Introduction: Our Reader Explained

Welcome!

Thank you for accessing the primary source reader compiled by students enrolled in “African History Since 1850”. We’re excited that you’re here. Before you dive into our collection, we wanted to share a few words about what you’ll read and how to read it.

What You’ll Read

In essence, our reader is compiled of six primary sources that students have identified, read, and analyzed over the course of our semester. The sources amassed here reflect the geographic, temporal, and thematic diversity of modern African history. They include colonial correspondence, a newspaper articles, written treatises, several speeches delivered by African heads of state, and a government publication.

As you open each source, you’ll find three things.

First, you’ll find an introduction that presents the featured primary source and outlines information important to understanding its contents.

Second, you’ll find the primary source (or a selected excerpt of a long primary source) that you can and should read for yourself. We present these primary sources so that you can have a chance to both encounter pieces of historical evidence for yourself, but also to enable you to think about what it tells us and why what it tells us is important.

Lastly, you’ll find an analysis that offers at least one possible interpretation of the source and its importance to understanding modern African history. These analyses are not meant to be definitive; rather, they intend to generate contemplation and discussion about the sources’ rich contents.

Accompanying each entry are citations for not only the primary source itself, but the resources that the students used to frame and analyze its contents. These citations are a kind of paper trail that allow you to see some of the sources of information used as well as think about what kind of other sources might be helpful in thinking about these sources further.

How To Read It

Because our primary source reader is quite short, we imagine that readers can engage its contents in a variety of ways. But because historians are concerned with change over time and because historical narratives are often written in a way that progresses chronologically, you may want to read our primary sources by date of their publication. In that case, you might consider reading them in the following order:

1. A Struggle for Emancipation: Sir. Hardinge on the Abolition of Slavery in East Africa

2. The othering of religions alternative to Christianity in Sierra Leone

3. Ideas of Culture in Post-Colonial Nigeria

4. Struggles of Neo-Colonialism in Post-Colonial Africa

5. Education as a Toll for National Growth: Julius Nyrere’s Vision for Post-Colonial Africa

6. Structural Adjustments in Ghana: A Turning Point in Economic Reform

Thank you for visiting. Happy reading!