From its inception, the goal of the Melville J. Herskovits Library of African Studies at Northwestern University has been to collect as comprehensively as possible materials from and related to Africa, regardless of subject. As a result, the Herskovits Library has acquired materials related to sport from its beginning. Formally established as a separate library in 1954, the Herskovits Library traces its origins to the arrival of Melville J. Herskovits at Northwestern University, who was the first anthropologist appointed to the faculty in 1927. Herskovits initially arrived at the university with a research focus on the study of black culture in the western hemisphere, although this quickly changed following two research trips to the interior of Suriname in 1928 and 1929. He conducted research in West Africa for the first time in 1933, and from that time on, his research agenda was increasingly Africa-related.

In December 2010 the archives of the Commonwealth Games Council for Scotland were transferred to the University of Stirling Archives. The Council is the lead body for Commonwealth sport in Scotland and is responsible for selecting, preparing and managing Scotland's team at the Commonwealth Games. It is one of the seventy-one national Commonwealth Games Associations who are members of the Commonwealth Games Federation which is the parent body for the Games. The bulk of the collection, which consists of approximately one hundred and fifteen linear metres of records, relates to the planning, organisation and administration of the 1970 and 1986 Commonwealth Games, which were both held in Edinburgh. As well as these two major sporting events organised in Scotland the archive also contains material relating to the participation of Scottish athletes at other Commonwealth and Olympic Games.

In July 2010 I discovered the National Archives (Kew, London) while working on a dual project: my doctoral thesis, and a grant awarded by the Olympic Studies Centre in Lausanne, Switzerland. My goal was to conduct a comparative historical analysis of the administrative and political colonial situations of the United Kingdom and France. I wanted to understand their influence on the integration of the former British and French colonies into the Olympic movement between the end of the Second World War (1945) and the hosting of the Olympic Games in London (1948) on the one hand, and colonial independence in Africa in the 1960s on the other, reflected at the IOC by the creation of the Committee for International Olympic Aid (CIOA) to help the new countries in the Third World.

Africa's first republic was founded in the mid-19th century by recently freed American and Caribbean slaves originally stolen from Central and West Africa. This West African nation became fittingly known as Liberia or “Land of the Free”. In 1847 the Declaration of Independence of the Republic of Liberia written by Baptist Minister Hilary Teage was signed by representatives of the major counties, Liberia adopted a constitution based on the American model and until the 1980s was considered a beacon of stability in Africa. Shortly after this date the small West African nation was a global byword for atrocity, carnage and child soldier militias. The execution of President William Tolbert on the 12th April 1980 in a military coup d'etat fronted by Sergeant Samuel Doe and supported by the Peoples Redemption Council represented the end of the Americo-Liberian “settler” political dominance and reflected the indigenous people's desire for change.

On 15 November 1902, Asian entrepreneur Alibhai MuUa Jeevanjee launched the African Standard in Mombasa with the support of editor and reporter W.H. Tiller (Kahaso, 1995). As a contractor for railway supplies, Jeevanjee had become wealthy through the construction of the Kenya-Uganda Railway (Patel, 1997). According to one account, “Ever an enterprising man.. Jeevanjee conceived of the idea of starting a newspaper in Mombasa. In due course, the African Standard was born” (Kahaso, 1995).

The newspaper continued to publish weekly reports despite changing its headquarters, ownership and title within its first ten years as a press. Jeevanjee, who had little experience as a journalist, soon sold his paper to two British businessmen. New owners Meyer and Anderson then in 1905 renamed the paper the East African Standard (Odonde, 1995). Five years later, after the seat of government moved from Mombasa to Nairobi, the newspaper's headquarters followed.

The history of sport in South Africa is about more than mere games. Within the preface to his study of The Games Ethic and Imperialism, J.A. Mangan expressed the wish that he:

Arguably, nowhere more than in South Africa have such processes been played out through sport. This makes the country an ideal case study for sports historians. Based on experiences from my Masters and PhD studies, this paper will provide a contemporary perspective of studying South African sports history as well as form part of the discussion at the June 2011 SCOLMA conference, ‘Sport in Africa: History, Politics and the Archive’.

The British South Africa Company was formed in the late 1880s to establish a new colony in the region between the Limpopo and Zambezi Rivers. The area the Company wished to occupy was known as Mashohaland: the planned northern expansion was directed by Cecil John Rhodes, soon to be prime minister of the Cape and a businessman with the resources for empirebuilding. The Trust Deed of De Beers Consolidated Mines gave him the power to “annex and govern territories, raise armies and fight wars”. His Company was also granted a Royal Charter by Queen Victoria which entitled it to exploit and extend administrative control over a vast area of southern and central Africa.