Audio-Visual Material in the African Studies Library

The Library's holdings of audio and visual material can be found using the iDiscover catalogue, or by browsing the cases that are on display by the issue desk:

• Programmes relating to Africa shown on British domestic television since the beginning of 1994 to the present (these were first recorded on videotape, and later directly to DVD -  any remaining programmes on video are gradually being transferred to DVD).

• Truth Commission Special Reports broadcast on South African television from 1996 to 1998.

• A small number of feature films and various commercial DVDs, including those recommended for the MPhil in African Studies.

• The Library also has a small number of CD-ROMs and some audio CDs.  These can either be used in the Library or borrowed on 7 day loan (or longer, if the CD accompanies a book).

Box of Broadcasts (BoB)

Powered by Learning on Screen, BoB is an on demand broadcast recording service and digital archive, offering access to over 75 off air television and radio channels including BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Channel 5, Arte, Al Jazeera, Sky Arts and CNN among others. All the programmes can be recorded by users up to 30 days after broadcast. As a digital archive, BoB consists of over 3 million fiction and non-fiction broadcasts going back to the 1950s. You can create playlists and make clips to enhance your teaching, research and learning.

Login to BoB straight away using your Raven password or watch these 'How to Use BoB' short videos to help you get started.

Any questions? Contact the BoB team: bob@learningonscreen.ac.uk

Audio-Visual Resources and Archives

• Access the British Library's list of visual collections on Africa 

• Africa in the Photobook - Africa in the Photobook is a website initiated in 2015 by photographer and (photo)historian Ben Krewinkel. The website is about the changing visual representation of Africa as expressed through the medium of the photobook. 

• Africa Through A Lens (National Archives UK) - "Explore incredible photographs spanning over 100 years of African history, from the 1860s onwards, taken from the Foreign & Commonwealth Office photographic collection (CO 1069) 

• African Film Database - "The African Film Database is a collaborative digital project that seeks to create a catalog of films from and about the continent of Africa."

• African Writers' Club  (Raven login) - "The African Writers Club collection comprises over 250 hours of radio programmes recorded in the 1960s at the Transcription Centre, London, under its Director Dennis Duerden. The tapes were distributed for broadcast by radio stations in Africa and elsewhere..."  Interviews include : Chinua Achebe, Wole Soyinka, Ama Ata Aidoo & many more.

• Archive of Malian Photography - Circa 100,000 photographic negatives from the archives of Mamadou Cissé, Adama Kouyaté, Abdourahmane Sakaly, Malick Sidibé, and Tijani Sitou for long-term preservation and access.  Spanning the 1940s-90s, this collection reveals changes and continuities in political and cultural practices, social trends, and photographic production in Mali during the twentieth century.  

• ArtMattan Films (Rentals and Purchasing) - Distribute films that focus on the human experience of people of color all over the world with a special focus on Africa, the Caribbean, North and South America and Europe.

• The British Film Institute (BFI)'s Archive - houses many films about Black-Britons you can access free

• Consult the British Library's audio collections on Africa

• Filmed Interviews with Leading Thinkers - compiled by Alan Macfarlane, Department of Social Anthropology (Cambridge) - this archive includes interviews with researchers such as: Ray Abrahams; Jean & John Comaroff; Meyer Fortes; Clifford Geertz; Jack Goody; and the founder of African Studies at Cambridge, Audrey Richards.  Originally focusing on Social Anthropologists, the collection now houses over 240 interviews with leading thinkers across the disciplines.

• G I Jones Photographic Archive Southeastern Nigerian Art & Culture -   The photographs in this archive were taken in the 1930s by the late G. I. Jones. 

• ICRC Audiovisual Archives - "The ICRC’s collections of sound recordings, film footage, videos and photos illustrate and document the activities of the ICRC and of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement as a whole from the end of the 19th century up to the present day, in all operational contexts." Coverage includes response to: the Ebola crisis; decolonization wars; and current situations in Mozambique, South Sudan, and DRC.

• June Giavanni PanAfrican Cinema Archive holds more than 10,000 items, including 700 feature films.

• Norman Miller Archive - "a free-to-use collection of print materials from Eastern Africa, and film and photo materials from Afghanistan, Bolivia, China, Kenya, and Taiwan. Norman Miller (1933-) is one of the first American field workers who spent long periods of time in remote regions of Kenya and Tanzania, beginning in the British colonial era"

• Northcote Thomas Website project  - "On this site you will be able to explore part of the extraordinary collection of Northcote Whitridge Thomas (1868-1936) held at the Museum for Archaeology and Anthropology in Cambridge."

• Old and New in Shona Religion - "This multimedia website showcases the photography and work of Dr. M.L. Daneel, including his research among the Shona people of Southern Africa in the 1960s through the 1990s in Zimbabwe from the mid to late 20th century"

• Royal Commonwealth Society (part of the main University Library) - "a treasure-trove of information, pictorial and written, print and manuscript, on the Commonwealth and Britain's former colonial territories, comprising over 300,000 printed items, about 800 archival collections (including manuscript diaries, correspondence, pictures, cine films, scrapbooks and newspaper cuttings) and over 120,000 photographs."

• Royal Commonwealth Society digitised collections (hosted by Cambridge Digital Library) 

Television and Radio Index for Learning and Teaching (TRILT)

Powered by Learning on Screen, the Television and Radio Index for Learning and Teaching (TRILT) is the best source of UK television and radio broadcast data available on the web. Its many unique features include:

• Listings for more than 560 TV and radio channels with data from 1923 onwards
• Custom auto-alert emails for forthcoming programmes up to 10 days in advance
• Selected records are enhanced with extra information, including credits and keywords
• Highlights programmes for which a download or DVD copy may be requested from Learning on Screen by UK Education institutions holding an ERA licence
• More than a million records are added to TRILT every year

Login to TRILT straight away by choosing your institution and using your Raven password.

If you have any questions, please visit the TRILT contact page linked here.

UK-African Film Festivals

• Africa in Motion (AIM) Scotland African Film Festival - Africa in Motion (AiM) is an annual African film festival taking place in Scotland, consisting of film screenings and complementary events. 

• Film Africa (RAS) - "Film Africa is the Royal African Society’s annual festival celebrating the best African cinema from across the continent and diaspora."

Need help?

​The Cambridge Electronic Management Collection team has compiled a comprehensive LibGuide for Audio-visual resources available to members of the University.

Graphic novels

• Aya : love in Yop City / Marguerite Abouet, Clément Oubrerie ; translation by Helge Dascher.
• Send us your recommendations!

Comics, comic books, and magazines

Below are a few selected magazines with a focus on Africa:

• Omenana: "a tri-monthly magazine that publishes speculative fiction from Africa and the African diaspora. We focus on stories, art and essays that explore the rich cultural heritage of the continent and its people, while also embracing the fantastical and imaginative elements of science fiction, fantasy, and other genres."