Online database contains reviews and annotations of over 900 materials on Africa. These critiques and descriptions were written by university professors, librarians, and teachers most of whom have lived in Africa and have graduate degrees in African Studies. Compiled and edited by Brenda Randolph for the Montgomery County Public Schools, Maryland. [posted: Mar 04, 2004]

By Christopher D. Roy, Professor of Art History at the University of Iowa. This extensive essay examines the history of the various peoples who live in present day Burkina Faso. Various crafting traditions are examined - furniture, pottery, jewelry, weaving - with particular attention to the masking traditions. There is also a cross-cultural comparative stylistic summary for the various peoples of the region - Mossi, Gurunsi, Bwa, Bobo, Marka-Dafing. Great ethnographic images. [posted: Mar 04, 2004]

Ousmane Sow is a Senegalese artist whose work has been well received and admired throughout the world. His web site provides an extensive overview of his life and works, with many photographs, video clips, interviews and writings. And also his children's drawings... [posted: Mar 04, 2004]

Compiled by Janet Stanley, National Museum of African Art Library, Smithsonian Institution Libraries. The reading list gives extensive annotations of each entry, and is being updated continually. [posted: Mar 04, 2004]

"This online collection contains digitized visual images and sounds of Africa contributed over the years to the African Studies Program of the University of Wisconsin-Madison." The searchable database contains more than 3000 slides, 500 photographs, and 50 hours of sound from 45 different countries. [posted: Mar 04, 2004]

African Ceremonies is the website of photographers Carol Beckwith and Angela Fisher who have published seventeen widely acclaimed books and made five films covering disappearing rituals and ceremonies from all over the African continent. The website has some of their amazing photographs and videos of the African ceremonies they documented. [posted: Mar 04, 2004]

There are roughly 1500 photographs on this site, as of this writing, mostly of the Dogon and Lobi areas (but not only). The photographs are gorgeous, and the site is well organized so that you can browse the images by topic of interest and by location. [posted: Mar 04, 2004]

University of Southern California Digital Library, includes a large collection of historical photographs from missionary groups, "taken on the boundary between European and African and Asian cultures between 1850 and 1950. The photographs you can find here were mostly taken by missionaries... Judging by their photographs many of these men and women were fascinated by the unknown world around them which they were gradually learning to understand, and had great respect for the people with whom they lived and worked." In Africa, the Basel Mission had a presence in Ghana and in Cameroon. [the photo at left shows three Ghanaian women spinning cotton, and was taken in the 1860s!] [posted: Mar 04, 2004]

African Fabric Shop specializes in genuine African fabrics - wax prints, batiks, Indigo, wax resist, tie dye and more. The website is also very informative. "Magie Relph and Bob Irwin have travelled the length and breadth of Africa for over 30 years, researching, buying and documenting African textiles, fabrics and beads. In addition to our acclaimed book African Wax Print: A Textile Journey, we continue to write informative and entertaining articles for numerous magazines. They document our adventures and record the textile traditions we've learned about from artisans and traders all over Africa." [posted: Mar 04, 2004]

"Adire African Textiles is a London based gallery dedicated to exploring the vintage textile traditions of sub-Saharan Africa. We work with a network of partners throughout West Africa to source exceptional museum quality textiles for clients worldwide that include leading museums, private collectors, and interior designers." See also the site's pages on African textile traditions and techniques. [posted: Mar 04, 2004]