This guide presents a selection of resources that will help you find books, articles, recordings, and other materials focusing on African music.
Use the tabs to the left to learn more about finding specific types of materials in our collection. Read the box below for recommended background and reference material to help ground your research. Or, consider checking out the Music in Africa portal (linked below)!
Reference sources are a great place to start your research when you need to gather initial information about a topic or get a rough overview of a subject so you can decide what areas to research further. Reference books and online tools are also excellent for looking up a quick fact, definition, or date, and they will often direct you to more sources.
If none of the recommended resources are quite what you're looking for, try a search in the library catalog for the subject you're researching and "reference", "handbook", "guide", or "companion" to see what reference materials we might have on the subject. Remember that you can always reach out to a librarian for help if your search doesn't turn up promising results!
Below is a list of recommended resources, both in print and online.
The Garland Encyclopedia of World Music by 
The Garland Handbook of African Music by 
Continuum Encyclopedia of Popular Music of the World by 
Music of Sub-Saharan Africa: an international bibliography and resource guide by 
African Music: a pan-African annotated bibliography by 
The Da Capo Guide to Contemporary African Music by 
