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A quick note on finding historical statistics on African colonies

African HSOC 10 students! Van Pelt RIS people tell me you're having trouble locating historical statistical information on your African countries. Here are some quick tips and suggestions ...

1. Almost every African country was founded within the past fifty years. This means -- for historical research -- you must build up a synonym set of colonial names and national names for your country. This can be obvious -- Congo OR Zaire -- but you must accommodate foreign-language names where appropriate -- Cameroon OR Cameroun OR Kamerun -- and the complicated genealogy of very old colonies -- Nigeria OR "Niger Coast" OR "Oil Rivers" OR "Lagos Colony". Consider this one:

"l'Afrique occidentale francais" OR "Afrique occidentale francais" OR "French West Africa" OR Senegal? OR Mauritan? OR Sudan? OR Soudan? OR ....
Quiz question: What African countries were founded more than fifty years ago?

2. Colonial-era statistics are hard to locate. You should start with the Mitchell statistical compendium mentioned in class by Charles Cobine. Take care to check Mitchell's notes for the next step. Another GREAT bibliographic source is:

Africa : a guide to reference material / John McIlwaine. (both the first edition and the second revised and expanded edition)
Van Pelt Reference Stacks: DT3 .M35 1993 and ... 2007
and also see the Penn Library research guide on Health and Society in Africa, URL:
http://hdl.library.upenn.edu/1017/13723

3. A stupid Franklin searching tip for colonial-era publications. You're looking for old books and periodicals, right? So when you've got a search result, change the sort order to "Date (Old to New)."

4. Colonial-era statistics are often buried in handbooks and annual report-type publications. Depending on how and when we collected them, you will need to visit Van Pelt Reference, the Van Pelt LC AND Dewey stacks, or the University Museum Library, or request volumes from High Density Storage. And here's a stupid thing to remember: French books usually have their tables of contents at the end.

5. If Mitchell doesn't satisfy you, go deeper. You will want to examine:

An African survey: a study of problems arising in Africa South of the Sahara / Lord Hailey et al. 1939 (revised ed., 1957). Oxford Univ Press.
Van Pelt Reference Stacks, Museum: 330.968 .H127...
Most colonial-agency statistical publications do NOT provide social and economic data: they're interested in commerce, specifically exports. On the other hand, some British colonies produced their own "handbooks", which usually contain directory-like information but sometimes have statistical information or discussion of social and economic topics. Try a Franklin keyword search:
(handbook? OR statistics OR statistique) AND (your country synonyms)
Follow up on your searching, but be prepared for frustration.

6. Some quick, good hits. For French colonial Africa, take a look at these two statistical abstracts:

Annuaire statistique de l'Afrique equatoriale francaise
Van Pelt Library Microtext Microfiche 1167 (for 1936/1950-1951/1955).
Annuaire statistique de l'Afrique occidentale francaise Van Pelt Library Microtext Microfiche 1168 (for 1949-1954).

British colonies issued annual statistical abstracts, called Blue Books. Our Blue Book holdings at present are strong but scattered among the Van Pelt stacks, High Density Storage, and microfilm reels in Van Pelt Microtext. Don't bother trying this keyword search in Franklin:

"blue book?" AND (your country synonyms)
Instead, consult the research guide, Blue Books for Colonial British Africa in the Penn Libraries.

The Blue Books were considered so opaque that Parliament required Annual Reports to explain them. These Annual Reports are found in a couple different ways.

  • Annual reports, post-World War II.
    These are found by doing this keyword search in Franklin:
    "colonial reports" AND (your country synonyms)
  • Annual reports, post-World War I / pre-World War II.
    These are arranged by serial number within a very large set, Colonial reports - annual [Van Pelt stacks: 328.42 G797]. To find your colony's annual report, consult the handy table produced by Stanford University Library, URL:
    http://www-sul.stanford.edu/depts/ssrg/africa/govcolrep.html
  • Annual reports, World War I and earlier.
    Believe me, you have better things to do than look for these. They will be scattered throughout the library in print and on microfilm, buried in Parliamentary Papers series, reprinted in Confidential Foreign Office sets, and so on.

Lauris Olson, Social Sciences Bibliographer
olson@pobox.upenn.edu

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