African Literary Metadata
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Preliminary Results

ALMEDA is exploring new methodological and theoretical approaches to the problems faced by African expressive cultures in the formal archive. In this spirit, we will be publishing a series of exploratory pieces, meant to encourage discussion with other scholars and stakeholders in the field of African literary and expressive cultures and cultural heritage. These ALMEDA Pamphlets will allow us to make public our results more immediately than we can through formal academic publishing.

We will also be engaging in more traditional publications, all of which will be full open access and will be made available on our results page.

While we are building our searchable data repository, we will also be publishing some of our preliminary data sets here, since these may be useful even in their raw and unlinked versions. Let us know if you find our datasets helpful or if you have any suggestions, corrections or additions: almeda@uu.se

Pamphlets

The ALMEDA pamphlet series is a space for preliminary discussion of the methodological, theoretical or empirical challenges and opportunities of critically investigating and engaging with literary metadata in the field of African Literary Studies. 

ALMEDA Pamphlet #1 Ashleigh Harris ‘The Literary Metadata of African Little and Popular Magazines’, January 2024.

Preliminary Data (available on request)

We have datasets of all literary material from the following sources. This data will be uploaded into the ALMEDA data repository, but is also available in discrete datasets on request.

  • Black Orpheus: A Journal of African and Afro-American Literature, (Nigeria) compiled by Max van Loenen
  • Busara, (Kenya) (incomplete) compiled by Max van Loenen
  • Comic Republic, (Nigeria) full range as of March 2024, compiled by Eric Sarkar Nilsson. https://www.thecomicrepublic.com
  • Darlite, (Tanzania) (not complete) compiled by Max van Loenen
  • Dhana, (Kenya) (not complete) compiled by Malin Runefelt
  • Grace Magazine, 1964-1966, (South Africa), Literary Content, compiled by Ashleigh Harris
  • Drum Magazine 1951-1965, (South Africa) Literary Content, compiled by Ashleigh Harris.
  • Hi-Note Magazine 1954-1957, (South Africa) (not complete), Literary Content , compiled by Ashleigh Harris
  • Jalada Magazine, (Kenya), compiled by Nicklas Hållén
  • Lawino, (Uganda), compiled by Monica Härnqvist (ASCL)
  • MOTO Magazine (Zimbabwe), Literary Content, compiled by Ashleigh Harris
  • Nexus Magazine, (Kenya) compiled by Max van Loenen
  • Odi Magazine (Malawi) compiled by Malin Runefelt
  • Okyeame, (Ghana) (not complete) compiled by Malin Runefelt
  • Rooftop Theatre Productions, (Zimbabwe) theatrical manuscripts in the Rooftop archive, compiled by Pedzisai Maedza, Nkululeko Sibanda, Kelvin Chikonzo and Ashleigh Harris
  • Something Wicked 2006-2012, (South Africa) Literary Content, compiled by Eric Sarkar Nilsson. https://somethingwicked.co.za/magazine/
  • Staffrider Magazine, (South Africa) Literary Content, compiled by Ashleigh Harris. https://disa.ukzn.ac.za/st
  • Swahili Newspaper Literature (Tanzania and Kenya) from Taifa Weekly and Baraza Weekly, 1960-1980. A collection of over 300 serialised Swahili novellas and novels. Compiled by Malin Runefelt and Max van Loenen
  • Ta Adesa Online Magazine, (Ghana) compiled by Nicklas Hållén. https://taadesa.org
  • The Township’s Wife 1968-1969, (South Africa) Literary Content, compiled by Ashleigh Harris
  • Transition Magazine, (Uganda) incomplete, compiled by Malin Runefelt and Max van Loenen
  • Umma Magazine, (Tanzania) compiled by Malin Runefelt
  • Zonk! Magazine, 1949-1964, (South Africa) Literary Content, compiled by Ashleigh Harris

 

Lecture: Afrikaaps and the Literary Archive, Riaan Oppelt

Join us for the next lecture in the ALMEDA seminar series! Riaan Oppelt (Stellenbosch University) will be talking about his case study for ALMEDA. The lecture will be held on Zoom: Time and Date: Tuesday 15 October, 15:15 – 16:30, CEST, online.Zoom Link: https://uu-se.zoom.us/j/9544610031

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Two ALMEDA PhD Courses – Uppsala University

ALMEDA will be offering two project-related PhD courses in 2025. One on the methods of Distant Reading and its implications for African Literature, and the other on Literary Metadata and the Digital Humanities and their importance for the future African literary archive. Please spread the word. These courses are free,…

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ALMEDA begins collaboration with FEMRITE, Uganda

The ALMEDA project is proud to be working with the NGO, FEMRITE (https://femrite.org) a Ugandan Women Writers’ Association that has inspired, supported and published African women writers from across the continent. FEMRITE has published numerous anthologies of poetry, short stories and Creative Non-Fiction, as well as novels, autobiographies, translations and…

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Sankoré Magazine, Mali

La revue malienne _Sankoré_ pourrait être considérée comme reflétant un processus de valorisation des langues et littératures africaines dans le cadre du projet de décolonisation des années 1970. Sankoré – une revue de vulgarisation scientifique avec, entre autres, des sections consacrées aux nouvelles, légendes, proverbes, poèmes, devinettes, est un produit…

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