Africana at Howard University, Washington, D.C., developed as records on the African background of the American Negro were required to supplement the Library's collection of works written by and about persons of African descent.

Among the first books acquired by the Library soon after Howard University was incorporated on March 2, 1867, were titles on Africa. Some of the founders of the University interested in foreign missions donated to the Library their files on periodicals, books of travel and description, histories of Africa, and biographies of missionaries. Among these was the first edition of Churchill's Collection of Voyages and Travels issued in four volumes in 1704; seven editions of the works of Hiob Ludolf, the Elder ( … Historia Aethiopica, 1681; … Aethiopicam … commentarius, 1691; … Lexicon Amharico, 1698; … Grammatica Aethiopica, 1702; A New History of Ethiopia, 1682 and 1684); Barbot's Description of the Coasts of North and South Guinea (1732); the 1639 reissue of the 1632 edition of Africae descriptio of Leo Africanus; and works of travel by Bosman, Proyart, Kolbe, Bruce, Smith, Vaillant, and Sparrman. Some of the serial files presented were the Missionary Herald (1821-1882); Africa's Luminary (1839-1840); African Repository (1825-1900); Mouvement Antiesclavagiste (1889-1906); Liberia (1892-1908); Journal of the Royal Geographical Society (1833-1849); Afrique Explorée et Civilisée (1879-1882); and Bulletin du Comité de l'Afrique Française (1891-1919).