Blog Posts by Subject: Africa

In honor of National Poetry Month, and what would have been her 89th birthday, we celebrate the life and work of, Dr. Maya Angelou, with this Research Guide. Here, you will find an overview of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture’s holdings related to the work and life of this notable poet, writer, journalist, actress, and dancer.

In honor of International Women's Day, we honor former Schomburg Center Photographs and Prints Division curator, Dr. Deborah Willis. In this interview, Dr. Willis discusses the BLACK PORTRAITURE[S] III: Reinventions: Strains of Histories and Cultures conference, her photography work, and her pioneering work at The Schomburg Center.

In this letter to friends, Ruby Dee and Ossie Davis, Julian Mayfield discusses his work on a play, world news in Ghana, and a discussion with Malcolm X.

Check out four of the top online exhibitions highlighting African Americans in honor of Black History Month.

The Jerome Robbins Dance Division is pleased to belatedly announce that the final seven interviews documented with the Mertz Gilmore Foundation grant to record African dancers and choreographers working and teaching in New York are now online

Oscar award winning rapper, and actor, Common, recites this heartfelt letter written by Nelson Mandela, to his sister-in-law, Niki Iris Xaba, about family, prison, and his love for then wife, Winnie Mandela.

New! This series of Schomburg Center Research Guides will provide you with resources related to various topics and subjects related to the Global Black Experience. This research guide will provide you with an overview of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture’s holdings related to Marcus Garvey and the Universal Negro Improvement Association.

Today’s letter features correspondence between Arturo Alfonso Schomburg and Langston Hughes. In the excerpt below, Schomburg speaks with Hughes regarding acquisitions for The Division of Negro Literature, History and Prints—the forerunner to today’s Schomburg Center.

The Schomburg Center's menu collection is now available in the NYPL's Digital Collections.

The Jerome Robbins Dance Division is pleased to announce that the five interviews documented with the Mertz Gilmore Foundation grant to record African choreographers and teachers are now online at The New York Public Library’s website.

In today's feature of the week, Mary Yearwood, our in-house Curator of the Photographs and Prints Division, discusses the brilliance of renowned shutterbug Richard Saunders, and how he inspired her contribution to the exhibition.

I learned of Nelson Mandela’s passing while waiting for my delayed flight at Atlanta Airport. I thought how much his painful and extraordinary life had exposed the terrible danger that faced those who fought for the rights, the dignity and the freedom of people of African origin or descent. That despairing reality was made all the more vivid because I was coming back to New York after several days spent with Kathleen Cleaver, immersed in documents and photographs from the Black Power 

Mandela, Un destin. Par Bernard Violet.Le héros sud-africain, Nelson Mandela est décédé le soir du 5 décembre 2013 à l'âge de 95 ans à son domicile de Johannesburg. Ses funérailles auront lieu le 15 décembre prochain à Qunu, son village natal.

Voici quelques articles d'actualité sur le sujet disponibles en ligne:   Mort de Nelson Mandela, l'Africain capital. Le Monde.  

"If we had said 'Negro power' nobody would get scared. Everybody would support it. If we said power for colored people, everybody would be for that, but it is the word 'black' that bothers people in this country, and that's their problem, not mine." —Stokely Carmichael (Kwame Ture) at UC Berkeley, 1966

Stokely Carmichael by Lynn B. PadweBlack Rio Scene by Almir VeigaJames Brown released "I'm Black and I'm Proud" during the height of the Black Power Movement in the United States in 1968. Brown's in-your-face approach to racial pride resonated 

Digital Schomburg's online exhibitions on various aspects of the black experience have truly become a global phenomenon. They are attracting visitors from all over the world. From Argentina to Zimbabwe and Montenegro and the Maldives in between. What do they know that perhaps you don't?

In Motion: The African-American Migration Experience remains the most visited curated exhibition of The New York Public Library. With a few clicks, visitors from 206 countries and territories, including Kazakhstan, Tonga, Suriname, Mongolia and Malawi, 

Last year, Victoria joined a basic reading and writing class at Tompkins Square Library's Center for Reading and Writing. She agreed to speak with me about her experience so far and what brought her here.

Where are you from?

I grew up in Kenya, in the Masailand, in a village with 10 huts.

What other languages do you speak besides English?

I speak the Masai language and Swahili, and other tribal languages: Kikuyu, Luo, and Kamba. I came to America in 1986. I speak English every day, but 

Few people in the West have heard international superstar Akon's new hit. But tens of millions throughout the rest of the world have been dancing to Chammak Challo for weeks. Why? Because the catchy tune is the musical centerpiece of the latest Bollywood sci-fi blockbuster Ra. One, whose (super) hero is no other than Shahrukh Khan, the most popular actor in the (rest of) the world. That Akon, a Senegalese,

ferdinandreus on flickrThe capture last week of Saif al-Islam Qaddafi who, disguised as a Tuareg, was trying to flee to Niger — where one of his brothers and some high-ranking officials have found refuge — has turned a spotlight on a country few people have heard of.

“Niger? You mean