Search Terms
In addition to countries, use the following geographic terms to add to your searches to find popular culture materials on Africa (e.g. Popular culture -- Africa, west).
- Africa, East
- Africa, West
- Africa, North
- Africa, Southern
- Africa, Central
- Africa, Sub-Saharan
General Resources
Web Resources:
- Africa.comEnglish-language news and culture site covering the continent.
Journals:
- Journal of African Cultural StudiesFocuses on dimensions of African culture including African literatures both oral and written, performance arts, visual arts, music, cinema, the role of the media, the relationship between culture and power, as well as issues within such fields as popular culture in Africa, sociolinguistic topics of cultural interest, and culture and gender. --Publisher
- African Studies ReviewAfrican Studies Review, a multi-disciplinary scholarly journal published by the African Studies Association, contains articles based on original research and analysis of Africa as well as book reviews three times annually. -- Project MUSE
Books:
Readings in African Popular Culture by
This book surveys the popular culture of contemporary Africa, including popular literature, oral narrative and poetry, dance, drama, music, and visual art, with special emphasis on the verbal arts. The essays cover six main areas: views of the field; oral tradition revisited; social history, social criticism and interpretation; women in popular culture; "little genres of everyday life"; the local and the global.
ISBN: 0253211409Publication Date: 1997-09-22
Writing African Women by
Writing African Women brings together a wide variety of African scholars to explore the links between literature, popular culture, and theories of gender. Beginning with a ground-breaking overview of African gender theory, this volume goes on to analyze specific works, uncovering the ways different women writers have approached issues of female creativity and colonial history, as well as the ways in which they have subverted popular stereotypes around African women.
ISBN: 9781786990693Publication Date: 2017-06-15
Africans and the Politics of Popular Culture by
Going beyond merely challenging popular stereotypes and representations of Africans and African-related practices in various outlets, the book reveals how popular cultural practices are instruments that have been manipulated for personal and collective survival.
ISBN: 9781580463317Publication Date: 2009-12-01
Preview: This is Nollywood
Watch the entire film on Kanopy.
"First came Hollywood, then Bollywood, and now Nollywood -- Nigeria's booming film industry, which released two thousand features in 2006 alone. Where else can you shoot a full-length dramatic film for $10,000 in 7 days? Until recently, it was rarely known outside its own country. THIS IS NOLLYWOOD explains why Nigerian video production is becoming recognized as a phenomenon with broad implications for the cultural and economic development of Africa. The most intimate and accurate portrait of the technical, economic and social infrastructure of the industry."
African Film Library and Web Resources
- African Films DatabaseAfrican Films housed in the Undergraduate Media Collection at the University of Illinois Library.
- About the African Films Database"The UIUC Africana Film Database currently contains records for about 780 DVDs, VHS, and 16 mm films about and from Africa, from north to south and east to west. Each record includes a short description of the content and languages used in the film. The database provides access to one of the best such collections in the United States."
- South African Film and Video Project"The South Africa Film and Video Project (SAFVP) assists in preserving and making accessible moving images from the years of struggle against apartheid."
- French and Francophone FilmCheck out this page of the French and Francophone Studies LibGuide for resources on Francophone African film.
Books:
Blacks in Film and Television by ISBN: 031327486XPublication Date: 1990-09-11This is a comprehensive guide to the black experience both on film and behind the camera. More than 6,000 entries documenting global film activity from 1919 to 1990 offer historical perspective on the black image in film, bibliographical material on filmmakers and individual artists, and exciting information on newly emerging talent throughout the world.
Curating Africa in the Age of Film Festivals by ISBN: 1137404132Publication Date: 2015-03-10Tracing the history of Africa's relationship to film festivals and exploring the festivals' impact on the various types of people who attend festivals (the festival experts, the ordinary festival audiences, and the filmmakers), Dovey reveals what turns something called a "festival" into a "festival experience" for these groups.
Gaze regimes: film and feminism in Africa by ISBN: 9781868148592Publication Date: 2015Who is looking and who is being looked at, who is telling women's stories in Africa and what governs the mechanics of making those films on the continent? The interviews with Tsitsi Dangarembga, Taghreed Elsanhouri, Jihan El-Tahri, Anita Khanna, Djo Tunda wa Munga, Rumbi Katedza, Katarina Hedren, Isabel Noronhe, Arya Lalloo and Shannon Walsh demonstrate the contradictory points of departure of women in film - from their understanding of feminisms in relation to lived-experiences and the realpolitik of women working as cultural practitioners.
Contemporary Cinema of Africa and the Diaspora by ISBN: 9781405193047Publication Date: 2014-06-23Analyzing art house films from the African continent and the African diaspora, this book showcases a new generation of auteurs with African origins from political, aesthetic, and spectatorship perspectives.
Watch Online:
- TV5Monde (in French)Streaming series, films, and animation from all over the continent.
Library Resources:
Re-Visioning Television by ISBN: 0796921601Publication Date: 2007-04-01This research monograph, compiled by South African experts in community broadcasting with the assistance of key figures in the sector, traces the two-decade campaign for local-level television in South Africa. An informative chronicle that explores the introduction of a quality, accessible, local television-network that represents the final piece in post-apartheid's media jigsaw puzzle.
Broadcasting the End of Apartheid by ISBN: 9781780768625Publication Date: 2014-10-02Broadcasting the End of Apartheid assesses the socio-political effect of live broadcasting on South Africa's transition to democracy. MJ Evans argues that just as print media had a powerful influence on the development of Afrikaner nationalism, so the 'liveness' of television helped to consolidate the 'newness' of the post-apartheid South African national identity.
While the library's holdings don't currently include very many African comics, you can get started on research and discover African comics online with the resources below.
- Africa Comics
Africa Comics is a digitized collection of comics from all over the continent. Do a keyword search, or scroll down to browse by topic or country. - Africa Rising: Keep Your Eye on These African ComicsThe first article in a series on African comics highlights titles, artists, and comic book publishers from Nigeria, Kenya, Ghana, South Africa and Cote d'Ivoire, including links to read content online.
Books:
Comic Art in Africa, Asia, Australia, and Latin America Through 2000 by Call Number: Q. 016.741509 L549cISBN: 0313312109Publication Date: 2004-08-30This work is the most comprehensive bibliography of the comic art of these regions and all its dimensions. It contains 10,200 easy to use citations, organized by region, country, and identifying characteristics. This volume brings together both mainstream and fugitive materials relating to animation, caricature, comic books, political cartoons, and other types of animation. This exhaustive bibliography contains special sections on continental and inter-country perspectives as well as a directory of comic related periodicals of the different regions. Featured among the 87 countries is Japan, whose manga and anime have an impact on how comics and animation are perceived and produced worldwide. This comprehensive and thoroughly researched bibliography will greatly advance the study of international comic art.
Bitterkomix: A South African Comic as an Indigenous Ethnography by ISBN: 0820499048Publication Date: 2007-02-01By means of a south African comic - Bitterkomix - this study deals with two current debates un cultural Anthropology: Visual Culture and Indigenous Ethnography. Bitterkomix is a comic anthology which criticizes and subverts the Afrikaans culture from within. The main contributors - Afrikaner themselves - do so mostly in the field of sexuality, racism, religious and cultural bigotry and the use of Afrikaans as the ideological and psychological connection of the Boers.
Library and Web Resources:
- French and Francophone ComicsThis page from the French and Francophone Studies LibGuide has useful information for anyone interested in comics from Francophone Africa.
- Digitized South African Comics (UCLA)A digitized collection of pro-apartheid comics published on behalf of the South African government from 1975-1977.
Get started with Fonko, a 6-part documentary series highlighting popular music from across the continent. Check out the preview below, and click an the link to access the DVDs in the library catalog.
- FonkoCall Number: DVD ML350.6 .F665 2017Publication Date: 2017"In the Manding language Fonko means "the thing", in Wolof "to take care of each other". The great musical revolution of today takes place in Africa, where urban club music is merging with traditional styles. New technology and swift communications has released super talents of the continent, spreading music, arts and ideas to the rest of the world. In Fonko we meet some of the most outspoken, creative and interesting artists of today that redefines the image of Africa, traveling from Dakar in the west through Accra, Lagos and Luanda to Johannesburg in the south. Throughout the movie we also hear the voice of Fela Kuti, one of the continent's greatest musical icons and political activists. Fela speaks through early recorded interviews"--IMDb.
African Music Research Resources:
Suggested Books:
Cultural Globalization and Music by Call Number: ML3917.A4 K59C8 2011ISBN: 9780230221291Publication Date: 2011-04-05This book is about South-North, North-South relations between Africa and Europe, presenting the personal narratives of musicians in different locations across Africa and Europe, and those of the people who constitute their networks within the wider artistic, cultural, and civil society milieus of globalizing societies.
Hip Hop Africa by Call Number: Main: 782.421649 H61122ISBN: 0253005752Publication Date: 2012This book explores the growing influence of hip-hop culture in Africa. The author also looks at how youth are exposed to other genres of music important to the development of hip-hop within Africa.
East African Hip Hop by ISBN: 0252034570Publication Date: 2009-09-08Mwenda Ntarangwi analyzes how young hip hop artists in the East African nations of Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania showcase the opportunities and challenges brought by the globalization of music. Combining local popular music traditions with American and Jamaican styles of rap, East African hip hop culture reflects the difficulty of creating commercially accessible music while honoring tradition and East African culture.
- Special issue of Ghana Studies on popular musicLink opens to Project Muse (requires login).
Library and Web Resources:
- Rap and Hip Hop Research Resources: African Hip HopLink to the page on African Hip Hop in the Music and Performing Arts Library's research guide to rap and hip hop.
- African Hip HopIn-depth blog posts with videos and news from diverse artists around Africa.
African athletes may be best known in the U.S. for their dominance soccer and track and field, but a wide variety of sports are popular across the continent, from cricket to motor rallies. Africa.com gives an overview of the 8 most popular sports on the continent.
Learn more:
Gender, Sport and Development in Africa by ISBN: 9782869783065Publication Date: 2006-07-14From colonial times, sport has been viewed as a means of social control. Increasingly, it is being touted by governments and donor agencies as a self-evident tool of Africa's development. How accurate are these individual, romantic and moral notions of sport? In this volume, eleven African scholars offer insightful analyses of the complex ideological and structural dimensions of modern sport as a cultural institution.
Identity and Nation in African Football by ISBN: 9781137355805Publication Date: 2014-04-08The 2010 South African World Cup launched African football onto the global stage. This volume brings together top scholars on African football to explore a range of issues such as gender, identity, nationalism, history, cyber-fandom, the media and fan radicalization.
Following the Ball by ISBN: 9780896803138Publication Date: 2017-10-16With Following the Ball, Todd Cleveland incorporates labor, sport, diasporic, and imperial history to examine the extraordinary experiences of African football players from Portugal's African colonies as they relocated to the metropole from 1949 until the conclusion of the colonial era in 1975.
Afrofuturism
The success of Black Panther in February 2018 had seemingly every media outlet in the U.S. talking about afrofuturism. The term was coined in 1993 by Mark Dery in an interview with Samuel Delaney to describe to literature, film, and other media that merge black cultural lenses with the tropes of science fiction and fantasy. Major authors include Samuel Delaney, Octavia Butler, N.K. Jemisin, and Nnedi Okorafor, as well as musicians like Janelle Monae.
Listen:
Bay Area hip hop group Clppng.'s concept Splendor and Misery is "an Afrofuturist, dystopian concept album that follows the sole survivor of a slave uprising on an interstellar cargo ship, and the onboard computer that falls in love with him. Thinking he is alone and lost in space, the character discovers music in the ship’s shuddering hull and chirping instrument panels." Listen below for free or purchase on Bandcamp.com
Learn more:
- Science Fiction: AfrofuturismSection on Afrofuturism in the Illinois Library Guide to Science Fiction. Includes recommended titles in the library and web resources.
- Encyclopedia of SF: AfrofuturismEntry on Afrofuturism in the Encyclopedia of Science Fiction. Includes citations and links to key articles and authors.
- 100 African Writers of SFFAn ongoing series highlighting African science fiction and fantasy authors, with each installment focusing on a different area.
- Africa Has Always Been Sci-FiThis 2016 article explores afrofuturism in literature, film, music, and art.
Afrofuturism by
2014 Locus Awards Finalist, Nonfiction Category In this hip, accessible primer to the music, literature, and art of Afrofuturism, author Ytasha Womack introduces readers to the burgeoning community of artists creating Afrofuturist works, the innovators from the past, and the wide range of subjects they explore.
ISBN: 9781613747964Publication Date: 2013-10-01
Afro-Future Females by
The first combined science fiction critical anthology and short story collection to focus upon black women via written and visual texts. The volume creates a dialogue with existing theories of Afro-Futurism in order to generate fresh ideas about how to apply race to science fiction studies in terms of gender.
ISBN: 9780814210789Publication Date: 2008-05-08
Afrofuturism 2. 0 by
The ideas and practices related to afrofuturism have existed for most of the 20th century, especially in the north American African diaspora community. Afrofuturism 2.0 expands and broadens the discussion around the concept to include religion, architecture, communications, visual art, philosophy and reflects its current growth as an emerging global Pan African creative phenomenon.
ISBN: 9781498510509Publication Date: 2015-12-16
