African Music Archives
- URL:
- blogs.uni-mainz.de
- Primary subject:
- Africa
- Secondary subject(s):
- Recorded Music
- Description:
- Established in 1991 the African Music Archive contains a unique collection of modern African music on records of various formats (shellac and vinyl records, audio and video cassettes, CDs and DVDs). The archive currently holds around 15,000 sound recordings, some of which date back to the 1940s. The archive hosts music from almost all African countries and in particular Ethiopia, Ghana, Cameroon, Congo, Kenya, Nigeria and Tanzania are well represented. In addition, the collection contains more or less representative holdings from almost all countries of Africa, which is still being built up through regular acquisitions. Several thousand newspaper clippings are kept in the clipping collection, which is sorted by country, musical style and musician. The articles, reports, interviews, record reviews, etc. offer a large pool of background material that can be consulted on site. Beyond its academic work, the AMA sees itself as an institution that wants to make information on African music accessible to a broader public. The physical archive is located at the Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz in Germany.
- Online Access:
- Catalogue only
- Physical Location:
- Mainz, Germany
- Primary Language:
- EN
- Last Checked:
- October, 2023
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- "Last Checked" means the URL was verified but the summary might be outdated.
- "Physical Location" refers to a place where items available online may also be accessed in person, whether publicly or through appointment.
- "Online Access" refers to a level of remote accessibility of the resource:
- “Full” means that the resource puts no restrictions on access to its content whether via paywalls or other means. However, this does not imply that items can be downloaded or accessed in ways that may infringe copyright or intellectual property nor does it imply that all of the items in the archive, collection, or project are available to access whether due to ongoing preservation/digitalisation work or other reasons.
- “Partial” means that some of the items in the resource are not available online or only available as extracts, whether due to access requirements or something else.
- “Catalogue” means that a resource only makes something like a catalogue, guide, or finding aids available online. This can be indicated as:
- “Catalogue only”, generally for physical collections. Where possible, the location of the resource is noted.
- “Partial, Catalogue”, when some items are available online alongside a full catalogue.
- “Catalogue, Subscription / Purchase”, when full access to the items online is possible only via a paywall or direct purchase.
- “None” means the resource has no online services and must be visited in person or that it does not yet have anything available online. The inclusion of such resources is limited to things that feel highly relevant.
This system is far from perfect. It was born largely out of the needs of the project and has grown with it.