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 initial de l’Institut Ahmed Baba de Tombouctou et publié au cours de cette décennie avec le soutien de l’Institut des Sciences Humaines de Bamako (ISH). À travers des exemplaires récupérés en juin 2024 avec l’aide des archivistes et des stagiaires de l’ISH, on peut retracer les débuts de Sankoré en français, avec de courtes sections traduites en bambara (n° 2, 1973) ou en tamasheq (n° 5, 1974), jusqu’à des numéros entièrement en bambara par exemple en 1976 (n° 9, 1976).
The Malian magazine _Sankoré_ could be viewed as an attempt to valorize African languages and literatures as part of decolonization agenda of the 1970s. Sankoré – a popular science journal with some sections dedicated to short stories, legends, proverbs, poems, riddles, is a product of the Ahmed Baba Institute in Timbuktu and was published in the 1970s with the support of the Institut des Sciences Humaines de Bamako (ISH). From some of the copies retrieved this June 2024 together with archivists and interns at the ISH, one can trace the beginnings of Sankoré in French, with short sections translated in Bambara (No 2, 1973) or Tamasheq (No 5, 1974), to issues fully in Bambara for example by 1976 (No 9, 1976).
A new dataset is the outcome of a collaboration with the Centre for Creative Arts, UKZN. This dataset includes biographical information on all the poets who performed at the Poetry Africa festival from 1997 to 2022. The dataset builds on data compiled by University of Kwa-Zulu Natal’s Centre for Creative Arts,…
This article provides a case study of the history of the cataloging system at Makerere University Library and discusses how this has come to shape the body of African literature housed there. The article is available as an open access publication. Harris, Ashleigh. “African Literary Metadata and Makerere University’s Library.” Research…
We’re delighted to share the completion of a project carried out by poet and Swahili lecturer (at the Centre for African Studies, Copenhagen University) Lisa Mumbi Macharia. This dataset documents over 10 years of spoken word poetry performances in the city of Nairobi. Mumbi recorded 628 performances from between March…
Click here to read more about our activities in 2024