Skip to Main Content

Africana Studies

This guide is intended to assist with research into the experiences of peoples of African origin both in Africa and in the African Diaspora.

Reference Resources

Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African and African American Experience.  5 vols.  Oxford; New York: Oxford U. Press, 2005
Location:  GELMAN Ref DT14 .A37435 2005
A comprehensive reference work containing some 4,500 entries covering the entire history of African and the African Diaspora.  African American themes are well represented.

Black Women in America.  3 vol.  New York : Oxford University Press, 2005
Location:  GELMAN Ref E185.86 B542 2005
Entries explore black women's experiences throughout the entirety of American history.

Encyclopedia of African-American Culture and History.   6 vols.  Detroit, Mich. : Macmillan Reference USA, 2006
Covers all aspects of the African-American experience from 1619 to the present day.
Also in hardcopy: GELMAN Ref E185 .E54 1996    Also at Eckles Library, Mt. Vernon campus

Encyclopedia of African American History, 1619-1895.  3 vol.  New York: Oxford University Press, 2006
Entries within this work cover the period from America's earliest settlement until the death of Frederick Douglass in 1895.

Encyclopedia of African American History, 1896 to the Present.  5 vols.  New York: Oxford University Press, 2009
This set focuses on the making of African American society from the 1896 "separate but equal" ruling up to contemporary times.

Encyclopedia of African History.  3 vols.  New York: Fitzroy Dearborn, 2005
Location: GELMAN Ref DT20 .E53 2005
Covers the history of the continent as a diverse whole, treating North Africa together with Sub-Saharan Africa.  Essays cover the major regions, states, themes, societies, and individuals of African history.

Greenwood Encyclopedia of African American Civil Rights.  2 vol.  Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 2003.
Location:  GELMAN Ref E185.61 E54 2003
Entires of varying length cover individuals, organizations, events, concepts, and court cases from Emancipation to the 21st Century.  Volume 2 contains 120 primary documents that played a part in the Civil Rights Movement.
 


 

Historical Dictionaries

Historical Dictionaries from Scarecrow Press are available for many African nations, e.g., Historical Dictionary of Mali

To locate more of these items try a GW Libraries Search

GW Libraries • 2130 H Street NW • Washington DC 20052202.994.6558AskUs@gwu.edu