Francophone Countries
Library Books | Magazines | Web Sites
Library Books
We have a modest selection of books from Uni's own collection that may be of help to you as you research a particular country or topic related to French-speaking Africa. Start by looking in the 909 and 960.3 call numbers. We have assembled some of the most helpful on top of the island in the library's reference section. Some books (particularly the reference books) have information on many countries in one volume.
Some helpful reference sources:
CultureGrams 2004 World Edition (“Africa” and “The Americas” volumes)
Ref 909 C8993
Africa: An Encyclopedia for Students
Ref 960.03 Af831
Africa 2004: The World Today Series
Ref 916 D74a 2004
Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African and African American Experience
Ref 909.0496003 Af83
The University has a very, very, very large collection of books about Africa (they're scattered around campus, but many are in the Main Stacks and the Africana/Afro-Americana libraries). Please talk to library staff if you need help searching -- you can either request books through the catalog and have them sent across campus (takes 4-5 business days), or find out which university library they're in and go get them yourself.
Magazine/Journal Articles
Use Infotrac or EBSCO or Wilson Select Plus to do a a quick search of a database of magazine or journal articles about French-Speaking countries (in either English or French). Enter the name of your country/topic as either a keyword or a subject (for example, the word “Mali” used in Infotrac returns more than 430 results as a subject word and more than 1,000 as a keyword).
One neat option can be to search in the Lexis-Nexis database of magazine and journal articles. There, you will want to choose the GUIDED NEWS SEARCH option. Two kinds of searches there could be good:
First option (for a mixture of English and French-language sources from all over Africa) -- under “select a news category,” choose “world news.” Under “select a news source,” choose “Middle East/Africa.” Then, enter your search term(s) (like the name of your country or your particular topic) and run the search.
Second option (for results in French from French periodicals)-- under “select a news category,” choose “Non-English Language news.” Under “select a news source,” choose “French language news.” Then, enter your search term(s) (like the name of your city or a person from that city) and run the search.
Web Sites
Economist Intelligence Unit
Extensive information on particular countries (maps, political information, discussion of social tensions, etc,). Choose the “country profile” option on the screen that comes up.
Information Collected by the UIUC Center for African Studies
A wealth of information on all countries of Africa.
Literature and Culture of Francophone Africa and the Diaspora (from Brown University)
Just what it sounds like. Lots of good links, especially for cultural materials (film, dance, literature, etc.). Can be viewed in either English or French.
Francophone Africa (from the University of Portsmouth)
Much like the site above, but with broader coverage.
eHRAF Collection of Ethnography
Cross-cultural database of articles and books describing the cultures of the world (you can search by country, by ethnic group, or by many other bits of information).
Links from Ms. Lopez
Les Plays Francophones
Sites to Use for Country Research
Country Studies
French-Speaking Countries
Francophone Countries and Communities in the World
Official French-Speaking Countries