Fontes Historiae Africanae

Fontes Historiae Africanae is an international project, initiated in 1962 to produce editions of sources for the history of Africa, under the general auspices of the Union Académique Internationale. In 1973 the British Academy established a British committee to publish volumes in the series; by 1995, ten volumes had been prepared and published via this committee and the Academy. A list of the volumes published by the British Academy in the original Fontes Historiae Africanae series is available below.

The original series contained 11 volumes (published 1980–1995). In 1997, the British committee established a new series, in which all its volumes are published. Non-English sources are published in English translation. The original language texts are occasionally published in addition.

Project Chair: Professor Toby Green FBA

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Vol. 26. The Chronicles of Two West African Kingdoms: The Tārīkh Ibn Al-Mukhtār of the Songhay Empire and the Tārīkh Al-Fattāsh of the Caliphate of Ḥamdallāhi
edited by Mauro Nobili, Zachary Wright, and Ali Diakite
9781836245698 (2025) hbk

Vol. 25. Great Sogolon’s House: Mande Epic from the Condé Bards of Fadama (Guinea)
edited by David Courtney Conrad
9781836245926 (2025) hbk

Vol. 24. The Reports of Theophilus Opoku: A 19th-Century Gold Coast Pastor
edited by Michelle Gilbert and Paul Jenkins
9780197267615 (2024) hbk

Vol. 23. Corpus of Early Accounts of the Sunjata Epic, 1889-1959
edited by Stephen Bulman, Stephen Belcher, and Valentin Vydrin
9780197267387 (2023) hbk

Vol. 22. Africa's Gold Coast Through Portuguese Sources, 1469-1680
edited by Kwasi Konadu
9780197267066 (2022) hbk

Vol. 21. 'History of Ashanti' by Otumfuo, Nana Osei Agyemen Prempeh II
edited by Tom McCaskie
9780197267028 (2022) hbk

Vol. 20. The Archive of a Ugandan Missionary: Writings by and about Revd Apolo Kivebulaya, 1890s-1950s
edited by Emma Wild-Wood with George Mpanga
9780197267233 (2021) hbk

Vol. 19. Journey which Father António Gomes made to the Empire of Manomotapa
edited by Malyn Newitt
9780197266793 (2021) hbk

Vol. 18. African Voices from the Inquisition: The Trial of Crispina Peres of Cacheu, Guinea-Bissau (1646-1668)
edited by Toby Green, Philip Havik and F. Ribeiro da Silva
9780197266762 (2021) hbk

Vol. 17. Consul John Beecroft's Journal of his Mission to Dahomey, 1850
edited by Robin Law
9780197266533 (2019) hbk

Vol. 16. Writing the New Nation in a West African Borderland: Ablɔɖe Safui (the Key to Freedom) by Holiday Komedja
edited by Kate Skinner and Wilson Yayoh
9780197266526 (2019) hbk

Vol. 15. The Colonial Occupation of Katanga: The Personal Correspondence of Clément Brasseur, 1893-1897
edited by Giacomo Macola
9780197266496 (2018) hbk

Vol. 14. Voices from the Chilembwe Rising: Witness Testimonies made to the Nyasaland Rising Commission of Inquiry, 1915
edited by John McCracken
9780197265925 (2015) hbk

John McCracken discusses the Chilembwe Rising on Soundcloud ｜ British Academy Review article by John McCracken

Vol. 13. Empire and the Nuer: Documents and Texts from the Pacification of the Southern Sudan, 1891-1930
edited by Douglas H Johnson
9780197265888 (2016) hbk

Vol. 12. The Goğğam Chronicle by Aläqa Täklä Iyäsus WaqGera
edited and translated by Girma Getahun
9780197263099 (2014) hbk

Facsimile or original text versions are available online to support this volume.

Vol. 11. 'A Journey from Tete to Zumbo' (Uma Viagem de Tete ao Zumbo) by Albino Manoel Pacheco
edited and translated by Malyn Newitt
9780197265604 (2013) hbk

Vol. 10. Dahomey and the Ending of the Transatlantic Slave Trade: The Journals and Correspondence of Vice-Consul Louis Fraser, 1851-1852
edited by Robin Law
9780197265215 (2012) hbk
🔓 available open access

Vol. 9. 'Treatise on the Rivers of Cuama' (Tratado dos Rios de Cuama) by Antonio da Conceicao
edited and translated by Malyn Newitt
9780197264072 (2009) hbk
🔓 available open access

Vol. 8. The English in West Africa, 1691–1699: The Local Correspondence of the Royal African Company of England, 1681–1699, Part 3
edited by Robin Law
9780197263921 (2006) hbk
🔓 available open access

Vol. 7. An African Family Archive: The Lawsons of Little Popo/Aneho (Togo), 1841–1938
edited by Adam Jones and Peter Sebald
9780197263082 (2005) hbk - out of print

Vol. 6. ‘The History of Ashanti Kings and the whole country itself’, and Other Writings by Otumfuo, Nana Agyeman Prempeh I
edited by A. Adu Boahen, Emmanuel Akyeampong, Nancy Lawler, T. C. McCaskie, and Ivor Wilks
9780197262610 (2003) hbk - out of print
9780197264157 (2008) pbk
🔓 available open access

Facsimile or original text versions are available online to support this volume.

Vol. 5. The English in West Africa, 1685–1688: The Local Correspondence of the Royal African Company of England, 1681–1699, Part 2
edited by Robin Law
9780197262528 (2001) hbk
🔓 available open access

Vol. 4. Arabic Medieval Inscriptions from the Republic of Mali: Epigraphy, Chronicles, and Songhay–Tuareg History
by P. F. de Moraes Farias
9780197262221 (2003) hbk - out of print
🔓 available open access

Vol. 3. A Reliable Account of the Coast of Guinea (1760)
by Ludewig Ferdinand Rømer, translated and edited by Selena Axelrod Winsnes
019726218X (2000) hbk - out of print

Vol. 2. Memoirs of Giambattista Scala: Consul of his Italian Majesty in Lagos in Guinea (1862)
edited by Robert Smith, translated by Brenda Packman
019726204X (2000) hbk - out of print

Vol. 1. The English in West Africa, 1681–1683: The Local Correspondence of the Royal African Company of England, 1681–1699, Part 1
edited by Robin Law
9780197261767 (1997) hbk
🔓 available open access

Series Arabica

Vol. XI. The History of the Mazru'i Dynasty of Mombasa
edited by Shaykh Al-Amin bin ‘Ali Al Mazru‘i, translated and edited by J. McL Ritchie
0197261582 hbk (1995) hbk - out of print

Vols. VII-X. Not published by the British Academy

Vol. VI. Muhammad al-Qadiri’s Nashr al-mathani: The Chronicles
edited by Norman Cigar
0197259944 (1981) pbk - out of print

Vol. V. Shari‘a in Songhay: The Replies of al-Maghili to the Questions of Askia al-Hajj Muhammad
edited and translated by John O. Hunwick
0197260322 (1985) hbk - out of print

Vols. I-IV. Not published by the British Academy

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Series Varia

Vol. VIII. Not published by the British Academy

Vol. VII. Letters on West Africa and the Slave Trade: Paul Erdmann Isert’s Journey to Guinea and the Caribbean Islands in Columbia (1788)
edited by Selena Axelrod Winsnes
0197261051 (1992) pbk - out of print

Vol. VI. A State of Intrigue: The Epic of Bamana Segu According to Tayiru Banbera
edited by David C. Conrad
0197260888 (1990) pbk - out of print

Vol. V. Pieter de Marees: Description and Historical Account of the Gold Kingdom of Guinea (1602)
edited and translated by Albert van Dantzig and Adam Jones
019726056X (1987) pbk - out of print

Vol. IV. The Historical Geography of Ethiopia, from the First Century AD to 1704
by G. W. B. Huntingford, edited by Richard Pankhurst
0197260551 (1989) hbk - out of print

Vol. III. Towards a Reconstructed Past: Historical Texts from Busoga, Uganda
edited by David William Cohen
019726039X (1986) hbk - available from Pen & Sword

Vol. II. The Sudan Memoirs of Carl Christian Giegler Pasha, 1873–1883
edited by Richard Hill
0197260284 (1984) hbk - out of print

Vol. I. The Mombasa Rising against the Portuguese, 1631, from Sworn Evidence
edited and translated by G S P Freeman-Grenville
0197259928 (1980) pbk