Arts and (re)Creation from Africas to the World

Here are some French digitized archives of sounds and traditional music from Africa.

• Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France: nearly 800 digitized African sound recordings, searching for “traditions” among digitized sounds in the general catalogue.
  See also: sound recording geographical selections by Gallica: French Equatorial Africa (AEF), French West Africa (AOF), Togo/Cameroon/Mozambique/French Somaliland.

  Example: Lem’Boumga (https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k128471w), dance invitation song, by ladies Maboumana and Badolo, in Moyen-Congo [Congo-Brazzaville], year 1931. Vocal, with sanza accompaniment. Bibliothèque nationale de France, département Audiovisuel, AP-2611. Gallica.
  

  

  
  These sounds were mostly registered by Musée de la parole et du geste (Museum of speech and gesture) for the 1931 Paris Colonial Exposition.
  Sound recordings for Exposition coloniale (Africa, Asia and New Caledonia), selection by Gallica: https://gallica.bnf.fr/html/und/enregistrements-sonores/exposition-coloniale-internationale-de-paris-1931.

  Other sound recordings by Musée de la Parole et du Geste : https://gallica.bnf.fr/html/und/enregistrements-sonores/archives-de-la-parole-musee-de-la-parole-et-du-geste-hubert-pernot-1924-1930

  The great thing about the Musée de la parole et du geste archive is that it is not just sound, but also documents and photos. And they are IIIF (pronounced triple-eye-eff) images, that you can crop and resize (without downloading), to discover details and show it in your personal way. For example: https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k1284864. Right-click in the section “ADDITIONAL FILE(S)” on the image that you like. Copy its address, clean its end to let only “f” followed by a number, and insert iiif/ before ark. Example: https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k1284864/f7.thumbnail  becomes https://gallica.bnf.fr/iiif/ark:/12148/bpt6k1284864/f7
  THIS is the magic URL that you can then paste at the end of this URL, in the browser address bar: https://jbhoward-dublin.github.io/IIIF-imageManipulation/index.html?imageID=

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• Nanterre, Centre de recherche en ethnomusicologie: nearly 30,000 digitized music recordings: https://archives.crem-cnrs.fr/search/advance/?&media_type=1&viewable=2&item_status=1
  • Afrique du Sud – South Africa, Algérie – Algeria, Angola
  • Bénin – Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi
  • Cameroun – Cameroon, Cap-Vert – Cape Verde, Centrafrique – Central African Republic, Comores – Comoros, Congo [Kinshasa] – République démocratique du Congo – Democratic Republic of the Congo, Congo [Brazzaville] – République du Congo – Republic of the Congo, Côte d’Ivoire – Ivory Coast
  • Égypte – Egypt, Érythrée – Eritrea, Éthiopie – Ethiopia
  • Gabon, Gambie – The Gambia, Ghana, Guinée – Guinea
  • Kenya
  • Lesotho, Libéria – Liberia, Libye – Libya
  • Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Maroc – Morocco, Maurice – Mauritius, Mauritanie – Mauritania, Mayotte, Mozambique
  • Namibie – Namibia, Niger, Nigéria – Nigeria
  • Ouganda – Uganda
  • Réunion, Rwanda
  • Sao Tomé-et-Principe – São Tomé and Príncipe, Sénégal – Senegal, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Somalie – Somalia, Soudan – Sudan, Swaziland / Eswatini
  • Tanzanie – Tanzania, Tchad – Chad, Togo, Tunisie – Tunisia
  • Zambie – Zambia, Zimbabwe

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• Montreuil (Seine-Saint-Denis), MusicRepublic – World Traditional Music from LPs and Cassettes (nonprofit organization): https://music-republic-world-traditional.blogspot.com. Also on SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/user-782178392
  • Afrique du Sud – South Africa, Algérie – Algeria, Angola
  • Bénin – Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso
  • Cameroun – Cameroon, Centrafrique – Central African Republic, Congo [Kinshasa] – République démocratique du Congo – Democratic Republic of the Congo, Congo [Brazzaville] – République du Congo – Republic of the Congo, Côte d’Ivoire – Ivory Coast
  • Égypte – Egypt, Érythrée – Eritrea, Éthiopie – Ethiopia
  • Gabon, Gambie – The Gambia, Ghana, Guinée – Guinea
  • Kenya
  • Lesotho, Libéria – Liberia, Libye – Libya
  • Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Maroc – Morocco, Mauritanie – Mauritania, Mozambique
  • Namibie – Namibia, Niger, Nigéria – Nigeria
  • Ouganda – Uganda
  • Rwanda
  • Sénégal – Senegal, Sierra Leone, Soudan – Sudan
  • Tanzanie – Tanzania, Tchad – Chad, Togo, Tunisie – Tunisia
  • Zambie – Zambia, Zimbabwe

Virtual exhibition by Europeana about a music collecting mission in Africa: Sur les Traces de la Mission Ogooué-Congo (On the Tracks of the Ogooué-Congo Mission): https://www.europeana.eu/fr/exhibitions/1946-ogooue-congo-mission