HIST 181: African History to 1800 (Fall 2024)

TOPIC: christianity and/or Judaism in Ancient Africa 

Secondary sources

1. First, pick out keyworkds
   1. Christianity, Judaism, Ancient Africa
      1. is this a book or article level topic?
         1. Starting with books, let's try Africa AND (christian* OR Judaism) AND ancient in the catalog
            1.  Limit to books
            2. we find several books on Christianity, and may want to revise specifically to find books about Judaism in Ancient Africa.
               1. My search of (Jew* OR judaism) AND Africa AND (ancient OR history) is too broad, so I narrow to SUBJECT searchings and limit to books.
                  1. it looks like a Subject search for Jews AND africa AND history is what I want.
      2. For Articles, I'll try similar searches in article databases for africa AND (christian* OR judaism) AND ancient in EBSCO and ProQuest
         1. Articles are Very narrow in scope, so focusing on ALL ancient Africa isn't ideal. 
            1. Instead try focusing on specific region.
               1. EX: "ancient egypt" AND (christian* OR judaism)
                  1. EBSCO
                  2. ProQuest
                  3. Library Catalog
                     1. now that you've narrowed your search, look at books again too.

Start with basic keywords:

Christian*

Jews

Africa

Specific region or kingdom in Africa

1. Start by looking at primary sources identified in published books like 
   1. The Kingdom of God in Africa: A Short History of African Christianity by Mark Shaw 
   2. Christians and Their Many Identities in Late Antiquity, North Africa, 200-450 CE by Éric Rebillard 
   3. The Blessing of Africa: The Bible and African Christianity by Keith Augustus Burton
   4. A History of Christianity in Africa: From Antiquity to the Present by Elizabeth Allo Isichei
   5. the Church in Africa, 1450-1950 by Adrian Hastings Call Number: BR 1360 .H364 1994
   6. Routledge Companion to Christianity in Africa by Elias Kifon Bongmba
2. Use Sources and Archival to find source books in the Catalog.
   1. Example (jew* OR Judaism) AND (egpyt* OR tunisia* OR libya OR morocco)
   2. Example (Christ*) AND (egpyt* OR tunisia* OR libya OR morocco)
3. These searches look promising but there isn't much material. Use WorldCat to find books we don't own.
   1. Example: (jew* OR Judaism) AND (egpyt* OR tunisia* OR libya OR morocco) AND su:(source* OR archival)
   2. Example: su:(christ*) AND (egpyt* OR tunisia* OR libya OR morocco) AND su:(source* OR archival)
      1. Order books of interest via ILL at no cost.
4. Use Secondary literature to identify authors from that period who were Christians, then look up their writings in the catalog.
   1. ex Tertullian, Cyprian, Caecilianus , Saint Aurelius , and Eugenius of Carthage, SAt. Augustine, Vibia Perpetua
      1. search them as Author in the catalog (ex translation of Perpetua's Passion from ~200CE)