African Online Digital Library

The African Online Digital Library (AODL) is a portal to multimedia collections about Africa. MATRIX, working in cooperation with the African Studies Center at Michigan State University, is partnering with universities and cultural heritage organizations in Africa to build this resource. Plans are underway to add digital tools in order to enable scholars to work with and add to these materials. Individuals and organizations interested in contributing to the African Online Digital Library are invited to contact us.

Everyday Islam in Kumasi

A growing collection of video interviews with Muslim men and women who live and work in Kumasi, Ghana

Ajami in the Senegambia

Over 20 handwritten ajami manuscripts produced by West African scholars. The texts (Arabic scripts of African languages) contain insightful discussions on mutual understanding between people of different faiths and ethnic backgrounds in Senegambia

Saint-Louis: Religious Pluralism in the Heart of Senegal

Handwritten texts, images and audio interviews dealing with the interactions of Saint Louis's French Catholic communities, Muslim majority, the French administration, and Freemasons in the late 19th and 20th centuries

West African Online Digital Library

Galleries of photographs, audio interviews, and documents contributed by scholars, with research about best practices for international, multilingual digital repositories

Africa Past & Present

Podcast about history, culture, and politics in Africa and the diaspora. Highlights interesting and significant people, ideas, and discussions in African Studies

African e-Journals Project

Full-text articles of back issues of 11 humanities and social science journals published in Africa plus a database of journals published in and about Africa

Exploring Africa

A curriculum divided into Units, Modules, and Learning Activities for middle school and high school. Each Unit covers a major topic or theme in the study of Africa

Pluralism and Adaptation in the Islamic Practice of Senegal and Ghana

Four multimedia galleries that demonstrate how innovative Africans have been in the history of Islam and Islamic practice and how they continue to live and experience Islam. Through maps, images, multi-lingual audio, video, and textual materials, these galleries shed light on ways diverse Muslim communities in West Africa cooperate with one another and with followers of other faith and indigenous traditions.

South Africa: Overcoming Apartheid, Building Democracy

A multimedia online curriculum resource that includes 45 video interviews with first-hand accounts of this important political movement

Community Video Education Trust

More than 90 hours of video documenting political activities during the 1980s and 1990s in South Africa, mostly in Cape Town

African Activist Archive

Multimedia historical materials and interviews with activists in the U.S. movement in solidarity with struggles of African peoples against apartheid, colonialism, and injustice

American Black Journal: Africa and African-Americans

Shows from this 40-year program on Detroit Public Television that focus on Africa and commentary by African-Americans

South African Film and Video Project

Project to preserve and make accessible moving images from the years of struggle against apartheid in collaboration with African partners

African Media Program

A searchable database of films and videos about Africa. Some records contain reviews and synopses

African Oral Narratives

7 collections of oral and life histories, folklore, and songs from Ethiopia, Ghana and South Africa. These audio and video resources capture the voices and experiences of ordinary men and women. In more than a half a dozen African languages, these materials can be used for conducting historical research and to learn about many African cultures and languages.