African libraries in “Library World Records” by Godfrey Oswald

For the ones who love rankings and are interested in libraries and Africa I want to recommend Godfrey Oswald’s book Library World Records. Here are some quotes to attract your interest…

Notable people who have worked in libraries or as librarians (p.121):

“Christopher Okigbo, the Nigerian poet, was acting librarian at the University of Nigeria in Nsukka, where he helped to found the African Authors Association. He was killed while fighting as a soldier during the Biafran war.”

Unusual things that happened at libraries (p.111):

“The National Institute of Studies and Research Library in the capital of Guinea-Bissau was turned into a military garrison by soldiers in 1998. But first they had to destroy several thousand books to make way for military equipment and sleeping quarters.”

Libraries that have suffered devastating fires or natural disasters (pp.107):

“Fourah Bay College Library in Free Town, Sierra Leone, [...] was obliterated during the civil war of the early 1990s. It has since been rebuilt.”

And there is a list on the oldest university libraries in Africa (p. 83) – third is Monrovia University Library, Liberia, 1851. And the oldest public library in Africa (p.34.) was Luanda Municipal Library in Angola, founded in 1873 by the Portuguese colonial government. The two oldest national libraries in Africa “are the National Library of South Africa, Cape Town branch, founded 1818, and the National Library of Tunisia, Tunis, founded 1845.” (p.13).

And finally, what do you think: Which is the oldest existing bookstore in Africa (p.195)? Its Juta Bookshop, Cape Town, South Africa, founded in 1923.

Source: Godfrey Oswald: Library World Records, 2nd ed., Jefferson, NC, 2009.

On Display: Translations as examples of German-African cultural cooperation to preserve the cultural heritage of the Ewe people in present-day Togo and Ghana

Recently a new translation of Jakob Spieth’s book on the Ewe people was published:

• Jakob Spieth: The Ewe people : a study of the Ewe people in German Togo. – Accra : Sub-Saharan Publishers, 2011.

Already in 2009 a French translation appeared:

• Jakob Spieth: Les communautés ewe. – Lomé : Presses de l’UL, 2009

The stories behind these two translations give examples for the successful collaboration of a multitude of dedicated persons and institutional stakeholders. Academics, publishers, diplomats, librarians and representatives of cultural institutes joined efforts, time and money to make an important historical source available to the local people.

For more than twenty years the German missionary Jakob Spieth (1856-1914) lived in Ho, located in former German colony of Togo, now part of the modern Ghana. In his magnum opus called “Die Ewe-Stämme: Material zur Kunde des Ewe-Volkes in Deutsch-Togo“ published in 1906 by Reimer in Berlin he gives a detailed account of the history, the social, cultural and economic life of the Ewe. He also translated the bible into the language of the Ewe people.

The English translation of 2011 was edited by Komla Amoaku of the Institute for Music and Development, Ho, Ghana. The translation work was made by Marcellinus Edorh, Emmanuel Tsaku, Raphael Avornyo and Mary Esther Kropp Dakubu. The German Goethe Institut in Accra, Ghana, provided organisational support and contacts to Germany’s Federal Foreign Office which contributed a substantial amount of money. Already in 2007 Akoss Ofori Mensah from the Sub-Saharan Publishers, Legon, became involved. We got in contact at the Frankfurt Book Fair in October 2007. In the colonial special collection two copies of the original German publication of 1906 are available. Given its age and rarity an international interlibrary loan was not possible. However, I could find the kind support of the colleagues at the Bavarian State Library. They quickly digitized the roughly 1000 pages by Spieth and put the high quality scans on the web for free and worldwide usage of the German original document. Then the Goethe Institut in Ghana printed this version as the physical base for the translation team.

The French translation was done at the “Centre d’Etudes et de Recherches Germon-Togolaises” (CERGETO) at the Département d’Allemand, Université de Lomé, by Séna Akakpo-Numado, Dotsé Yigbe, Kokou Azamede and Komi Kossi-Titrikou under the direction of the professors Nicoué Gayibor and Amétépé Yaovi Ahadji. The German embassy at Lomé supported the work and the publication financially to support the preservation of the Ewe culture in Togo, but also to make this source available to the francophone public worldwide. Frankfurt University Library could support the work of Kokou Azamede in 2009. For further information on the Ewe see our “internet library sub-saharan Africa” (ilissAfrica).

The laborious translations into English, French and contemporary Ewe might create a revival of interest amongst researchers, contribute to the preservation of the cultural heritage of the Ewe people and become reading material in schools and universities.

Dr. Hartmut Bergenthum, head of the Africa department, Frankfurt University Library

Guide on “Writing in African Studies Journals”

This guide puts together some information of a side event called “Writing in African Studies Journals: what, how, and where?” at the 4^th European Conference on African Studies on the 16th of June 2011 in Uppsala.  It was chaired by Andreas Mehler, GIGA Hamburg. My thanks go to him and all the panelists. The general introduction came from Sara Rich Dorman, African Affairs. This journal provides very useful general guidelines. The main points of her presentation in Uppsala were:

How to write an exiting article?

• make people want to read your article – tell something interesting
• gap filling is not enough, it should be an original contribution with empiric data  and a fresh way of using the data
• give readers a nice journey, make it readable in style and structure; transitions between chapters should be smooth, guide the reader through
• a literature review is not enough, wait until your work is done
• avoid too much of disciplinary jargon, other people must can understand it as well
• one article should present only one idea/argument (not two or three)
• cite only literature, which is used and is necessary for the argument (not too much)
• not too much quotes, even if they are exiting, and any quote has to be interpreted
• the exiting argument should not be presented at the end of the article

How to choose the right journal?

• consider the covered region
• consider the covered disciplines
• consider the general focus
• consider the to publish in a disciplinary journal, not an African Studies journal
• consider the turnover time between submission and publishing

Some examples (with links to their guidelines for authors):

• African Affairs: focus on contemporary Africa, political events; ASA UK
• Africa (IAI): all regions and disciplines covered; articles need a broad “ethnographic approach”, with experience on the ground, must affect people; have a new strand publishing articles from ‘African local intellectuals’
• Africa Spectrum: Open Access; focus on social sciences, but all disciplines are covered
• Afrika Focus: Open Access; multidisciplinary; special issues; promote young African scholars; have also reports
• The Journal of African History: eminent on all periods of history
• Critical African Studies: online only; no regional or disciplinary boundaries; keen on critical debate and theoretical innovations
• Journal of Modern African Studies:  bias to politics
• Journal of Southern African Studies: boundaries of “Southern Africa” are flexible; 4 issues with 11-15 articles (big); less keen on economics; each paper is discussed with the advisory board; sponsors conferences
• Nordic Journal of African Studies: Open Access, purely online; focus on language; will have a new editorial board soon
• Politique Africaine: focus on the contemporary Africa and sociopolitical studies from below; mainly in French but also in English; has many special issues
• Review of African Political Economy (ROAPE): interdisciplinary, focus on radical perspectives/materialist analysis/struggles from below

African Studies Journals – Journals in Africa:

At ECAS 4, 2011, some further papers dealt with African journals, e.g. in Panel 145 “African Studies on the Web“:

• “Challenges of Broadening Access to Scholarly E-resources in Africa – The JSTOR Example” by Siro Masinde, Toja Okoh, Rahim Rajan (Full Paper); JSTOR has 42 Journals on African Studies, the African Access Initiative and wants to include more journals from Africa in the future;  and it want to improve JSTOR for low-bandwidth environments
• “AJOL: Using the Bridge” by Susan Murray (Abstract), AJOL has 407 peer-reviewed titles from 30 African countries; 2/3 are not online elsewhere, ¼ is OA

Round Table 4 on ‘Decolonizing African Studies: An Agenda for Future Collaboration’, organised by AEGIS, also dealt with the role of global publishers and the hierarchy of knowledge:

• The journal rating system should be changed, at least African institutions should be involved in the design of the system.
• Ton Dietz, Leiden, urged all to cite African scholars and he suggests that we need a few heroes who publish in the well-known disciplinary journals, not only in African Studies journals.
• Judith Byfield, for the African Studies Association of the US reported on their journal “African Studies Review”, which they did not gave it to the publishers to keep control.

Finally, see the list of African Studies Journals at ilissAfrica.

Two 18th century Abyssinian manuscripts missing since 1945 safely returned to Frankfurt University Library

From 1831 to 1834 Eduard Rüppell (1794-1884) travelled to Abyssinia (nowadays Ethiopia). In Gondar he met the local erudite Lik Atkum who helped Rüppell to acquire 23 religious manuscripts mostly written on vellum. After his return to Germany he donated them to the Frankfurt public library. During World War II the stocks of the public library were evacuated to the village Mitwitz in Upper Franconia (near Coburg). In the summer of 1943 the evacuation of the library holdings began. They were stored in the then empty lower castle (“Untere Schloß”, now called “Wasserschloß”). Till autumn 1944 450.000 volumes were evacuated, in 1946 most of the books returned safely to Frankfurt (Binder, pp. 207-218). However, six of the Abyssinian manuscripts got lost, perhaps during the hectic removal, or the final stage of the war 1945 or the return transfer. In 1980 the first was given back to the then called “Stadt- und Universitätsbibliothek”. At the beginning of 2011 another two manuscripts counted for lost were restored to Frankfurt University Library with great fortune.

The first codex was written for Negus Hezkejas, who reigned from 1780 to 1786, and contains prayers and e.g. the Book of Psalms in Amharic and Ethiopian (Goldschmidt, No. 3; modern call number Ms.or.133). The second is the translated (church) history of Elmacin (1223-1273) probably from the middle of the 18^th century (Goldschmidt, No. 21; modern call number Ms.or.134). They are in a good condition. A distinctive feature is the interloop binding. The binding has been restored and a little bit of dirt and old mould has been removed. They are available for researchers in our manuscripts reading room.

Posters about Rüppell and the restoration will be presented to the public on Saturday, 14th May 2011, in the “Haus am Dom”, Domplatz 3, Frankfurt/Main, from 11:00 on (“7. Nationaler Aktionstag der “Allianz Schriftliches Kulturgut Erhalten”).

Two other manuscripts of the collection by Rüppell already have been digitized and can be accessed online:

1.) the prayers of the Virgin Mary written around 1750 by Abrocoros (Goldschmidt, No. 13; modern call number Ms.or.17, the picture on the left is on p. 6)
2.) the paintings of the life of Christ, 17^th century (Goldschmidt, No. 14; modern Call Number Ms.or.18, bottom picture on p. 24)
.

Literature and further information:

• Goldschmidt, Lazarus: Die abessinischen Handschriften der Stadtbibliothek zu Frankfurt am Main (Rüppell’sche Sammlung), Berlin : Calvary, 1897.
• Binder, Johanna: Die Stadtbibliothek 1939-1950, in: Klaus-Dieter Lehmann (ed.): Bibliotheca Publica Francofurtensis – 500 Jahre Stadt- und Universitätsbibliothek Frankfurt am Main, Frankfurt am Main : Stadt- u. Universitätsbibliothek 1985, pp. 205-226.

Frankfurt University Library’s Africa Collection: Highlights of 2010

The Special Collection on Africa south of the Sahara at Frankfurt University Library looks back on a successful year 2010:

• the acquisition budget rose to 152.000 EUR compared to 138.000 EUR in 2009, of which 60 %  were funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG)
• 47.000 EUR of this were spent on periodicals
• 3.697 books were bought and 200 were received as gifts
• more than 1.300 of these books were published in Africa (e.g. via LoC Office Nairobi, Thorold, African Books Collective, Africa Book Centre, Soumbala, Espace Afrique)
• 2.233 documents were delivered to German libraries via inter-library loan and even 210 to foreign countries
• the number of DFG funded German national licences with relevance to the African Studies rose to 24 including e.g. “eHRAF”, “Corpus de la littérature francophone de l’Afrique noire” and the “World Bank E-Library Archive” with more than 110 E-Books on Africa
• “Africa-Wide NiPAD” now is called “Africa-Wide Information” and is offered to all German users as a Pay-per-Use-Access
• until the end of 2010 more than 4.000 websites had been indexed in ilissAfrica
• the catalogues of NAI Uppsala and IFEAS Mainz were integrated in the cross search of ilissAfrica
• a new e-learning-tutorial on „African Studies Informationskompetenz“ for our German users were set up as a Wiki
• the ilissAfrica Dashboard on Netvibes offers a tool to keep up with the masses of information
• our information and marketing policy was extended to WordPress, Twitter and Facebook
• an information booth, a workshop and a presentation to German junior scholars at the meeting of the “Vereinigung der Afrikawissenschaften in Deutschland” (VAD), 7.-11.4.2010, at the Johannes Gutenberg-University Mainz, were used for the evaluation of ilissAfrica
• the European network was fostered, e.g. 7.6.2010 in London on the annual meeting of the European Librarians in African Studies (ELIAS)

Please, allow me a personal ending: The people at the Africa department and the ilissAfrica project did a very good job in 2010. Thank you very much for all your efforts! We are glad about our core project partner at the GIGA Information Centre in Hamburg. Additionally, we have to thank the staff of Frankfurt University Library and especially the acquisition and media department who supported our activities in all conceivable ways. And finally, we thank all our colleagues, especially in Europe, who share their experiences with us generously.

I wish you all a Happy Easter and hopefully we will meet personally in 2011, a good opportunity would be in June in Uppsala on ECAS or the ELIAS meeting!

Dr. Hartmut Bergenthum

On Display: Crowdsourcing with Ushahidi – the social and political relevance of the interactive web

Crowdsourcing

Via Crowdsourcing the internet supports the management of crises and of democratic procedures (cf. list of projects). People experiencing natural disasters like the 2010 earthquake in Haiti or, recently, the earthquake and tsunami in Japan, report their personal record, e.g. via SMS, to a website, where these are grouped and visualized in a map. Now, aid organisations get to know precisely, where their help is needed most, where they can find victims, what basic materials are lacking (water, food, fuel, …) etc. On the other hand, the people themselves can find shelter and help. Another possible examples is the “Atlanta crime map” serving people and city authorities alike. Crowdsourcing can also empower citizens in the protection of democracy by enforcing transparency, accountability and efficient electoral service delivery. The participation of the masses is crucial for its success.

Ushahidi

The above mentioned interactive maps are realised with the Ushahidi-software. Ushahidi is a non-profit company that develops free and open source software for information collection, visualization and interactive mapping. The platform was developed as a tool to easily crowdsource information using multiple channels, including SMS, email, Twitter and the web. The company is an example for the potential of web developers at the so-called periphery in Africa, it started in Kenya and the Ushahidi-App for the Android-Marketplace e.g. was developed by a developer in Ghana.

Examples from East Africa

“Ushahidi”, which means “testimony” in Swahili, was a website that was initially developed to map reports of violence in Kenya after the elections in 2007. The roots are in the collaboration of Kenyan citizen journalists during a time of crisis. The original website was used to map incidents of violence throughout the country based on reports submitted via the web and mobile phones. The incidents were grouped in classes like Riots,  Deaths,  Property Damage,  Government Forces,  Civilians,  Looting,  Rape and Peace Efforts. Together with local Kenyan NGO’s each incident was verified. The website had 45,000 users in Kenya (it is not active anymore).

In 2010 Kenya voted on a proposed new constitution and Ushahidi in partnership with local political networks was deploying an election monitoring system called Uchaguzi (“election” in Swahili). Uchaguzi provided web and mobile-based channels for citizens and civil society to report on electoral offences such as intimidation, hate speech, vote-buying, polling clerk bias, voting mis-information etc.  The reports were then sent to the electoral authorities or security personnel for action.

The Site “Tracking the Eastern Congo Conflict”  monitors the renewed conflict in the Eastern part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo since autumn 2008. Beside the reported incidents official and mainstream news about this political conflict can be found (like new from the European Media Monitor) on the website.

Beside Ushahidi

There are many more initiatives which can be subsumed as “Gov 2.0“. The most prominent is Wikileaks, others like CrisisCommons gain momentum. They show the potential of participatory governance and of moving cities and communities towards a more sustainable future.

Another recent example for innovative solutions coming from Africa is JamiiX. It is a messaging management system developed by the Cape Town-based Reconstructed Living Labs (RLabs) team, originally to help them counsel drug addicts on the Cape flats. JamiiX was developed to more effectively manage multiple conversations from different Social Media and Instant Messaging platforms. It allows eight counsellors to have 300 IM conversations in one hour, massively increasing their ability to assist those who need help. In 2010 it was released for third-party use . The name comes from a combination of the Swahili word for social, “jamii”, and eXchange, to mean social exchange.

The interactive web supports humanitarian and democratic activities in a very useful way. This is one way how the masses can help to make things a little better.

On Display: Indigenous Knowledge Systems & Intellectual Property Rights

Indigenous Knowledge Systems are increasingly seen as positive ways for problem solving.  Traditional livestock practices, traditional leather processing or traditional healing practices fit to the local environment and might have a positive impact on development or at least in the struggle for survival. Especially indigenous knowledge in traditional agricultural systems can be used for poverty and hunger eradication.

Traditional knowledge is closely related to intellectual property systems. How to preserve, protect and equitably make use of this indigenous knowledge are highly disputed questions. These address areas as diverse as food and agriculture, the environment, notably the conservation of biological diversity, health, including traditional medicines, human rights and indigenous issues and aspects of trade and economic development. In short: who profits from selling traditional medicine or from traditional performances?

Traditional cultural expressions (or “expressions of folklore”) include music, art, designs, names, signs and symbols, performances, architectural forms, handicrafts and narratives. They are integral to the cultural and social identities of indigenous and local communities, they embody know-how and skills, and they transmit core values and beliefs.

Under the questions “What are they? Who owns them? What kinds of intellectual property protection should they have? What challenges do they present to librarians?” IFLA (e.g. in Durban 2007) dealt with these problems. For libraries questions very different from those we face in handling published materials are raised. It is about preservation of context, cultural sovereignty and respect. This led e.g. to an ethical code for digitization of indigenous material.

Some of the more general problems are the following:

• Traditional Cultural Expressions are group-related, orally transmitted and are changing constantly, therefore they cannot be ascribed to one individual author and his intellectual property which then might be protected.
• If there shall be a similar protection to copyright: Who controls the traditional knowledge of the group, how speaks for the whole group, who belongs to the group, how long shall protection last? How about inspiration and cultural adaptation? Should intellectual property protection be limited in duration or perpetual? How about benefit sharing? In South Africa the ministry of economics wants to push tourism and create new jobs in this area. How about the relation between state and group revenue (crown copyright)?

Further information:

=> For a thorough introduction see Wend Wendland’s paper „Intellectual Property and Traditional Cultural Expressions/Expression of Folklore“.

=> For several years now WIPO has been investigating what kinds of protection should be given to folklore and other “traditional cultural expressions”; see their “Key Resources“.

=> The IFLA “Committee on Copyright and other Legal Matters” (CLM) has also dealt with these problems; compare their publications.

=> The most recent literature on the topic you can find on ilissAfrica.

new feature of ilissAfrica: find online documents only

New feature of ilissAfrica’s combined catalogue:

• Find online documents only:
  => via the “Advanced Search”
  the search can be restricted to “full texts”

• Find articles only:
  => via the “Advanced Search” the search can be restricted to articles from academic periodicals

Please note, that not all catalogues and databases included support the search limitation on a certain publication type. Therefore, if you limit your search to “full texts” or to “articles” certain resources are excluded automatically.

We appreciate any comments on these new functionalities of ilissAfrica!

new feature of ilissAfrica: results linked to WorldCat, German union catalogues & document delivery service

ilissAfrica’s combined catalogue now allows the following availability searches:

• Our new cross search makes it easier to access the bibliographic references found. Find out the nearest location of the found document.

• There are links to
  => WorldCat and to the
  => German union catalogues
  to find out which library nearest to you holds a copy.

• For articles there are links to
  => the EZB to access the online journal directly and
  => the ZDB to see which German library holds a copy of the print version (see below).

• Get the document via the document delivery service subito e.V.

Please note:

Some of the buttons only appear if an ISBN/ISSN is in the original metadata, if not, there is no possibility to create the link. We apologize for any inconvenience this might cause.

Caption:

• EZB means “Elektronische Zeitschriftenbibliothek” (Electronic Journals Library) managed by the University Library Regensburg. The availability of full text access is indicated by different colours according to the license situation of each member library. Based upon the open URL technology the EZB linking service offers direct access to the full text being published in a scholarly e-journal. If a user searches in ilissAfrica she or he gets results, where the user finds an EZB-button. I f the user pursues the EZB link, he will come to a web page in the EZB created specifically for this link. This EZB web page informs the user about the accessibility of the full-text. It shows with the help of the traffic light symbol if the full-text of the article is accessible without charge, or if it may be used under the license of an EZB member library. Finally, the EZB leads the user to the full-text from a supplier to which access rights are locally available. In order to facilitate the user’s access to the full-text, the EZB provides a direct link to the desired articles whenever possible. If a link to the article is not possible, the EZB points to the next highest level: table of contents of the issue, annual summary of the volume, or the journal home page. In these latter cases, the user is given specific directions to call up the full-text.
• ZDB is the abbreviation of “Zeitschriftendatenbank“. This is the German national union catalogue for serial and journals titles. The ZDB contains more bibliographic records of serials and journals (electronic and print) and at the same time shows their availability in German libraries.

We appreciate any comments on these new functionalities of ilissAfrica!

News on the “Corpus de la première littérature francophone de l’Afrique noire” (German National License)

News:

• The individual titles included in the full-text database “Corpus de la première littérature francophone de l’Afrique noire” (German National License) are now indexed in Frankfurt University’s online catalogue seperately !

The database is a production by Classiques Garnier Numérique with the support of the National Centre for Distance Teaching (CNED), the French Ministry of Education , the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Intergovernmental Agency for Francophonie.

Description of this resource according to the publisher Classiques Garnier Numérique:

CORPUS OF THE EARLY FRANCOPHONE LITERATURE OF BLACK AFRICA, WRITTEN AND ORAL, FROM THE ORIGINS TO INDEPENDENCE (END 18th CENTURY – 1960)

• It gathers together all the French-speaking literature from sub-Saharan Africa it was possible to collect: oral and written literature from the origins (end of the 18th century) to Independence (1960, as date of authors’ death).
• The written literature gathered comes either from works benefiting from a wide distribution or from publications with a local or temporary distribution and kept on short-lived media (press, periodicals, parish bulletins, pamphlets, etc.).
• The oral literature was collected by monks, civil servants, soldiers, French, foreign or local academics. It was edited on various media as different as a report from a commanding office or a collective work assembled by a Parisian publisher. We also often find this oral literature in dictionaries, grammars, or in early 19th century teaching methods of African languages. Educational works are treasure-stores for the keeping of the most ancient cultural heritage, both popular and scholarly. They also have the extreme advantage of being bilingual. That is why a bilingual version is given for every French text that has a counterpart in an African language.
• In all, this exhaustive corpus of more than 11 000 texts covers the whole of sub-Saharan francophone Africa, that is some twenty countries and more than a hundred ethnic groups and brings together the most diverse genres of this literature which has yet to be discovered and studied (novels, tales, short stories, narrative accounts, theatre, poetry, myths, legends, fables, proverbs, riddles, songs).

CONTENTS
Countries:

Benin (ex-Dahomey); Burkina Faso (ex-Haute-Volta); Burundi; Cameroon; Congo (Brazzaville); Ivory Coast ; Djibouti; Ethiopia; Gabon; Guinea; Mali (ex-French Soudan); Mauritania; Niger; Central Africa ; Democratic Republic of Congo (ex-Zaïre); Rwanda; Senegal; Tchad; Togo

Ethnic groups:

Achanti; Achingini; Achira; Adima; Agaou; Agni; Anghal; Apono; Atiefe; Avikam; Azandé; Babemba; Bachilangé; Baguirmi; Bahaya; Bahutu; Bakerewe; Bakoko; Bakongo; Baluba; Balunda; Bamana; Bambara; Bamiléké; Bamoun; Banda; Bantou; Banyarwanda; Baoulé; Ba-Ronga; Bari; Barma; Barundi; Bashi; Ba-Soubiya; Bassa; Bassouto; Basumbwa; Batchopi; Batéké; Batutsi; Batwa; Bayansi; Ba-yéyé; Bayo; Bena Kanioka; Benga; Beni Amir; Berbère; Berété; Betchouana; Bilin; Bolia; Boloki; Bombwa; Bomitaba; Booli; Bornouan; Boullom; Boundéi; Brignan; Burungi; Bushmen; Bushongo; Bwaka; Cabrais; Chambala; Chillouk; Chuabo; Dafing; Dagbamba; Danakil; Diakité; Dian; Diara; Dinka; Diola; Dioula; Djinn; Dogon; Douala; Dyan; Dyerma; Dyula; Efik; Egba; Enenga; Ewé; Fang; Fiote; Fon; Foul; Foulah; Foulbé; Gagou; Galla; Gnolebie; Gourmantché; Gourmantié; Gouro; Gourounsi; Grand-Namaqua; Guéré; Hadendoa; Haoussa; Haya; Ibo; Imandwa; Kado; Kama; Kanouri; Kanté; Khassonké; Kikerewe; Kissien; Kongo; Kotoko; Kouargnambié; Koukouroukou; Kouranko; Kouyalé; Kroumen; Kunama; Kundu; Labibi; Landouman; Lanzuba; Laobé; Lapondu; Lari; Lobi; Lounda; Louyi; Luba; Lulua; Madi; Madjamé; Mahi; Malinké; Mandé; Mandégni; Mandingue; Mangbetou; Marka; Massaï; Massassi; Maure; Mbenga; Mendé; Mfan; Mina; Mongo; Mossi; Mpongwé; Muhaya; Nago; Nama; Ndorobbo; Néouolé; Neyo; Ngombe; Nioniossé; Nouba; Nouers; Ntomba; Ntomba e Njale; Otando; Ouahéhé; Ouassoulonké; Oulé Bilforé; Oulé Gané; Pahouin; Paniera; Petit-Namaqua; Peulh; Peulh Ouorbé; Popo; Porto-Novien; Poulho; Punu; Pygmée; Ronga; Rouganda; Saho; Samo; Sénofo; Silmi-Mossi; Soninké; Soussou; Torodo; Toucouleur; Tyapi; Wagongo; Wolof; Yarsé; Yorouba

Writers:

Afevork (G. J.); Aliou de Fougoumba (Tyerno); Alogo (Jean-Marc); Bâ de Fougoumba (Karamoko); Badibanga (Thadée); Beya (Boniface); Boilat (Abbé P.-David); Bou El Moghdad; Boy (Rawane); Carrère (Frédéric); Coyssi (Anatole); Darfour (Félix); Delobson (Dim); Diop (Alioune); Diouf (Abbé Léopold); Doumbia (Paul-Émile-Namoussa); Duguay-Clédor (Amadou); Dyâo (Yoro); Guillaume de Suède (Prince); Holle (Paul); Houénou (Kojo Tovalou); Ibrahim le Mandingue; Iwandja (Médard); Kamakoro Kala (Tyerno); Kaoze (Abbé Stephano); Kikoko (Simon); Lokose (Patrice); Mademba (Abd el Kader); Mamadi (Aïssa); Mayemba (Benoît); Moumé Etia (Isaac); Niamankessy (F.); Panet (Léopold); Sadji (Abdoulaye); Salih (Mohamed); Senghor (Lamine); Sîgna; Taty (S.); Télémaque (Hamet Sow); Théodore; Tiello Ham Gour’do

Authors collecting oral culture:

Acapovi (Romuald); Adam (M. G.); Adandé (A.); Ahiagba (Armand); Alapini (Julien); Anonyme; Aponi (Paul); Arensdorff (L.); Arnoux (Père Alex); Assomption; Aupiais (Père Francis); Basset (René); Bazin (Mgr. Hippolyte); Ben Hamouda; Bérenger-Féraud (Laurent); Bergé (A.-R.); Beyries (J.); Boelaert (E.); Bokwango (André); Boubala (Raphaël); Bouche (Père Pierre-Bertrand); Bouveignes (Ol. de); Brun (Père Joseph); Buisson (É.); Capus (Père A.); Casalis (Eugène); Casati (Gaetano); Cendrars (Blaise); Césard (Père E.); Chaikhou (Baldé); Chataignier (Abel); Chéron (Georges); Chéruy (P.); Christallen (J.G.); Classe (Père); Cocquyt (A.); Colin (Dr.); Colle (Père C.); Coly (Demba); Conrad (E.); Cornelissen (Josef); Coutouly (François de); Cozzano; Cransac (Germaine J.); Cuvelier (Mgr. J.); Cyrille (Guillaume); Daigre (Père); Daniel (Fernand); Darré (E.); De Clercq (Père Aug.); De Jonghe (E.); Delafosse (Maurice); Demaison (André); Denis (Léopold); Derendinger (Colonel J.R.); Desplagnes (Louis); Diagne (Ahmadou Mapate); Diakite (Éloi); Diallo (A. Digui); Diallo (Moro); Djime (Diallo); Dodaho (Joseph); Dupuis-Yacouba (Père A.); Eboué (Félix); Engels (A.); Équilbecq (François-Victor); Esser (J.); Fernor (Ciel); Fort; Froger (F.); Gaden (Henri); Gaidoz (H.); Gallin; Geay (J.); Génin; Gilliard (Léon); Girard de Rialle (J.); Gonzalves (Benoît); Grégoire (G.); Guébhard (Paul); Guilmin (Père Maurice); Guiraudon (Capitaine T.-G. de); Hacquard (Mgr.); Harou (Alfred); Heidt (M.); Hervé (H.); Hess (Jean); Hudry (H.); Hulstaert (G.); Hurel (Père Eugène); Hutereau (A.); Jacottet (Édouard); Jeannest (Charles); Joseph (Gaston); Joset (Paul-É.); Jouannin; Joyce (T. A.); Junod (Pasteur Henri-A.); Kanté (Diguy); Kikoko (Simon); Koné (Jean-Marie); Konte (Amadou Théophile); Labouret (Henri); Lagae (C. R.); Landeroin (M.); Langhe (H. de); Largeau (V.); Lazarine (Houssou); Le Bourhis; Le Herissé (A.); Léger (A.); Lemaire (L.); Lifszyc (Déborah); Lindeman (M.); Loupias (Père); Luthala (A. G.); Luyeye (Jacob); Ly (Djibril); M’Ba (Léon); Mamet (M.); Mangin (Père Eugène); Mazières (A.); Mietje; Mojard (M.); Molin (Mgr.); Mongis (R.); Monod (M.); Monod (Th.); Monteil (Ch.); Nicol (Yves); Norman (Paulin); Oliveira (F.); Pagès (A.); Pagès (Père G.); Paulme (Denise); Quénum (Maximilien); Quix (J. P.); Roblin (A.); Roehric (V.); Roger (Baron Jacques-François); Rolland (E.); Rousseau (R.); Sadler (Athanase); Saint’Anna (Bernard); Samain (Al.); Sangaré (Satigui); Sano (Mamba); Saron (G.); Sedolo (Michel); Sidibé (Mamby); Solichon; Soucou (Crabé); Tauby (M.); Tauxier (Louis); Télémaque (Hamet Sow); Thomann (George); Tilho (J.); Torday (E.); Torrend (J.); Toulze (M.); Trautmann (René); Travélé (Moussa); Trilles (Père Henri); Van Den Byvang; Van den Hove (L. J.); Van Den Plas (V. H.); Van Goethem (E.); Van Wing (J.); Van Wing (S. J.); Verleersch (S. J. A.); Vertenten (Père P.); Viard (René); Vidal (J.); Vieillard (Gilbert); Walker (Abbé A.); Wannijn (Robert); Yangha (Henri); Zeltner (Frantz de); Zuure (Père Bernard)

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