African History

Sub-headings:

Antiquity

History of the Near East and the Mediterranean world, including Egypt, prior to the concept of Europe as distinct from Africa and Asia (which arose in the fourth or fifth century AD).

Resources in this category:

Africa Focus: The Sights and Sounds of a Continent
http://digicoll.library.wisc.edu/AfricaFocus/

"This online collection is maintained on the website of the University of Wisconsin-Madison Libraries. It contains digitized visual images and sounds of Africa contributed over the years to the African Studies Program of the University of Wisconsin-Madison. These digital files are stored in an accessible database and provided for personal use or educational presentations."

Africa on RootsWorld
http://www.rootsworld.com/africa/

A web-based periodical with reviews and audio clips of both popular and traditional recordings. Interviews with performers are included as well as a special section on African Reggae.

Africa South of the Sahara
http://www-sul.stanford.edu/depts/ssrg/africa/guide.html

This is a collection of sites pertaining to many topics and the countries and regions of Africa. Some topics included are Current Events/News (including African newspapers), Art, Religion, History, Music, Maps, Film, Culture, Sports, Libraries and Archives, Journals and Journal Indexes, Weather, Travel, and Women. Along with individual countries, the regions featured are Central, East, Southern and West Africa as well as the Indian Ocean Islands and the Horn of Africa.

Africa: History
http://www.africa.upenn.edu/About_African/ww_hist.html

A list of links on African history from University of Pennsylvania.

African-American Mosaic
http://lcweb.loc.gov/exhibits/african/intro.html

Resource guide to the Library of Congress's African-American Collection. "Covering the nearly 500 years of the black experience in the Western hemisphere, the Mosaic surveys the full range size, and variety of the Library's collections, including books, periodicals, prints, photographs, music, film, and recorded sound."

Africana.com - The Digital Bridge
http://www.blackvoices.com/

Site includes content from Microsoft's Encarta Africana, African history, heritage and culture, educational lesson plans, chat rooms, email service, art and world news. Editors are Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr. and the editors of Encarta Africana. The intent is "to present accurate, interesting, entertaining, and socially constructive information and commentary reflecting the diverse concerns of people of African descent" and to "promoting technological literacy and work-readiness for people of African descent."

Afropop Worldwide
http://www.afropop.org/

A searchable database and international music archive of African popular music. Includes reviews, news, and links to live radio broadcasts from Africa.

Ambush in Mogadishu
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/ambush/

'"Ambush in Mogadishu" tells the story of the most violent combat firefight since Vietnam. On October 3, 1993 elite units of the US Army's Rangers and Delta Force were ambushed by Somali men, women and children armed with automatic weapons and rocket-propelled grenades. The Rangers were pinned down in the most dangerous part of Mogadishu, Somalia and taking casualties. What had started out as an operation to capture warlord Mohammed Farah Aidid--turned into a tragic firefight that lasted seventeen hours, left eighteen Americans dead, eighty four wounded and continues to haunt the US military and American foreign policy. ' This is the companion website to the PBS Frontline documentary of the same name. It includes a full account of the battle in Mogadishu, incuding interviews, a chronology, and complete background information.

The American Museum of Natural History Congo Expedition 1909-1915
http://diglib1.amnh.org/index2.html

Materials relating to the 1909-1915 expedition of Herbert Lang and James Chapin to the Belgian Congo, including maps, photographs, watercolors and music. Also includes a collection of recordings made by the filmmaker Armand Denis in 1934-5. "They were among the first recordings made of the sounds of the central Congo."

American Museum of Natural History: Congo Expedition, 1909-1915
http://diglib1.amnh.org/galleries/congo_sounds/congo_sounds....

A collection of recordings made by the filmmaker Armand Denis in 1934-5. "They were among the first recordings made of the sounds of the central Congo."

Ancient Egypt: the Mythology
http://www.egyptianmyths.net/

"Ancient Egypt: the Mythology is a web site dedicated to supplying information about the religious beliefs of ancient Egypt." The site also provides information on the land and culture of ancient Egypt, a chronology of its history, FAQs section, links, as well as detailed information on Egypt's deities.

Ancient Manuscripts from the Desert Libraries of Timbuktu
http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/mali/

"Dating from the 16th to the 18th centuries, the ancient manuscripts presented in this exhibition cover every aspect of human endeavor and are indicative of the high level of civilization attained by West Africans during the middle ages."

Art and Life in Africa Online
http://www.uiowa.edu/~africart/toc/index.html

This site contains photographs and descriptions of African art objects. It is a selected chapter of the site owner's CD-ROM, showing the African art objects that are present and used during the different phases of an African's life, from birth to death. A bonus is that the photographic images rotate so you can see the pieces from all angles! Plus, this is easy to navigate!! There is also information about African countries and cultures.

Cora Connection: The Manding Music Traditions of West Africa
http://www.coraconnection.com/

Resources for the West African Mandinka kora (cora), a lute like instrument that is played in a style similar to that of a flamenco guitar. The site also includes clips of the balaphone, a marimba-like instrument and ngoni, a plucked lute.

Dagara Bewaa Culture Group
http://www.dagaramusic.com/

Features music of the Dagara people of northwestern Ghana, the northeastern Ivory Coast and Southern Burkina Faso. Includes a short video clip of an indigenous wooden xylophone, or gyil, as well as information about Bewaa and Bine musical genres. Available in both English and Spanish.

Dancedrummer.com
http://www.dancedrummer.com/

A collection of Anlo-Ewe resources including a virtual instrument museum, a performance gallery, and a section on tradition rhythms. On the Kogiri, a north Ghanain instrument, page you can "virtually" play the instrument.

Dandemutande Zimbabwean Music Worldwide
http://www.dandemutande.org/

A resource for Zimbabwean music including a magazine, a calendar of worldwide events, an e-mail listserve, and a resource guide to instrument makers, teachers, and performers. The embedded search engine allows you to limit searches for events to a particular city in many cases.

Internet African History Sourcebook
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/africa/africasbook.html

This site covers African history from human origins until modern times. It links to both pages within and outside of the site. Some sections of the site are organized by time and others by country or subject. This can be a little confusing, but the list of contents near the top of the page is helpful.

Life in Ancient Egypt
http://www.carnegiemnh.org/exhibits/egypt/guide.htm

Carnegie Museum of Natural History exhibition on ancient Egypt. Pick from several categories including Daily Life, Gods and Religion, and Funerary Customs to tour the virtual gallery of artifacts, maps, and general information. You can also select a "guided tour" option to browse the collection.

MBIRA
http://www.mbira.org/

"MBIRA is a non-profit organization whose purpose is to educate the public regarding traditional Shona music of Zimbabwe, including mbira music, and to develop a library of recordings to preserve that music."

Pan-African Hip Hop
http://www.africanhiphop.com/

Formerly known as Rumba-Kali and Motherland Funk, this page features new and archived articles on hip-hop music in Africa, reviews of African hip-hop artists, interviews with prominent figures of the musical community, as well as a calendar of events. The site covers hip-hop scenes reaching from Tanzania to South Africa and Liberia. This page also links to Rumba-Kali radio.

Somali Bantu-Their History and Culture
http://www.culturalorientation.net/bantu/sbland.html

"A basic introduction to the people, history, and culture of the Somali Bantu." With sections on Land, People, Economy, History, Religion, and Education, among others.

South Africa History Online
http://sahistory.org.za/

South African History Online is a non-partisan people's history project. "Established in 1999 as a not-for-profit organization, to promote research; to popularise South African history and to address the biased way in which the history and cultural heritage of Black South Africans has been represented in educational and heritage institutions."

The Long Walk of Nelson Mandela
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/mandela/

This is a companion site to the PBS Frontline television program of the same name. Includes interview transcripts, images, and commentary from Mandela's biographers.

The Triumph of Evil
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/evil/

This is the companion website to the PBS Frontline documentary of the same name that discusses the West's reaction to the 1994 crisis in Rwanda. It includes interviews with U.S. and United Nations officials, a chronology of the events under discussion, readings about the Rwandan crisis, and material for educators.

Uganda 1963
http://www.uganda1963.org/

Features a photo index of rural Ugandan villages and maps of corresponding areas. The photos were taken from low flying aircraft to document the rural settlements of Uganda in 1963.