Using Africa Commons in Your Research and Instruction

Using Africa Commons in Your Research and Instruction


Using Africa Commons in Your Research and Instruction

Africa Commons delivers Africa’s cultural heritage through previously inaccessible items, searchable on a unified platform. Included are rare newspapers, magazines, photographs, letters, maps, films, and oral histories. Students, researchers, educators, and librarians use Africa Commons to discover, access, organize, and contribute primary-source materials, and to stay updated as new content is added.

What’s inside Africa Commons

Africa Commons is a massive collection of primary and historical sources for research, teaching, and exploration. All items are enriched with permanent Content Object Identifiers (COIs), metadata, and citation records for easy discovery and integration into academic workflows.
  • Historical newspapers and magazines – Publications such as DRUM, The Weekly Review, and The Nairobi Times, covering politics, social movements, and everyday life
  • Books and manuscripts – Rare and newly digitized works from African archives, including first editions, colonial-era publications, and African literature
  • Photographs and maps – Visual records of communities, historical events, and geographic changes over time
  • Letters and diaries – Personal documents providing firsthand perspectives on social, political, and cultural history
  • Films, documentaries, and newsreels – Archival footage of key events, interviews with historical figures, and rare community recordings
  • Oral histories and audio recordings – Narratives from community members, activists, and leaders
  • Community and institutional collections – Digitized archives from African libraries, universities, and cultural institutions
  • Archived or “lost” content – Materials rescued from inactive websites, defunct organizations, or rare backfiles
  • Datasets and tables – Tables and structured data from reports, exportable to CSV format for analysis

Tools to elevate your research

Follow searches or topics – Stay up to date on specific communities, historical periods, or categories of primary sources. Set alerts to reach you daily, weekly, or monthly.

Create custom Commons Lists – Curate and organize collections of primary sources for reading, teaching, research, or group projects, all with tools for sharing.

Run tabular extraction – Locate and export tables or structured data from digitized reports, and export them to CSV format for analysis.

Upload content – Share archival collections, digitized documents, or recordings. Each item you upload is indexed, enriched, and assigned a permanent content object identifier (COI) for discoverability and citation.

Track impact – Monitor how your materials are being accessed and cited. Track the impact of other organizations.

How you can use Africa Commons

Students and educators

  • Access primary-source materials for papers, presentations, or projects.
  • Explore historical newspapers, diaries, letters, and oral histories for context and analysis.
  • Curate lists of sources for courses or assignments.
  • Build course reserves with rare archival materials.

Researchers conducting systematic or literature reviews

  • Conduct research across multiple African archives through a single platform.
  • Follow custom searches and receive notifications when new documents are added.
  • Filter by region, time period, content type, or community to locate relevant primary sources.
  • Run tabular extraction to export data from digitized reports to CSV format.
  • Upload institutional collections for global scholarly use.

Archivists, curators, and cultural institutions

  • Reference historical newspapers, magazines, letters, and reports in your research, exhibitions, or educational programs.
  • Follow topics or searches to monitor trends in social, economic, or cultural history.
  • Curate lists of primary sources for projects, collections, or public engagement.

Getting started

  1. Go to: https://africacommons.net/
  2. Register or log in with your institutional email address.
  3. Start exploring. Search, filter, follow, and save materials for your research or teaching.

Need help? Contact us at support@coherentdigital.net or schedule a custom platform training for your organization here.


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