Pattern-sheet for manuscript illumination

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This pattern-sheet, drawn on paper, is a sort of sampler of designs for use in manuscript illumination. It ...

Ifá divination board

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Ifá divination is a Yoruba religious practice with its centre in south-western Nigeria. The word ...

Qur’an boards in Timbuktu, Mali

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This is one of a series of photographs taken in 2007 in Timbuktu, Mali, where an ancient manuscript culture has ...

Edward Blyden, Christianity, Islam and the Negro r...

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This is one of the major works of Edward Wilmot Blyden (1832–1912), a pioneer of Pan-Africanist ideas ...

Thoughts and sentiments on the evil and wicked tra...

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This is the first British publication in which an African writer argues for an end to the slave trade and ...

Sawyerr's bookselling, printing, and stationery tr...

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This newspaper was published by TJ Sawyerr, who from the 1880s ran the only African-owned bookshop in British ...

Mission from Cape Coast Castle to Ashantee

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Account by Thomas Edward Bowdich (c. 1791–1824) of the Asante kingdom (modern Ghana), which he visited in ...

Phillis Wheatley’s poems

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Phillis Wheatley was a literary prodigy who, in 1773, aged about 19, visited London to promote her poetry ...

Letter by Ignatius Sancho

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Ignatius Sancho (c. 1729–80) was born on a slave ship. As a child, he was 'owned' by three sisters in ...

Recording atumpan drums

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This picture shows Kofi Jatto performing phrases of text on the Asante atumpan drums in Ghana in 1921. It was ...

Map of West Africa

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A map depicting West Africa in 2015. 

Album cover for Fela Kuti’s ‘Sorrow, Tears & Blood...

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Lemi Ghariokwu is a Nigerian artist and graphic designer renowned for creating the album sleeve art for most of Fela ...

Selections from Wole Soyinka’s annotated typescrip...

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These are selected pages of a typescript of Wole Soyinka’s long poem 'Idanre' (folios 2, 8, 10 and 14). ...

Fela Kuti

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Fela Anikulapo Kuti used music to express his political ideas and creativity. This photo, by Bernard ...

Und Afrika sprach

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Und Afrika sprach (The voice of Africa) is a four-volume account of an expedition to Nigeria made in ...