This is a presentation about the African Books Collective that for some 30 years has distributed African published academic, literary and children's books around the world. The aim of the paper is to provide some insights into how books published in Africa are making their way to libraries with collections on Africa, and to discuss current and future trends; it being understood that ‘decolonising library collections’, the theme of this conference, would by rights involve acquiring and maintaining materials from outside the global North.

Upon its creation in 1990, ABC represented a large number of university presses on the continent and independent publishers, some of which are large firms still trading today. Today few university presses are trading or publishing new books. This work was largely picked-up by private independent publishers and research institutes such as CODESRIA, OSSREA, the Institute of Southern African Studies and others.

This paper presents my ideals for ensuring that African researchers and those from the Global South achieve direct access to UK archival holdings with the time and consideration required to make substantive interventions in our research projects and fields of study. My observations and recommendations are derived from my experience of archival research gained as I travelled across the United Kingdom unearthing records of the 19th century Xhosa intellectual, the Reverend Tiyo ‘Zisani’ Soga, for my doctoral studies of Soga's English works. Soga had studied in Glasgow and Edinburgh between 1846 and 1856 and was ordained as a minister in the United Presbyterian Church of Scotland (UPC); in 1857 he returned as a missionary to the AmaXhosa with his newly-wed bride, Janet, née Burnside.

The well-worn routes of colonial history leading to London, Paris, Lisbon, and elsewhere may remain fruitful for historians of the post-colonial period. Since former colonial powers remained involved, or at least interested, in what was going on in their former colonies, intelligence reports and diplomatic materials from the last fifty years may be of value to social scientists of the present. Historians also have turned to records from the United States, the former USSR, and other states with extensive involvement in African politics. The archives of humanitarian groups, non-governmental organizations, newspapers, and other institutions also contain materials produced by African governments. Some intentionally gathered materials, while others accreted them indirectly over the course of their work. (Samuel Fury Childs Daly 2017).

Although Daly's quotation was focused on the post-independence period in Biafra, the sentiments resonate precisely with circumstances elsewhere in understanding African history through the archives.

This chronological timeline sets out some of the key dates, events, and landmarks in the development of indigenous publishing in Sub-Saharan Africa. It also includes details of the major conferences, meetings or seminars on African publishing, held in Africa or at venues elsewhere, since 1968. An earlier version of this chronology first appeared in The African Publishing Companion: A Resource Guide, and has now been updated through to the period up to 2019, and considerably expanded to include publication of a number of benchmark studies, conference proceedings, journals, and reference resources on the African book world.

Whereas Africa's association with printing and literature goes back many centuries – indeed, many African countries have a long and prolific artistic and literary history – the beginning of publishing probably started with the advent of Islam in the seventeenth century.

Much historical evidence for the activities and reception of early African converts and indigenous Christian movements is found in the vast corpus of documentation produced and preserved by western missionary societies in Europe. In order to understand the evidence, historians, archivists and librarians do well to comprehend the nature of the sources that they use. In recent years there has been greater attention to archives as collections in order to appreciate the rationale behind historical events, personages and thought. This short essay gives some background to these historiographical issues before examining the outputs of the Church Missionary Society (CMS) missionaries in order to provide a case-study that may be a useful comparator for similar collections. My reflections emerge from my own research into socio-religious change in East Africa through a biography of a prominent Ugandan clergyman, Apolo Kivebulaya, who worked alongside CMS missionaries from the British Isles.

Primary sources are evidence created at the time of an event or after by participants or observers. Examples may include text – memoirs, letters, manuscripts, diaries, newspapers; images – photographs and posters; audio or video recordings – oral histories and speeches; artifacts – furniture, pottery, and cultural objects. These are the raw materials historians use to meaningfully reconstruct the past. These along with previous interpretations by other historians or secondary sources are the tools needed to perform historical research. This paper examines the intersection of African primary sources, new digital technologies and new active learning teaching methods within the teaching of African history. It discusses new approaches to teaching and learning history in undergraduate programs in the United States using both tangible and digital primary sources.