Sub-Saharan Africa

The Sub-Saharan Africa collections support undergraduate teaching and advanced research across the social sciences, humanities, and sciences. We actively collect in indigenous languages, and our current holdings are especially rich in former colonial languages such as English, French, Afrikaans, German, Dutch, and Portuguese. Other languages include Russian, Latin, and Arabic.

Previously hard-to-find primary sources such as newspapers and documents are increasingly available online through vendors such as Readex, Adam Matthew, ProQuest, and Gale. The library also has access to a growing collection of Africana resources, including microfilm sets, dissertations and newspapers, gathered and preserved through a collaborative partnership administered by the Center for Research Libraries. 

The study of sub-Saharan African is spread across campus but primarily based at the Department of Afroamerican and African Studies and the African Studies Center. The collections support teaching and research in departments ranging from Environmental Studies to Philosophy.

Important related collections 

Our collections are augmented by robust holdings of Arabic-language Middle Eastern and North African collections. The Clark Library has expansive holding of African maps, including rare early assemblages. In addition, African resources are spread out among other specialized libraries across the Ann Arbor campus.