The African Newspapers module of the World Newspaper Archive (WNA) now contains more than 200,000 pages of content, more than half of the originally projected total for the module. The collection incorporates over 25 titles, including Mafeking Mail and Protectorate Guardian (providing coverage of the Second Boer War in 1899), Gold Coast Leader (Cape Coast, Ghana), and Leselinyana La Lesutho (one of the first newspapers in southern Africa to appear in an African language).

Access and Pricing

African Newspapers is currently accessible to Charter Participants and subscribing members. To access the collection, please visit your library’s homepage for Readex products and click on World Newspaper Archive, or visit the page directly.

CRL member access

For CRL libraries who elect to invest in the ongoing digitization of resources, CRL will charge a one-time payment for access,  plus ongoing maintenance fees on an annual basis. The fees are scaled to each participant’s library materials expenditures. Payment schedules are designed to minimize the impact on library acquisition budgets. Please see the main WNA page for more information on Access and Pricing.

All fees collected are used to support further digitization of CRL and member news collections. See the general terms and conditions on our site for sample fees for CRL members.

As with all modules, subscription is optional. CRL continues to maintain the microfilm copies of all WNA newspapers and will continue to make them available through interlibrary loan as a regular benefit of CRL membership.

Please notify us if your institution wishes to arrange continued access to WNA-African Newspapers. Inquiries may also be addressed to wna@crl.edu.