LibGuides: Africana studies: Home

Source: Geography.com. "Africa Map with Capital Cities."

The United Nations divides Africa into five regions: Northern Africa, and four Sub-Saharan African regions: Eastern, Middle, Southern, and Western.

In the News

African Union backs campaign to replace Mercator map that distorts Africa's size (by Ayana Archie, NPR)
The petition calls on more organizations, including the United Nations and the BBC, to replace the Mercator projection with the Equal Earth Map

Searching library resources

Classic catalog

Searches books, ebooks, journal titles, and items in the Media Center only; it does not search articles in online databases.
Search all resources

Search virtually all items in the libraries' collection. This is not as precise as searching the Classic catalog.
New books in Africana studies
Special Collections

Located on the third floor of the Main library, this collection contains mostly African American history primary sources; it is a rich collection spanning many years. These materials do not circulate and are not available during nights or weekends.

Databases (For articles and more)

To access these databases off-campus, the username is your first and last name and the password is the 10 digit number found on the front of your id card

HAVING PROBLEMS? Contact (cbradley@tnstate.edu) or at 615-963-5489.

General/interdisciplinary databases have articles on lots of topics, so they can be a good place to start your research. Some of the best choices are:

Academic Search Premier

General OneFile (Gale)

Popular Magazines (Gale)

JSTOR contains primarily older journals, with some books and current journals, in a range of disciplines.

Sage Publications: TSU subscribes to Research Methods, Business, Video, CQ Press, and Books & Reference. Be sure to select "Content I have access to" in the search pane.

Statista "is a global data and business intelligence platform with an extensive collection of statistics, reports, and insights on over 80,000 topics from 22,500 sources in 170 industries." It is a great source for country-or region-specific information.

Specialized databases are important sources of more in-depth articles and other types of information.

AAS (American Antiquarian Society) Historical Periodicals contains over 6500 periodical titles published from 1693 to 1877.

Alexander Street Video has "channels" devoted to specific topics, including American History, Black History, and World History.

Black Drama -- "contains the full text of more than 1,700 plays written from the mid-1800s to the present by more than 200 playwrights from North America, English-speaking Africa, the Caribbean, and other African diaspora countries. Many of the works are rare, hard to find, or out of print."

Africa Digital Library has news and lifestyle information about the continent, as well as articles on its history.

Gale Primary Sources: Slavery and Anti-Slavery

Africa Commons

African American Communities

Black Thought and Culture

Black Abolitionist Papers

Black Abolitionist Papers, vol. 1, British Isles 1830-1865

Black Abolitionist Papers, vol. 2, Canada, 1830-1865

Black Abolitionist Papers, vol. 3, United States, 1830-1846

Black Abolitionist Papers, vol. 4, United States, 1847-1858

Black Abolitionist Papers, vol. 5, United States, 1859-1865

NAACP Papers

HeinOnline -- A collection of over 100 databases, with an emphasis on law, government, and politics. Virtually every country is mentioned, although usually in the context of the U.S. The databases with the most extensive coverage are Law Library of Congress Reports and Slavery in America and the World: History, Culture, & Law.

Department website

TSU offers a minor in Africana studies.

The department also hosts the Samuel Shannon lecture series, the annual Africa Conference, and the African-American History & Culture Conference. See the department website for details.