This article focuses on the range of sources to be found in the British Library's Oriental and India Office Collections for the study of southern Africa. For the purposes of this article ‘southern Africa’ is taken to include South Africa (comprising the former colonies of the Cape of Good Hope, Natal, Orange Free State and Transvaal); Namibia (formerly South West Africa); Lesotho (formerly Basutoland), Botswana (formerly Bechuanaland) and Swaziland; Zambia (formerly Northern Rhodesia), Zimbabwe (formerly Southern Rhodesia) and Malawi (formerly Nyasaland); Angola and Mozambique.

At a first glance, the name Oriental and India Office Collections does not immediately suggest rich pickings for researchers as far as sources on southern Africa are concerned. Yet this lesser known corner of the British Library provides a rich mine of diverse information from Britain's earliest interests in the region from the 1600s until the present.