This guide identifies scholarly, popular, national and international (and some local) government and non-profit organization sources for African Studies research. This information is not all inclusive and  should be treated as a starting point.

The tabs at the top of the page will connect you to categories of sources and regional African pages.  Individual country pages can be found under the regional tabs.

See a larger version of this map.   

This map is from the United States Central Intelligence Agency's World Factbook.

Africa is the world's second largest continent in area.  The countries differ immensely geographically, politically, socially, economically, and culturally.

The UN Statistics Division has subdivided the African continent into five regions, Northern Africa, Central or Middle Africa , Southern Africa, East Africa, and Western Africa. These subdivisions include the following countries: 

• Northern Africa countries (7) - Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, Sudan, Tunisia, and Western Sahara
• Central or Middle African countries (9) - Angola, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo Republic - Brazzaville, Democratic Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and São Tomé & Principe
• Southern Africa countries (5) -  Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia, South Africa, and Swaziland
• East African countries (19) -  Burundi, Comoros, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Eritrea,  Kenya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Réunion, Rwanda, Seychelles, Somalia, Somaliland, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe
• Western Africa (17) - Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Côte D'Ivoire, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, and Togo 

The African Development Bank Group , the African Union and AllAfrica (an African based news aggregrate service) use slightly different Subdivsions. 

This guide includes general resources focused by subject matter and country resources of external web links.  Individual country pages include links to history and culture related websites, as well as news resources and official government websites. 

Click on the country's link above to access the individual country pages.

This research guide was created by Lois Kepes with the assistance of Dawnlyn Diehl, MLIS Graduate Intern at Hillman Library, University of Pittsburgh (2012 through spring 2014).  Dawnlyn also researched and developed the country pages.

Librarians can help you:

Focus a Topic  -  Consult your textbook, your assignment guidelines, or your professor for appropriate topics.  Our "Developing a Research Topic" tutorial may be of helpful.

Choose a Database and Find Material  -  Use the "Subject Databases" or "Religious/ Islamic Databases" or "PittCat" tab above. 

Find a Book  -  Use the "Finding Books" or "PittCat" tab above.

Find Statistics  -  Use the "Statistical Databases" Or "Statistical Web Links" tab above.

Cite Your Sources  -  Use the "Writing and Citing" tab above.

Determine if Sources are Scholarly  -  Use the "Evaluating Sources" tab above.