The Passport to Paradise gallery highlights the bold, visual images found all over Dakar by focusing upon the urban visual culture of the Mourides, a Senegalese Sufi movement centered upon the life and teachings of a local saint named Sheikh Amadou Bamba.

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African Partners

L'Institut Fondemental d'Afrique Noire (IFAN)

Founded in 1939, the Institut Fondemental d'Afrique Noire (IFAN), is the largest repository of Francophone West African culture and civilization in Africa. IFAN is integrated with the Universite Cheikh Anta Diop of Dakar (UCAD).

West African Research Center/Centre De Recherche Ouest Africain (WARC/CROA)

WARC is the headquarters of the West African Research Association. It is also an AORC, American Overseas Research Center. It is a member of the Council of American Research Centers with headquarters at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C


American Partners

MATRIX: Center for Humane Arts, Letters and Social Sciences Online

Based at Michigan State University, MATRIX is devoted to the application of new technologies in humanities and social science teaching and research. The Center creates and maintains online resources, provides training in computing and new teaching technologies, and creates forums for the exchange of ideas and expertise in new teaching technologies.

African Studies Center at Michigan State University

For almost 40 years, the African Studies Center (ASC) at MSU has been a leading U.S. Department of Education designated National Resource Center for the study of African languages and area studies.


Funding Agencies

International Development Research Centre

The International Development Research Centre is a public corporation created by the Canadian government to help communities in the developing world find solutions to social, economic, and environmental problems through research.

The National Science Foundation

The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent agency of the U.S. Government, with the expressed mission to promote the progress of science; to advance the national health, prosperity, and welfare; and to secure the national defense. The AODL is funded through the International Digital Library program, DLI 2.


Sampling from L'Institut Fondemental d'Afrique Noire (IFAN)

Phil Curtin Collection

Collection Boubacar Barry

Collection Charles Becker: Recherches et documents sur le Sida

Photographs from “Passport to Paradise’: Sufi Arts of Senegal and Beyond

Mosques of Bondoukou

Futa Toro, Senegal and Mauritania

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