Source library

The research behind Africa, layer by layer: 160 sources, from peer-reviewed articles and scholarly books to museum records, archives and official data. Every entry on the lesson page links to the sources it rests on, and every source here links back.

Every spine is one source, coloured by type and shelved by lesson. Point at a spine to read it, click to jump to it.

Type
Layer

160 of 160

General works

11
2
Reference work

Fage, J. D. & Oliver, Roland (eds.) (1975–1986). The Cambridge History of Africa, 8 vols. Cambridge University Press.

Used forHausa city-statesKanem–Bornu

4
Scholarly book

Ehret, Christopher (2016). The Civilizations of Africa: A History to 1800, 2nd ed. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press.

Used forBantu expansionNok

Lesson 01 · Origins

14
13
Peer-reviewed

Richter, Daniel et al. (2017). The age of the hominin fossils from Jebel Irhoud, Morocco, and the origins of the Middle Stone Age. Nature 546, 293–296.

doi:10.1038/nature22335 ↗

Used forJebel Irhoud

17
Peer-reviewed

d’Errico, Francesco et al. (2012). Early evidence of San material culture represented by organic artifacts from Border Cave, South Africa. PNAS 109 (33), 13214–13219.

doi:10.1073/pnas.1204213109 ↗

Used forLebombo bone

18
Primary source

de Heinzelin, Jean (1962). Ishango. Scientific American 206 (6), 105–116.

Used forIshango bone

23
Peer-reviewed

Brooks, Alison S. & Smith, Catherine C. (1987). Ishango revisited: new age determinations and cultural interpretations. The African Archaeological Review 5, 65–78.

Used forIshango bone

Lesson 02 · The Nile and the first states

13
27
Scholarly book

Welsby, Derek A. (1996). The Kingdom of Kush: The Napatan and Meroitic Empires. London: British Museum Press.

Used forKush: Napata and MeroëKerma

29
Scholarly book

Miles, Richard (2010). Carthage Must Be Destroyed: The Rise and Fall of an Ancient Civilization. London: Allen Lane.

Used forCarthageNumidia

30
Peer-reviewed

Breunig, Peter & Rupp, Nicole (2016). An outline of recent studies on the Nigerian Nok Culture. Journal of African Archaeology 14 (3), 237–255.

Used forNok

33
Scholarly book

Munro-Hay, Stuart (1991). Aksum: An African Civilisation of Late Antiquity. Edinburgh University Press.

Used forAksum

34
Scholarly book

Phillipson, David W. (2009). Ancient Churches of Ethiopia: Fourth–Fourteenth Centuries. New Haven: Yale University Press.

Used forAksumZagwe dynasty

37
Scholarly book

Lancel, Serge (1995). Carthage: A History. Oxford: Blackwell.

Used forCarthage

38
Scholarly book

Phillipson, David W. (2012). Foundations of an African Civilisation: Aksum and the Northern Horn, 1000 BC–AD 1300. Woodbridge: James Currey.

Used forAksum

Lesson 03 · Faith, trade and learning

12
39
Scholarly book

Welsby, Derek A. (2002). The Medieval Kingdoms of Nubia: Pagans, Christians and Muslims along the Middle Nile. London: British Museum Press.

Used forChristian NubiaFunj Sultanate of Sennar

41
Primary source

Levtzion, Nehemia & Hopkins, J. F. P. (eds.) (1981). Corpus of Early Arabic Sources for West African History. Cambridge University Press.

Used forGhana (Wagadu)Kanem–BornuMali Empire

42
Scholarly book

Brett, Michael (2017). The Fatimid Empire. Edinburgh University Press.

Used forFatimid Caliphate

44
Scholarly book

Horton, Mark & Middleton, John (2000). The Swahili: The Social Landscape of a Mercantile Society. Oxford: Blackwell.

Used forSwahili city-states

45
Scholarly book

Wynne-Jones, Stephanie & LaViolette, Adria (eds.) (2018). The Swahili World. London: Routledge.

Used forSwahili city-states

46
Scholarly book

Huffman, Thomas N. (2005). Mapungubwe: Ancient African Civilisation on the Limpopo. Johannesburg: Wits University Press.

Used forMapungubwe

47
Museum, archive, data

Drewal, Henry John & Schildkrout, Enid (2009). Dynasty and Divinity: Ife Art in Ancient Nigeria. New York: Museum for African Art.

Used forIfe

50
Scholarly book

Blier, Suzanne Preston (2015). Art and Risk in Ancient Yoruba: Ife History, Power, and Identity, c. 1300. Cambridge University Press.

Used forIfe

Lesson 04 · The great empires

10
51
Primary source

Niane, Djibril Tamsir (1965). Sundiata: An Epic of Old Mali, trans. G. D. Pickett. London: Longman.

Used forMali EmpireTwo founding pacts

53
Scholarly book

Jeppie, Shamil & Diagne, Souleymane Bachir (eds.) (2008). The Meanings of Timbuktu. Cape Town: HSRC Press.

Used forTimbuktu

54
Primary source

Hunwick, John O. (1999). Timbuktu and the Songhay Empire: Al-Saʿdi’s Taʾrikh al-sudan down to 1613 and Other Contemporary Documents. Leiden: Brill.

Used forSonghai EmpireTimbuktu

55
Scholarly book

Garlake, Peter S. (1973). Great Zimbabwe. London: Thames & Hudson.

Used forGreat Zimbabwe

56
Scholarly book

Pikirayi, Innocent (2001). The Zimbabwe Culture: Origins and Decline of Southern Zambezian States. Walnut Creek: AltaMira Press.

Used forGreat ZimbabweMutapa

58
Scholarly book

Cassanelli, Lee V. (1982). The Shaping of Somali Society: Reconstructing the History of a Pastoral People, 1600–1900. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.

Used forAjuran Sultanate

59
Scholarly book

Barry, Boubacar (1998). Senegambia and the Atlantic Slave Trade. Cambridge University Press.

Used forJolof EmpireKaabu

Lesson 05 · The Atlantic era

19
61
Scholarly book

Eltis, David & Richardson, David (2010). Atlas of the Transatlantic Slave Trade. New Haven: Yale University Press.

Used forThe transatlantic slave trade

64
Scholarly book

Thornton, John K. (1983). The Kingdom of Kongo: Civil War and Transition, 1641–1718. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press.

Used forKingdom of Kongo

65
Scholarly book

Heywood, Linda M. (2017). Njinga of Angola: Africa’s Warrior Queen. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Used forNdongo and Matamba

66
Museum, archive, data

Plankensteiner, Barbara (ed.) (2007). Benin Kings and Rituals: Court Arts from Nigeria. Ghent: Snoeck.

Used forKingdom of BeninBenin City, 1897

68
Scholarly book

Law, Robin (1977). The Oyo Empire c.1600–c.1836. Oxford: Clarendon Press.

Used forOyo Empire

69
Scholarly book

Law, Robin (1991). The Slave Coast of West Africa 1550–1750. Oxford: Clarendon Press.

Used forDahomey

70
Scholarly book

Alpern, Stanley B. (1998). Amazons of Black Sparta: The Women Warriors of Dahomey. London: Hurst.

Used forDahomey

71
Scholarly book

Wilks, Ivor (1975). Asante in the Nineteenth Century: The Structure and Evolution of a Political Order. Cambridge University Press.

Used forAsanteYaa Asantewaa

72
Museum, archive, data

Roberts, Mary Nooter & Roberts, Allen F. (eds.) (1996). Memory: Luba Art and the Making of History. New York: Museum for African Art; Munich: Prestel.

Used forLuba and Lunda

73
Scholarly book

Vansina, Jan (1978). The Children of Woot: A History of the Kuba Peoples. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press.

Used forKuba

74
Scholarly book

Vansina, Jan (2004). Antecedents to Modern Rwanda: The Nyiginya Kingdom. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press.

Used forGreat Lakes kingdoms

75
Scholarly book

Reid, Richard (2002). Political Power in Pre-Colonial Buganda: Economy, Society and Warfare in the Nineteenth Century. Oxford: James Currey.

Used forGreat Lakes kingdoms

76
Scholarly book

Spaulding, Jay (1985). The Heroic Age in Sinnār. East Lansing: African Studies Center, Michigan State University.

Used forFunj Sultanate of Sennar

77
Scholarly book

O’Fahey, R. S. (2008). The Darfur Sultanate: A History. London: Hurst.

Used forDarfur Sultanate

78
Scholarly book

Campbell, Gwyn (2005). An Economic History of Imperial Madagascar, 1750–1895. Cambridge University Press.

Used forMerina

Lesson 06 · A century of change

9
80
Primary source

Boyd, Jean & Mack, Beverly B. (eds.) (1997). The Collected Works of Nana Asma’u, Daughter of Usman ’dan Fodiyo (1793–1864). East Lansing: Michigan State University Press.

Used forSokoto Caliphate

81
Scholarly book

Laband, John (1995). Rope of Sand: The Rise and Fall of the Zulu Kingdom in the Nineteenth Century. Johannesburg: Jonathan Ball.

Used forZulu Kingdom

82
Scholarly book

Thompson, Leonard (1975). Survival in Two Worlds: Moshoeshoe of Lesotho, 1786–1870. Oxford: Clarendon Press.

Used forBasotho kingdom

83
Scholarly book

Bonner, Philip (1983). Kings, Commoners and Concessionaires: The Evolution and Dissolution of the Nineteenth-Century Swazi State. Cambridge University Press.

Used forSwazi kingdom

84
Scholarly book

Ranger, Terence (1967). Revolt in Southern Rhodesia, 1896–97. London: Heinemann.

Used forNdebele kingdom

85
Scholarly book

Robinson, David (1985). The Holy War of Umar Tal: The Western Sudan in the Mid-Nineteenth Century. Oxford: Clarendon Press.

Used forToucouleur Empire

86
Scholarly book

Person, Yves (1968–1975). Samori: une révolution dyula, 3 vols. Dakar: IFAN.

Used forWassoulou Empire

87
Peer-reviewed

Cobbing, Julian (1988). The Mfecane as alibi: thoughts on Dithakong and Mbolompo. Journal of African History 29 (3), 487–519.

Used forZulu KingdomBasotho kingdom

88
Scholarly book

Hamilton, Carolyn (1998). Terrific Majesty: The Powers of Shaka Zulu and the Limits of Historical Invention. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Used forZulu Kingdom

Lesson 07 · Partition and resistance

11
89
Scholarly book

Förster, Stig, Mommsen, Wolfgang J. & Robinson, Ronald (eds.) (1988). Bismarck, Europe, and Africa: The Berlin Africa Conference 1884–1885 and the Onset of Partition. Oxford University Press.

Used forBerlin Conference

90
Scholarly book

Jonas, Raymond (2011). The Battle of Adwa: African Victory in the Age of Empire. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.

Used forAdwaAlfred Ilg and Menelik II

92
Scholarly book

Boahen, A. Adu (2003). Yaa Asantewaa and the Asante–British War of 1900–1. Accra: Sub-Saharan Publishers; Oxford: James Currey.

Used forYaa Asantewaa

93
Scholarly book

Hochschild, Adam (1998). King Leopold’s Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.

Used forCongo Free State

94
Scholarly book

Zimmerer, Jürgen & Zeller, Joachim (eds.) (2008). Genocide in German South West Africa: The Colonial War of 1904–1908 and its Aftermath. Monmouth: Merlin Press.

Used forHerero and Nama

95
Scholarly book

Giblin, James & Monson, Jamie (eds.) (2010). Maji Maji: Lifting the Fog of War. Leiden: Brill.

Used forMaji Maji

96
Scholarly book

Iliffe, John (1979). A Modern History of Tanganyika. Cambridge University Press.

Used forMaji Maji

97
Scholarly book

Adi, Hakim (2018). Pan-Africanism: A History. London: Bloomsbury Academic.

Used forPan-African congresses

98
Scholarly book

Vanthemsche, Guy (2012). Belgium and the Congo, 1885–1980. Cambridge University Press.

Used forCongo Free State

Lesson 08 · Independence and the 54 countries

7
100
Scholarly book

Stora, Benjamin (2001). Algeria, 1830–2000: A Short History. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.

Used forAlgeriaThe Évian talks

101
Scholarly book

Chabal, Patrick et al. (2002). A History of Postcolonial Lusophone Africa. London: Hurst.

Used forWars against Portuguese rule

102
Primary source

Mandela, Nelson (1994). Long Walk to Freedom. Boston: Little, Brown.

Used forSouth Africa

105
Scholarly book

Connelly, Matthew (2002). A Diplomatic Revolution: Algeria’s Fight for Independence and the Origins of the Post–Cold War Era. Oxford University Press.

Used forAlgeriaThe Évian talks

Lesson 09 · Switzerland and Africa

46
108
Scholarly book

Purtschert, Patricia & Fischer-Tiné, Harald (eds.) (2015). Colonial Switzerland: Rethinking Colonialism from the Margins. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

Used forThe “village” of 1896The Basel Mission

110
Scholarly book

David, Thomas, Etemad, Bouda & Schaufelbuehl, Janick Marina (2005). Schwarze Geschäfte: Die Beteiligung von Schweizern an Sklaverei und Sklavenhandel im 18. und 19. Jahrhundert (French: La Suisse et l’esclavage des Noirs). Zürich: Limmat.

Used forSwiss money in the slave trade

112
Scholarly book

Stettler, Niklaus, Haenger, Peter & Labhardt, Robert (2004). Baumwolle, Sklaven und Kredite: Die Basler Welthandelsfirma Christoph Burckhardt & Cie. in revolutionärer Zeit (1789–1815). Basel: Christoph Merian Verlag.

Used forSwiss money in the slave trade

113
Official, institutional

Brengard, Marcel, Schubert, Frank & Zürcher, Lukas (2020). Die Beteiligung der Stadt Zürich sowie der Zürcherinnen und Zürcher an Sklaverei und Sklavenhandel vom 17. bis ins 19. Jahrhundert (report for the City of Zürich). Universität Zürich.

media.uzh.ch ↗

Used forSwiss money in the slave trade

117
Scholarly book

Suckale-Redlefsen, Gude (1987). Mauritius: Der heilige Mohr / The Black Saint Maurice. Munich: Schnell & Steiner.

Used forThe Theban Legion

118
Scholarly book

Bindman, David & Gates, Henry Louis Jr. (eds.) (2010). The Image of the Black in Western Art, vol. II, part 1 (Jean Devisse): From the Demonic Threat to the Incarnation of Sainthood. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.

Used forThe Theban Legion

119
Scholarly book

Sablonier, Roger (2008). Gründungszeit ohne Eidgenossen: Politik und Gesellschaft in der Innerschweiz um 1300. Baden: hier + jetzt.

Used forTwo founding pacts

120
Primary source

Burckhardt, John Lewis [Johann Ludwig] (1819). Travels in Nubia. London: John Murray.

Used forJohann Ludwig Burckhardt

121
Scholarly book

Haenger, Peter (1997). Sklaverei und Sklavenemanzipation an der Goldküste. Basel: Helbing & Lichtenhahn.

Used forThe Basel Mission

122
Scholarly book

Franc, Andrea (2008). Wie die Schweiz zur Schokolade kam: Der Kakaohandel der Basler Handelsgesellschaft mit der Kolonie Goldküste (1893–1960). Basel: Schwabe.

Used forThe Basel Mission

123
Scholarly book

Miller, Jon (2003). Missionary Zeal and Institutional Control: Organizational Contradictions in the Basel Mission on the Gold Coast, 1828–1917. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans.

Used forThe Basel Mission

126
Scholarly book

Rossinelli, Fabio (2022). Géographie et impérialisme: de la Suisse au Congo entre exploration géographique et conquête coloniale. Neuchâtel: Alphil.

Used forSwiss soldiers in colonial armies

127
Peer-reviewed

Wallis, Brian (1995). Black Bodies, White Science: Louis Agassiz’s Slave Daguerreotypes. American Art 9 (2), 38–61.

Used forLouis Agassiz and Renty

128
Scholarly book

Barbash, Ilisa, Rogers, Molly & Willis, Deborah (eds.) (2020). To Make Their Own Way in the World: The Enduring Legacy of the Zealy Daguerreotypes. New York: Aperture; Cambridge, MA: Peabody Museum Press.

Used forLouis Agassiz and Renty

129
Museum, archive, data

Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University (1850). Daguerreotype, Renty, frontal (J. T. Zealy), label “Renty, Congo, on plantation of B. F. Taylor, Columbia, S.C.”. Cambridge, MA.

collections.peabody.harvard.edu ↗

Used forLouis Agassiz and Renty

130
Scholarly book

Lützelschwab, Claude (2006). La Compagnie genevoise des Colonies suisses de Sétif (1853–1956): un cas de colonisation privée en Algérie. Bern: Peter Lang.

Used forA Geneva company in Algeria

133
Scholarly book

Harries, Patrick (2007). Butterflies & Barbarians: Swiss Missionaries and Systems of Knowledge in South-East Africa. Oxford: James Currey.

Used forThe Mission romande in southern Africa

135
Museum, archive, data

Biasio, Elisabeth (2004). Prunk und Macht am Hofe Menileks: Alfred Ilgs äthiopische Sammlung im Völkerkundemuseum der Universität Zürich. Zürich: Verlag Neue Zürcher Zeitung.

Used forAlfred Ilg and Menelik II

136
Scholarly book

Minder, Patrick (2011). La Suisse coloniale: les représentations de l’Afrique et des Africains en Suisse au temps des colonies (1880–1939). Bern: Peter Lang.

Used forThe “village” of 1896

137
Scholarly book

Brändle, Rea (2013). Wildfremd, hautnah: Zürcher Völkerschauen und ihre Schauplätze 1835–1964. Zürich: Rotpunktverlag.

Used forThe “village” of 1896

139
Museum, archive, data

Burmeister, Ralf, Oberhofer, Michaela & Tisa Francini, Esther (eds.) (2016). Dada Africa: Dialogue with the Other (Museum Rietberg, Zürich / Berlinische Galerie). Zürich: Scheidegger & Spiess.

Used forDada and African art

141
Scholarly book

Kreis, Georg (2005). Die Schweiz und Südafrika 1948–1994: Schlussbericht des NFP 42+. Bern: Haupt.

Used forSwitzerland and apartheid

142
Scholarly book

Bott, Sandra (2013). La Suisse et l’Afrique du Sud, 1945–1990: marché de l’or, finance et commerce durant l’apartheid. Zürich: Chronos.

Used forSwitzerland and apartheid

144
Scholarly book

Long, Olivier (1988). Le dossier secret des Accords d’Évian: une mission suisse pour la paix en Algérie. Lausanne: Éditions 24 Heures.

Used forThe Évian talks

146
Official, institutional

The Nobel Prize (online). Kofi Annan, Biographical. Stockholm: Nobel Prize Outreach.

nobelprize.org ↗

Used forKofi Annan

149
Journalism

Le Temps (2019). A Neuchâtel, Tilo Frey remplace Louis Agassiz. Geneva: Le Temps, 6 June 2019.

Used forTilo Frey

150
Primary source

Schapera, Isaac (1938). A Handbook of Tswana Law and Custom. London: Oxford University Press.

Used forKgotla and Landsgemeinde

151
Peer-reviewed

Woods, David (1994). The origin of the legend of Maurice and the Theban Legion. Journal of Ecclesiastical History 45 (3), 385–395.

Used forThe Theban Legion

152
Scholarly book

Koller, Christian (2013). Die Fremdenlegion: Kolonialismus, Söldnertum, Gewalt 1831–1962. Paderborn: Schöningh.

Used forSwiss soldiers in colonial armies

Written in Africa

5
153
Official, institutional

The Unicode Consortium (online). Script charts: Egyptian Hieroglyphs, Meroitic, Tifinagh, Ethiopic, Vai, Bamum, Osmanya, N’Ko, Adlam. Mountain View: Unicode.

unicode.org ↗

Used forBamum

154
Scholarly book

Rilly, Claude (2010). Le méroïtique et sa famille linguistique. Leuven: Peeters.

Used forKush: Napata and Meroë

155
Primary source

Macgregor, J. K. (1909). Some notes on Nsibidi. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 39, 209–219.

156
Scholarly book

Mafundikwa, Saki (2004). Afrikan Alphabets: The Story of Writing in Afrika. New York: Mark Batty.

157
Museum, archive, data

Kreamer, Christine Mullen, Roberts, Mary Nooter, Harney, Elizabeth & Purpura, Allyson (2007). Inscribing Meaning: Writing and Graphic Systems in African Art. Washington, DC: Smithsonian National Museum of African Art.

Used forBamum

Countries and today

3
158
Official, institutional

United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs (2024). World Population Prospects 2024. New York: United Nations.

population.un.org ↗
159
Museum, archive, data

Ethnologue (online). Ethnologue: Languages of the World. Dallas: SIL International.

ethnologue.com ↗
160
Journalism

Africanews (2026). Equatorial Guinea relocates capital. 5 January 2026.

africanews.com ↗