History

Discover Africa's history through rare books, pamphlets, and ephemera from the 16th to the early 20th century, covering all regions of the continent and nearby areas.

The documents in Confidential Print: Africa begin with coastal trading in the early nineteenth century and the Conference of Berlin of 1884 and the subsequent Scramble for Africa. They then follow the abuses of the Congo Free State, fights against tropical disease, Italy’s defeat by the Abyssinians, World War II, apartheid in South Africa and colonial moves towards independence. Together they cover the whole of the modern period of European colonization of the continent from the British Government’s perspective.

Digitized 19th-century Arabic manuscripts from the Mama Haidara Library in Timbuktu offering legal and social records on slavery, manumission and estate practices within Muslim West African communities.