Home - Ancient African Civilization - African Archaeology

Acacia Initiative: International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Centre de recherches pour le développement international (CRDI) (3.1) __ "The Acacia Initiative: Communities and the Information Society in Africa Program Initiative is an international program to empower sub-Saharan communities with the ability to apply information and communication technologies (ICTs) to their own social and economic development." - From International Development Research Centre - http://network.idrc.ca/ev.php?URL_ID=5895&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201

Africa Program __ "The AAAS Africa Program was inaugurated in 1987, representing a concerned response on the part of US scientists and educators to the institutional crisis that their African colleagues were facing, and a commitment on the part of US scientific societies and donors to work with African institutions in order to address that crisis. To date activities, developed and implemented in partnership with African institutions, have centered on improving access for African researchers to scientific and technical information, on encouraging other aspects of scientific capacity-building, on articulating research and policy agendas for critical issues facing African science and society, and on promoting productive collaborative ties between US and African scientists and their institutions." You will find an overview, current programs and plans for the future. - From American Association for the Advancement of Science - http://www.aaas.org/international/africa/

African Art: Aesthetics and Meaning __ "African artifacts have generally been exhibited with reference only to cultural context and use. In view of recent studies of African aesthetic principles and related moral and religious values, there is good reason to emphasize the formal aesthetic aspects of the objects and the moral and religious ideas they express." - photos - From University of Virginia - http://www.lib.virginia.edu/clemons/RMC/exhib/93.ray.aa/African.html

African Art and the Internet __ Paper deals with African art, the Internet, and the changing society which results. - By H-Net, Humanities & Social Sciences Online - http://www2.h-net.msu.edu/about/press/internet.html 

African Art museum. Major Collecton of Tribal Masks, Statues, Sculptures and Bronzes __ A commercial website but with numerous examples of art styles broken down by peoples. - illustrated - http://www.zyama.com/

African Ceremonies Photo Gallery __ A color gallery (several pages) of click-to-enlarge images of a variety of African ceremonies. - illustrated - From africanceremonies.com - http://www.africanceremonies.com/ceremonies/photogallery.html 

African Forest Peoples __ "African forest people tend to be noticeably smaller than those from the savannas, the Pygmies being the most extreme example. Their small stature undoubtedly enables them to move about the forest more efficiently than taller peoples. Additionally, their smaller body mass allows pygmies to dissipate their body heat more efficiently." that is only a small part of the information provided here about the forest peoples of Africa. - From Mangabay.com - http://www.mongabay.com/0702.htm

African Lives __ "This series of occasional articles chronicles the joys and struggles in the everyday lives of African peoples. - illustrated - From the Washington Post - http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/inatl/longterm/africanlives/front.htm
 
African Religion: Wim van Binsbergen's Writings __ Large and sometimes confusing website is a goldmine of information about African religion. - By Wim van Binsbergen - http://www.geocities.com/africanreligion/

African Studies Center | K-12 Electronic GuideK-12 Electronic Guide __ "The aim of this guide is to assist K-12 teachers, librarians, and students in locating on-line resources on Africa that can be used in the classroom, for research and studies. This guide summarizes some relevant materials for K-12 uses available on the African Studies WWW. The African Studies Web also contains information that is not listed in this guide. The resources included in this guide are accessible via the African Studies Web server; or through 'hyper links' to other Africa-related databases at institutions worldwide." - From University of Pennsylvania - http://www.africa.upenn.edu/K-12/AFR_GIDE.html

African Voices __ In this remarkable site you can explore objects that demonstrate Africa's wide diversity and long history. - illustrated - From National Geographic Society - http://www.mnh.si.edu/africanvoices/

Akan Cultural Symbols Project Title Page __ About the Akan of Ghana and the Ivory Coast and their use of symbols. Sections cover architecture, metal casting, textiles and wood carving. photos and other illustrations - http://www.marshall.edu/akanart/

Akan Lineage Organization __ "The Akan are best known for their colorful kingdoms, which are located throughout the forest zones of southern Ghana and Cote d'Ivoire. The tropical environment has supplied them with valuable resources for both commercial cocoa farming, a recent economic innovation, and gold mining, which in former times supported regal opulence and pageantry. The Ashanti empire, the largest and most powerful of the precolonial polities, owes its prominence to is location within the region's richest goldfields. The traditional kingdom remains an important national cultural and political force and is inseparably tied to the structures and functions of the matrilineal descent system which forms the foundation for the Akan social order." - From University of Manitoba - http://www.umanitoba.ca/anthropology/tutor/case_studies/akan/lineage.html

Akan social Organization __ "The Akan have developed elaborate stratification systems based upon the maintenance of hereditary status tied to their political order that represents a form that anthropologists call a ranked society. The principle positions consist chiefly of titles arranged in a graded hierarchy from the king who rules over the entire state, to divisional chiefs heading subordinate regions, to town chiefs at the bottom of the administrative ladder. - From University of Manitoba - http://www.umanitoba.ca/anthropology/tutor/case_studies/akan/index.html

allAfrica.com: Home __ Online news and newspapers for Africa - illustrated - From AllAfrica.com - http://allafrica.com/
Atlas Natural Agronomic Resources Niger Benin __ "Sustainable land use planning is an urgent need in Niger and Benin." Here is an excellent resource about all aspects of these studies. - http://www.uni-hohenheim.de/%7Eatlas308/

Building Bridges to Afrocentrism __ About the Afrocentrism controversy in Egyptology. "Here the study of history and archaeology are being shaken by racial cultural anthropology, and old 'assumptions' are crumbling." - From University of Pennsylvania - http://www.sas.upenn.edu/African_Studies/Articles_Gen/afrocent_roth.html 

Contrasting Portrayals of Mande Women in Praise Songs __ "In the two Mande praise songs, Song after Defeat and Love Strikes Queen Saran, women are portrayed in very different ways. The poems contain contrasting portrayals of women, due to the gender of each poem’s author. The sexes of the authors, and thus their interpretations of women, significantly differ. However, both praise songs are effective in illustrating the traditional gender roles of Mande society." You will find this to be an interesting paper if you are interested in gender studies. - From Franklin and Marshall College - http://www.fandm.edu/departments/Anthropology/Bastian/ANT269/song.htm

Defining 'Indigenous Peoples' __ Explore the controversy about who is and who is not an indigenous person. - From NativeWeb.org - http://www.nativeweb.org/info/indigenousdefined.html
 
East Africa Living Encyclopedia __ "The Teaching & Learning about East Africa" Project (TLEAP) is a "living library"--a work in progress--of resources for teaching and learning about East Africa and about Swahili, the most widely spoken language of that region. The educational resources are provided or recommended by East Africa experts on the faculties of the University of Pennsylvania, Bryn Mawr, Swarthmore and Haverford Colleges, and by Master Teachers of the School District of Philadelphia." - From University of Pennsylvania - http://www.sas.upenn.edu/African_Studies/NEH/neh.html

Eloquent Elegance Beadwork in the ZULU Cultural Tradition __ More than a website only about beads. You will find history, an introduction to the 'bead language' and much more. - illustrated - From Stan Schoeman - http://minotaur.marques.co.za/clients/zulu/

Famine Food Field Guide __ "For many years the importance of wild plants in subsistence agriculture in the developing world as a food supplement and as a means of survival during times of drought and famine has been overlooked. Generally, the consumption of such so-called 'wild-food' has been and still is being under-estimated. This may very well be the case for Ethiopia, a so-called 'biodiversity hot-spot' and known as a centre of origin for a significant number of food plants (Bell, 1995)." An excellent online report. - From University of Pennsylvania - http://www.africa.upenn.edu/faminefood/index.htm

Folk Stories from Southern Nigeria Index __ This is an excellent collection of tales from Southern Nigeria. Learn about the fat woman who melted away and a lot more. - By Elphinstone Dayrell - http://www.sacred-texts.com/afr/fssn/index.htm

Food Security and Food Self Sufficiency in Africa __ "Not only more people go to bed hungry every day but a great number of the African population was brought into a state of insecurity and instability due to the breakdown in the social fabrics and to the expansion of war, ethnic conflicts, political turmoil, crime and diseases such as the pandemic AIDS. It is becoming even harder for the international community to keep some countries in peace and in one piece." This is just a small part of this important website dealing with the current and future situation in Africa. - From University of Pennsylvania - http://www.sas.upenn.edu/African_Studies/ECA/FoodSecure.html

G.I. Jones - S.E. Nigerian Art and Culture __ Collection of photos and text about the peoples of southeastern Nigeria. "The collection includes examples from Ibibio, Igbo, Ijo and Ogoni speaking peoples." All the photos are from the first half of the century and portray these people before they were innundated with western norms. This is an inportant resource in the study of African cultural anthropology." - illustrated - From University of Cambridge - http://mccoy.lib.siu.edu/jmccall/jones/ 

Harriet Tubman Resource Centre on the African Diaspora __ Website "...focuses on the history of the African diaspora and the movement of Africans to various parts of the world, particularly the Americas and the Islamic lands of North Africa and the Middle East." - illustrated - From York University - http://www.yorku.ca/nhp/

The Indigenous Peoples Rights Question in Africa __ "This statement by Moringe Parkipuny, Member of Parliament, Ngorongoro, Tanzania, was made before the United Nations. It is an important paper dealing with the political situation, the preservation of indigenous populations, and the value of anthropology in this regard." - From Center for World Indigenous Studies - http://www.cwis.org/fwdp/Africa/parkipny.txt 

KAM African Philosophy and Spirituality __ "Philosophy is defined as the study of thought or the manner in which one defines existence and knowledge. As is often the case with other African cultural concepts, African philosophy is often overlooked. One reason for this is that in African society, much of one's philosophical beliefs are also part of one's spiritual belief. Therefore to gain a full understanding of how Africans perceived the universe and their place within it, one must look to the spiritual beliefs of the continent." This website gives a wide coverage of African spirituality. An excellent resource on the subject - From College Park - http://www.geocities.com/CollegePark/Classroom/9912/africanspirit.html

The Kamusi Project -- The Internet Living Swahili Dictionary __ "The Internet Living Swahili Dictionary is a collaborative work by people all over the world. Together we are working to establish new dictionaries of the Swahili language - Kiswahili - both within Swahili and between Swahili and English. We are preparing print-based dictionaries and multi-media computer applications, all accessible to you through this home page." You will find slide shows, history and more - illustrated - From Yale University - http://www.yale.edu/swahili/

Kenya Culture __ You will find links to various aspects of Kenya Culture, such as music, recipes, riddles, coins, etc. There are music clips and many pictures. - illustrated - By Timothy F. Bliss - http://www.blissites.com/kenya/culture.html

Language and Popular Culture in Africa __ "Language and Popular Culture in Africa is a web-based project set up by Johannes Fabian and Vincent de Rooij of the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at the University of Amsterdam. The main aim of LPCA is to document and further the study of expressions of popular language and culture in Africa. This is accomplished in two ways. First of all, by making available, in LPCA Text Archives and Archives of Popular Swahili, texts that express and mediate forms of African popular culture, and secondly, by publishing the Journal of Language and Popular Culture in Africa which publishes studies of African popular texts." - From University of Amsterdam - http://www2.fmg.uva.nl/lpca/#Introducing%20LPCA
Mande Male __ This paper is about the role of men in Mande speaking societies. - From Franklin and Marshall college - http://www.fandm.edu/Departments/Anthropology/Bastian/ANT269/mandemale.html

Medical Culture of the Ovambo __ Dr. Gwyneth Davies says it best. "This thesis focusses on the medical culture of the Ovambo peoples of southern Angola and northern Namibia, a group who have been little-researched anthropologically. Because health and affliction are such poignant human concerns, the study of a society's medical culture can tell us much about their social and cultural organisation in general. It is for this reason that Ovambo medical culture has been examined in relation to the wider socio-cultural background, rather than in isolation; especially since Ovambo evidence has shown that concern about health and affliction is not confined to the physical and spiritual wellbeing of individuals, but extends to include harmonious social relations, environmental and economic prosperity, and political stability." - From University of Kent at Canterbury - http://lucy.ukc.ac.uk/csacpub/Davies_thesis/

Microbiological Perspectives on Nigerian Food Processing __ "Microbiological science has provided a basis for understanding the production and quality of some African foods and beverages..." Learn how and why. - By R. N. Okagbue - http://www.africahistory.net/okagbue.htm

Moja - Newspaper and Information Source for East Africa __ Newspaper and information source for East Africa. There is also a Swahili/English dictionary link. - http://www.moja.com/

Myths and Legends of the Bantu Index __ A full online book about myths and legends of the Bantu. You will find a considerable amount of detailed and well presented information. - By Alice Werner - http://www.sacred-texts.com/afr/mlb/index.htm

Peoples and Cultures of Africa __ Here you can access material for the study of the Mande, Yoruba and the Cameroon - From Franklin & Marshall College - http://www.fandm.edu/departments/Anthropology/Bastian/ANT269/home.html

Perspectives on the State: From Political History to Ethnography in Cameroon __ A very wide ranging series of essays. A treasure of information. - From University of Kent - http://lucy.ukc.ac.uk/Chilver/Paideuma/index.html

Sacred Texts: African Religion __ An excellent source of information covering South Africa, the Bantu, West and Central Africa and the Carribean. - From sacred-texts.com - http://www.sacred-texts.com/afr/index.htm

The Swahili Coast __ "...an 1,800-mile stretch of Kenyan and Tanzanian coastline, has been the site of cultural and commercial exchanges between East Africa and the outside world - particularly the Middle East, Asia, and Europe - since at least the 2nd century A.D." This website covers history, culture, indigenous peoples and a lot more. - illustrated - From Wonders of the African World/PBS - http://www.pbs.org/wonders/fr_e2.htm

WashingtonPost.com: African Lives __ About the cultural aspects of many regions in Africa. You will find yourself immersed in African life, participate in its joys and sadnesses and from birth to death. - photos - From Washington Post - http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/inatl/longterm/africanlives/

West African Cosmogony - Origin Myths of Mande, Yoruba, and Cameroon __ "The creation myths of Africans are as varied as the many cultures which inhabit the continent. Cosmogony mythologies play an important role in West African societies; they set up the framework of the social, political, and even economic structure of society." - From Franklin & Marshall College - http://www.fandm.edu/departments/Anthropology/Bastian/ANT269/cosmo.html

The World of the Yoruba __ "Yoruba is the second largest language group in Africa, consisting of over 20 million people. The term "Yoruba" encompasses about twenty-five separate groups, each one culturally different from the next. Islam, Christianity, and the "traditional" Yoruba pantheon, the orisa, are all embraced in Yorubaland. The bond shared by all Yoruba peoples is the centrality of ritual to special occasions, as well as to everyday life." You can learn about that world in this fairly ranging website. - From Franklin and Marshall College - http://www.fandm.edu/departments/Anthropology/Bastian/ANT269/yoru.html 

Zbigniew Kosc: Ababda Bedouins of the Eastern Desert __ "The home of the Ababda is the vast expanse of the Eastern Desert between the Red Sea and the Nile Valley, a region covering the land from Kosseir in the north down to the southern borders of Egypt. From time immemorial the Ababda have been nomads, wandering through the desert with their flocks of sheep and goats. They were always on the move, looking for water and food for their animals." You will find a beautiful photo essay. - illustrated - By Zbigniew Kosc - http://puck.wolmail.nl/%7Ekosc/Ababda%20folder/ababda.html
 

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