Sherri Due's List: Primary Source Documents of South Africa

Site Review from Education World (http://www.educationworld.com/awards/past/r0799-16.shtml)
The Long Walk of Nelson Mandela is an excellent tool for teachers who want to introduce students to research with primary sources. The site is an Internet version of a PBS Frontline film that chronicles the life of Nelson Mandela through transcripts of interviews with the people who surrounded him. The interviews give a rare insight into the inner workings of this dynamic individual who wrought such tremendous change in our modern world. A chronology of Mandela's life is available to help tie all of the information given in the interviews together. The teacher's guide gives a good history of the events that lead up to the discriminatory Apartheid Africa that Mandela grew up in, and dates back all the way to the arrival of white European settlers in 1652. An excellent site!

This guide offers book, film, curriculum, and website resources for teaching and learning about Africa. The books are not available online but students can get titles they are interested in and go to their local library to get.

Review courtesy of NYU - Primary sources provide firsthand evidence of events. These include published materials, such as memoirs, diaries and newspapers, and unpublished materials, such as manuscripts, oral histories and images In contrast, secondary materials synthesize and interpret primary materials. These sources enable the researcher to get as close as possible to the actual historical event or time period. They reflect the evidence left behind by participants or observers.

Primary sources in Africana Studies can take many different forms. They can include newspapers, diaries, letters, music, poetry, drama and art.

This site gives examples of materials that constitute primary sources in the field of Africana Studies.