Reference for History

Africa and African Diaspora

This is a brief guide to material at BC providing reference (dictionaries, encyclopedia, biographies, bibliographies, indices, and more) on historical topics.

Reference Shelf

This page provides access points to BC's subscriptions to reference material on African history and the history of the African diaspora. Here, you can find resources for finding definitions (e.g., dictionaries); suggested scholarly material (e.g., bibliographies); as well as background material and explanations written by experts in their fields (e.g., encyclopedia and handbooks).

What's on This Page

This page has a lot on it. You can use the following anchors (links down the page) to jump straight to a relevant box.

Encyclopedia of Africa by Anthony Appiah; Henry Louis Gates (editors)
Call Number: Oxford Reference Premium Collection
Publication Date: 2010
The articles cover prominent individuals, events, trends, places, political movements, art forms, business and trade, religions, ethnic groups, organizations, and countries throughout Africa. In-depth articles examine contemporary nations of sub-Saharan Africa, ethnic groups from various regions of Africa, and European colonial powers. Two hundred illustrations and demographic sidebars further guide and inform research.
Oxford Research Encyclopedia of African History by Thomas Spear (Editor in Chief)
Call Number: Oxford Research Encyclopedias
"Contributors to the [OER] of African History are professional historians, both independent scholars as well as faculty members at institutions around the world. They provide both a comprehensive overview of each subject, as well as a brief historiography, to give readers a clear sense of how scholarship can alter our knowledge and understanding of events over time—as seen, for instance, in the dramatic shifts in South African historiography as the country has moved from minority white rule and apartheid to democratic majority rule over the last twenty-five years."

Find Definitions

Oxford Reference Online
This is a quick go-to for high-quality, short, dictionary style descriptions, definitions, facts, and figures. Great for date and name checking.

Individual Titles

A dictionary of African mythology : the mythmaker as storyteller by Harold Scheub
Call Number: Oxford Reference
Publication Date: 2000
Scheub offers a collection of 400 stories, arranged alphabetically, that touch on virtually every aspect of religious belief. Here are gods and goddesses, epic heroes and divine tricksters, along with epics of the world's origins, the struggle between the human and the divine, and much more.
Historical Dictionary of African American Television by Kathleen Fearn-Banks; Anne Burford-Johnson
Call Number: EBSCOHost
Publication Date: 2014
This volume has all different genres--animation, documentaries, sitcoms, sports, talk shows, and variety shows--and performers such as Muhammad Ali, Louis Armstrong, Bill Cosby, and Oprah Winfrey.
Historical Dictionary of South Africa by Christopher C. Saunders; Nicholas Southey
Call Number: EBSCOhost
Publication Date: 2000
This easy-to-use 2nd edition not only provides an update of the "new" South Africa, but expands on South Africa's complicated history as well, covering the period of British domination, conflicts between the Boers and the British, and the growth of African resistance to white rule.
A Dictionary of African Politics
Call Number: Oxford Reference
Publication Date: 2019
Bole-English-Hausa Dictionary and English-Bole Wordlist by Alhaji Maina Gimba; Russell G. Schuh
Call Number: JSTOR
Publication Date: 2014
This is a dictionary of Bole, a little documented language of the Chadic family, spoken in northeastern Nigeria.

Find Scholarly Sources

Oxford Bibliographies Online
Access to Boston College's subscriptions to Oxford's bibliographies on subjects including African Studies, African American Studies, and Atlantic History.
Black Studies Center
Included in the Black Studies Center database, IIBP contains approximately 280,000 records drawn from scholarly journals and newsletters from the United States, Africa and the Caribbean--and full-text coverage of over 130 core Black Studies periodicals.
Oxford African American Studies Center
Includes access to bibliographies, biographies, encyclopedia, and more relating to American American Studies. Includes topics ranging from politics to pop culture.

Find Biographical Information (Who's Who)

Biography in Context This link opens in a new window
Biographical information on thousands of people throughout history and from around the world.

Individual Titles

African American Women Writers in New Jersey, 1836-2000 by Sibyl E. Moses
Call Number: O'Neill
Publication Date: 2006-09-28
African American Women Writers in New Jersey, 1836-2000 is the first and only reference book to identify and document the lives, intellectual contributions, and publications of over one hundred African American women writers in the Garden State from 1836 through 2000.
Dictionary of Caribbean and Afro–Latin American Biography by Franklin W. Knight; Henry Louis Gates Jr. (eds.)
Call Number: Oxford Reference
Publication Date: 2016

Find Background Information

Cambridge Core This link opens in a new window
Cambridge Core is the place to find valuable, useful and inspirational research and academic information. Includes journals and books across the humanities and sciences. Of particular note are the Cambridge Histories, the Cambridge Companions, and the Cambridge Handbooks.
Oxford Research Encyclopedias This link opens in a new window
Working with international communities of scholars across all fields of study, OUP is developing collections of in-depth, peer-reviewed summaries on an ever-growing range of topics. BC Libraries subscribes to a wealth of these, including:

- African History
- American History
- Anthropology
- Asian History
- Business and Management
- Oxford Classical Dictionary
- Climate Science
- Communication
- Criminology and Criminal Justice
- Economics and Finance
- Education
- Environmental Science
- International Studies
- Latin American History
- Linguistics
- Literature
- Neuroscience
- Natural Hazard Science
- Physics
- Planetary Science
- Politics
- Psychology
- Global Public Health
- Religion
- Encyclopedia of Social Work

Individual Titles

African Studies Companion Online by Marie-José Wijntjes (ed.)
Call Number: Brill Online reference
Contains over 1800 entries covering guides and resources for African languages, Africa cartography and maps, African film, African studies journals, magazines and newsletters, media guides and news sources for Africa, the African press, African studies library collections worldwide, national archives in Africa, centers of African studies and African studies programs worldwide, awards and prizes in African studies, and a wealth of other subjects. Many entries describe and evaluate resources, others are factual and provide practical information. With a few exceptions, all entries directly link to the internet.
BC Institutional login required.
Africa Yearbook Online by Victor Adetula, Benedikt Kamski, Andreas Mehler and Henning Melber (eds.)
Call Number: Brill Online reference
Publication Date: 2004+
The Africa Yearbook covers major domestic political developments, the foreign policy and socio-economic trends in sub-Sahara Africa – all related to developments in one calendar year. The Africa Yearbook contains articles on all sub-Saharan states, each of the four sub-regions (West, Central, Eastern, Southern Africa) focusing on major cross-border developments and sub-regional organizations as well as one article on continental developments and one on European-African relations.
The Ashgate Research Companion to Black Sociology by Earl Wright II; Edward V. Wallace
Call Number: EBSCOHost
Publication Date: 2015
The Ashgate Research Companion to Black Sociology provides the most up to date exploration and analysis of research focused on Blacks in America. Beginning with an examination of the project of Black Sociology, it offers studies of recent events, including the 'Stand Your Ground' killing of Trayvon Martin, the impact of Hurricane Katrina on emerging adults, and efforts to change voting requirements that overwhelmingly affect Blacks, whilst engaging with questions of sexuality and family life, incarceration, health, educational outcomes and racial wage disparities.
Black Power Encyclopedia: from Black Is Beautiful to Urban Uprisings [2 Volumes] by Akinyele Umoja; Karin L. Stanford; Jasmin A. Young (eds.)
Call Number: Ebook Central
Publication Date: 2018
An invaluable resource that documents the Black Power Movement by its cultural representation and promotion of self-determination and self-defense, and showcases the movement's influence on Black communities in America from 1965 to the mid-1970s.
Encyclopedia of Black Studies by Molefi Kete Asante, Ama Mazama (eds.)
Call Number: SAGE
Publication Date: 2005
Encyclopedia of the Yoruba by Toyin Falola (Editor); Akintunde Akinyemi (Editor)
Call Number: JSTOR
Publication Date: 2016-06-20
This landmark reference work emphasizes Yoruba history, geography and demography, language and linguistics, literature, philosophy, religion, and art.
Handbook of Black Studies by Molefi Asante
Call Number: SAGE
ISBN: 9781412982696
Publication Date: 2005
Three main areas: historical and cultural foundations; philosophical and conceptual basis and critical and analytical concepts.
The Oxford Companion to Black British History by David Dabydeen (Editor); John Gilmore (Editor); Cecily Jones (Editor)
Call Number: Oxford Reference Premium Collection
Publication Date: 2007
Essential reading for anyone wishing to understand the long and fascinating history of black people in the British Isles, The Oxford Companion to Black British History explores the subject from its beginnings in Roman times to the present day.
The Oxford Handbook of African Archaeology by Peter Mitchell; Paul Lane (Editors)
Call Number: O'Neill Stacks DT13 .O94 2013
Publication Date: 2013
Provides a comprehensive and up-to-date synthesis of African archaeology, covering the entirety of the continent's past from the beginnings of human evolution to the archaeological legacy of European colonialism.
The Oxford Handbook of Contemporary Middle-Eastern and North African History by Jens Hanssen; Amal N. Ghazal (eds.)
Call Number: Oxford Handbooks Online
Publication Date: 2021+
The Oxford Handbook of Contemporary Middle-Eastern and North African History critically examines the defining processes and structures of historical developments in North Africa and the Middle East over the past two centuries. The Handbook pays particular attention to countries that have leaptout of the political shadows of dominant and better-studied neighbours in the course of the unfolding uprisings in the Middle East and North Africa.
The Oxford Handbook of Modern African History by John Parker; Richard Reid (Editors)
Call Number: Oxford Handbooks Online : History
Publication Date: 2013
The Oxford Handbook of Modern African History represents an invaluable tool for historians and others in the field of African studies. This collection of essays, produced by some of the finest scholars currently working in the field, provides the latest insights into, and interpretations of,the history of Africa - a continent with a rich and complex past.
The Oxford Handbook of Slavery in the Americas by Robert L. Paquette (Editor); Mark M. Smith (Editor)
Call Number: Oxford Handbooks Online
Publication Date: 2010
The Oxford Handbook of Slavery in the Americas offers penetrating, original, and authoritative essays on the history and historiography of the institution of slavery in the New World. With essays on colonial and antebellum America, Brazil, the Caribbean, the Indies, and South America, theHandbook has impressive geographic and temporal coverage.
Oxford Handbook of South African History by Daniel Magaziner (Editor)
Call Number: Oxford Handbooks Online
Publication Date: 2020+
Routledge Companion to Christianity in Africa by Elias Kifon Bongmba (ed)
Call Number: Ebook Central
Publication Date: 2015
Offers a multi-disciplinary analysis of the Christian tradition across the African continent and throughout a long historical span.
Routledge Handbook of Democratization in Africa by Gabrielle Lynch (Editor); Peter Vondoepp (Editor)
Call Number: Taylor & Francis
Publication Date: 2019
This volume explores the issues and debates surrounding the ongoing processes of democratization in sub-Saharan Africa, illuminating the central dynamics characterizing Africa's democratic experiments, and considering the connections between democratization and economic, social, and cultural developments on the continent.
The Routledge Handbook to the Middle East and North African State and States System by Raymond Hinnebusch (Editor); Jasmine Gani (Editor)
Call Number: Taylor & Francis
Publication Date: 2019
This handbook explores the main debates, theoretical approaches and accumulated empirical research by prominent scholars in the field, providing an essential context for scholars pursuing research on the MENA state and states system.