edited by Toyin Falola and Amanda Warnock. (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 2007)

Europa world plus. -- New York, NY : Routledge ; Taylor & Francis Group, 2007-
Select "Africa South of the Sahara" or "Middle East and North Africa"

Good growth and governance in Africa : rethinking development strategies. Edited by Akbar Noman [and others]. Oxford : Oxford University Press, c2012. Textbook.
--See also: E-book

Growth and poverty in sub-Saharan Africa. Edited by Channing Arndt, Andy McKay, and Finn Tarp. Oxford : Oxford University Press, c2016. Textbook.
--See also: E-book

The handbook of social work and social development in Africa. Edited by Mel Gray. London : Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, 2017.
--See also: E-book

Historical Dictionary series. Scarecrow Press (Metuchen, NJ ; Lanham, MD)
Most recent editions are in Lehman Library Reference, near "Global Studies". For a dictionary of one country, search in CLIO, with "All fields" in "Advanced Search", and use [current name of country] and "historical dictionary".

Historical dictionary of international organizations in Sub-Saharan Africa. 2nd ed.
By Terry M. Mays and Mark W. DeLancey. (2002)
Historical dictionary of pre-colonial Africa. By Robert O. Collins. (2001)
Historical dictionary of women in Sub-Saharan Africa. 2nd ed. By Kathleen E. Sheldon. (2016) --See also: E-book

Irele, Modupeola. The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS): a bibliography and sourcebook. (Lagos: Nigerian Institute of International Affairs, 1990)

Jerven, Morten. Africa : why economists get it wrong. E-book. London, [England] : Zed Books in association with International African Institute Royal African Society World Peace Foundation, 2015.

The Middle East and North Africa. Annual. (London: Europa, 1995-)

See also: Europa world plus (described above)

Langdon, Steven, Archibald R.M. Ritter and Yiagadeesen Samy. African economic development. Abingdon, Oxon ; New York, NY : Routledge, 2018. Textbook.
--See also: E-book

New encyclopedia of Africa, 5 v. Editor in chief, John Middleton; editor, Joseph C. Miller. Detroit: Thomson/Gale, c2008.

Oxford Bibliographies Online (Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press)

--Select "African Studies" and see especially:
African Socialism (2018). By Kelly Askew.
Aid and Economic Development (2017). By Alice N. Sindzingre.
Atlantic Slave Trade (2017). By Herbert S. Klein.
Cocoa (2021). By Pius Nyambara and Takesure Taringana.
Economic Anthropology (2020). By Peter Lockwood and Constance Smith.
Economic History (2021). By Ewout Frankema.
Economy, Informal (2016). By Martin J. Murray and Dana Kornberg.
Environmental History (2016). By Gregory H. Maddox.
Famine (2018). By Daniel Maxwell and Merry Fitzpatrick.
Food and Food Production (2016). By Ayodeji Olukoju.
Indian Ocean and Middle Eastern Slave Trades (2016). By George M. La Rue.
Indian Ocean Trade (2017). By Edward A. Alpers.
Pastoralism (2016). By Peter D. Little.
Population and Demography (2016). By Odile Frank.
Slavery in Africa (2016). By E.S.D. Fomin.
Trans-Saharan Trade (2016). By Ghislaine Lydon.
Urbanism and Urbanization (2016). By Garth Myers.

The Oxford companion to the economics of Africa. E-book. Edited by Ernest Aryeetey . . . [et al.]. Oxford ; New York, NY : Oxford University Press, 2012.

The Oxford companion to the economics of South Africa. E-book. Edited by Haroon Bhorat, Alan Hirsch, Ravi Kanbur, Mthuli Ncube. Oxford, United Kingdom : Oxford University Press, 2014.

The Oxford encyclopedia of African thought. Editors in chief, F. Abiola Irele and Biodun Jeyifo. 2 vols. New York : Oxford University Press, 2010.

The Oxford handbook of Africa and economics. 2 vols. Edited by Célestin Monga and Justin Yifu Lin. Oxford, United Kingdom ; New York, NY : Oxford University Press, 2015.

The Oxford handbook of the Ethiopian economy. Edited by Fantu Cheru, Christopher Cramer, and Arkebe Oqubay. Oxford : Oxford University Press, 2019.
--See also: E-book

The Oxford handbook of the South African economy. E-book. Edited by Arkebe Oqubay, Fiona Tregenna, and Imraan Valodia. Oxford : Oxford University Press, 2021.

The Oxford handbook of structural transformation. E-book. Edited by Célestin Monga and Justin Yifu Lin. New York: Oxford University Press, 2019.

Oxford research encyclopedias--African history (Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press)

Scholarly essays, with extensive bibliographic references, on a wide variety of topics in the field; including:
African Economic History and Historiography
African Market Women, Market Queens, and Merchant Queens
African Urban History and Historiography
Atlantic Slavery and the Slave Trade
Business Records as Sources for African History
Cocoa and Child Slavery in West Africa
Environmental History
Euro-African Trade Relations and Socioeconomic Development in West Africa, 1450-1900
History of Migrant Labor in South Africa (1800-2014)
Humanitarianism in Africa
Labor History of East Africa
Money and Currency in African History
Numerical Data and Statistical Sources
Poverty and Inequality in South Africa: A History
Quantitative Methods and Economic Statistical Sources for African History
Water Management in East Africa
Women and Development

The Palgrave handbook of agricultural and rural development in Africa. E-book. Edited by Evans S. Osabuohien. Cham, Switzerland : Palgrave Macmillan, [2020]

The political economy of economic growth in Africa, 1960-2000. 2 vols. E-book. Edited by Benno J. Ndulu ... [et al.]. Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2008. Textbook.
--See also: Offsite print copy, with CD

The population of southern Africa: an annotated bibliography 1980-1997. 2 vols. [Dakar, Senegal]: Union for African Population Studies, 1998.

Poverty reduction in the course of African development. Edited by Machiko Nissanke and Muna Ndulo. Oxford ; New York, NY : Oxford University Press, 2017. Conference proceedings.
--See also: E-book

The quality of growth in Africa. Edited by Ravi Kanbur, Akbar Noman, and Joseph E. Stiglitz. New York : Columbia University Press, [2019]. Textbook.
--See also: E-book

The Routledge companion to business in Africa. Edited by Sonny Nwankwo and Kevin Ibeh. Abingdon, Oxon ; New York, NY : Routledge, 2015.
--See also: E-book

The Routledge handbook of African demography. E-book. Edited by Clifford O. Odimegwu and Yemi Adewoyin. Abingdon, Oxon ; New York, NY : Routledge, 2022.

Routledge handbook of public policy in Africa. E-book. Edited by Gedion Onyango. New York : Routledge, 2022.

Routledge handbook of urban planning in Africa. E-book. Edited by Carlos Nunes Silva. Abingdon, Oxon ; New York, NY : Routledge, 2020.

West Africa over 75 years: selections from the raw material of history. Kole Omotoso et al., researchers; Kaye Whiteman, editor. (London: West Africa, 1993)

World Bibliographical Series. Published by Clio Press in Oxford, England and Santa Barbara, CA: 1979-1999.
For a country bibliography, search in CLIO and use [name of country] and "world bibliographical".

Book Reviews

Africa review of books. -- Dakar, Senegal: CODESRIA, 2004-

Book review digest plus. (H.W. Wilson Co., USA; via FirstSearch).

International Bibliography of Book Reviews. Monthly. (Published by K.G. Saur Verlag, Thomson Corporation, 1985 -).

JSTOR
--Use "Advanced Search" and select "Reviews" and "African Studies"

Library Catalogs

CLIO
(All CU libraries EXCEPT Law Library & Teachers College)

Pegasus (Law Library)

Educat (Teachers College)

Borrow Direct

Interlibrary Loan

WorldCat (Interlibrary Loan tool)

Index Databases

Africa-Wide Information via EBSCO (Baltimore, Maryland: National Information Services Corporation, 1997--
--Combine with: AnthropologyPlus ;
EconLit ; Historical Abstracts ; Social Sciences Full Text

PAIS International. Monthly. (New York: Public Access Information Service, 1972-- ; via ProQuest)

PubMed (Bethesda, MD: National Center for Biotechnology Information)

World Health Organization Library: African Index Medicus
See also:

African index medicus. Quarterly. (Brazzaville, Republic of the Congo: Library & Documentation Centre, WHO Regional Office for Africa, 1993-95) -- Check HEALTH SCIENCES Reference.

WHOLIS -- World Health Organization Library Database (Geneva, Switzerland)

Atlases & Maps

Africa: atlas of our changing environment. (Nairobi, Kenya: UNEP, 2008).

Africapolis: visualise urbanisation in Africa (2018) (Paris, France)

Produced by the OECD Sahel and West Africa Club.

Agence française de développement. Atlas of Africa: new perspectives on the continent. E-book. [S.l.] : Routledge, 2021.

Atlas du continent africain. (Paris: Jeune Afrique & Les Editions du Jaguar, 1993).

Atlas of Africa: energy resources. (Nairobi, Kenya: UNEP, 2017)
--See also: E-book

Christopher, A.J.. The atlas of apartheid. (New York: Routledge, 1994).

Christopher, A.J. The atlas of changing South Africa. 2nd ed. (London ; New York : Routledge, c2001)
See also: E-book

Columbia University Libraries: Geospatial Data Catalog (Research Data Services)

Columbia University. Lehman Social Sciences Library Map Room, 2nd Floor.

Eltis, David and David Richardson. Atlas of the transatlantic slave trade. (New Haven, [Connecticut] ; London, [England] : Yale University Press, 2010)
--See also: E-book

Freeman-Grenville, G.S.P. The new atlas of African history. (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1991).

Griffiths, I.L. An atlas of African affairs. 2nd ed. (New York: Routledge, 1994)
See also: Lehman Reference copy.

Historical atlas of Africa. Ed. by J.F. Ade Ajayi et al. (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1985).
See also: Butler Reference copy

Humanitarian OpenStreet Map Team--Our Work (Washington, DC)
Select locations in Africa: "When major disaster strikes anywhere in the world, HOT rallies a huge network of volunteers to create, online, the maps that enable responders to reach those in need.

Kwamena-Poh, Michael et al. African history in maps. (London; New York: Longman, 1982).

Landscapes of West Africa : a window on a changing world. (Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso : Comité Permanent Inter-états de Lutte contre la Sécheresse dans le Sahel (CLISS), [2016])

Maps and Power in Modern African History. (Columbia University Libraries)

Maps of Africa on the Internet. (Columbia University Libraries)

Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. An atlas of the Sahara-Sahel : geography, economics and security. E-Book [Edited by] Laurent Bossard. ([Paris, France] : OECD, 2014).

Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. Regional Atlas on West Africa. E-book. Paris : OECD Publishing, 2009.