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WMST GU4305: Decolinization and Feminist Critique

(Selected) Archivial Collections

Primary Sources are immediate, first-hand accounts of a topic, from people who had a direct connection with it.  In contrast to secondary sources, they don't provide any analysis on a given topic after the fact; instead, they reflect on information or events as they unfolded. Primary sources are especially useful for researchers because they reveal how certain topics and ideas were understood during a specific time and place. Primary sources can include:

  • Texts of laws and other original documents.
  • Newspaper reports, by reporters who witnessed an event or who quote people who did.
  • Speeches, diaries, letters and interviews - what the people involved said or wrote.
  • Original research.
  • Datasets, survey data, such as census or economic statistics.
  • Photographs, video, or audio that capture an event.

Africa commons. Black South African magazines

Black South African Magazines brings together over 50,000 pages of extremely rare, yet historically significant magazines, written and targeted specifically for Black African audiences. Developed in partnership with Sabinet, the materials have been sourced from African libraries. Despite their broad cultural and historical value, the magazines exist in just a few physical locations and have not been digitized before. Much of the content was created by a new generation of Black journalists, writers and artists. The magazines were hugely popular, and were packed with investigative journalism, photography, fiction, reviews, biographies, fashion, lifestyle, advertisements, and more. Many of them were syndicated across the continent and contained content specifically developed for the African English-speaking world, so they provide a view of Black society across all of Africa. The database has been developed in collaboration with Sabinet, a leading publisher of African materials for libraries, with digitization taking place in Africa. Includes: Drum Magazine, 1951-1973 -- Zonk!, 1953-1964 -- Zonk! Film-Pic Photo Stories, 1963 -- Contrast: South African Literary Journal, 1960-1973 -- Hi-Note!, 1954-1957 -- Grace Magazine, 1964-1966 -- The Townships Housewife, 1968.