Materials of the international scientific conference "Archives - the key to the history of Africa of the XX century" (Moscow, September 15-16, 2004). Reports are devoted to both Russian and foreign archives. Some of the reports are specific historical studies made on the basis of new archival sources, some are historiographic in nature, but they are also related to archives. The problems of using archival sources to reconstruct the history of Africa are considered, attempts are made to typology of archives, several specific historical studies made on archival materials are proposed.