Digitising, disseminating and showcasing African cultural materials.
Organisations
Collections
Documents
Africa Commons is a digital platform that aims to enable Africa to control, digitise, and disseminate its archival riches—those within the continent and items residing internationally.
Global Partnership
The South African Magazines and West African Magazines have been developed in collaboration with our US-based editorial partner, Coherent Digital, a leading publisher specialising in surfacing endangered and hard-to-find content from the Global South and making it widely accessible.
The collections have been, where possible, sourced from African libraries. The magazines exist in just a few physical locations, some have not been digitised before, and have rarely been seen outside Africa.
Integrated on a single platform, Africa Commons currently comprises:
Africa Commons: South African Magazines
50, 000 pages of historically significant magazines, written for African audiences.
This groundbreaking, digitised collection of rare, historical, and out-of-copyright magazines from 1937–1973 comprises 50, 000 pages of historically significant magazines, written for African audiences.
- Drum Magazine 1951-1973
- The Township Housewife
- Grace Magazine
- Hi-Note!
- Contrast
- And more being added.
At the heart of this compilation stands the iconic, Drum Magazine:
- Once the most widely read magazine in Africa
- Drum reflected the heartbeat of our society
- Over 300 issues, spanning 1951-1973
Explore the collection
Africa Commons: West African Magazines
Showcasing rare, historically significant magazines from West Africa.
The only collection of rare, historically significant magazines from West Africa.
- Nigeria Magazine (1937 – 1985)
- Okyeame (1960 – 1972)
- La Vie Africaine (1959 – 1965)
- Black orpheus (1957 – 1967)
This is the only collection of rare, historically significant magazines from West Africa. It includes up to 50,000 pages of historically significant popular magazines and literary journals from West Africa spanning the decades from the 1930s to today. The collection promises unparalleled insights into Africa’s literary, artistic, and cultural identity during this time.
Africa Commons: Southern African Films and Documentaries
Streaming access to more than a century of African history, politics, and culture.
With content spanning the 1900s to the early 2000s, this collection features:
- Over 100 films and documentaries dating from the 1900s to the early 2000s
- Films and newsreels covering key events from 1919 onwards
- Exclusive interviews from the 1980s
- Writers, journalists, and activists discussing first-hand accounts of key events
All films are transcribed and keyword searchable.
The content supports teaching and research in:
- Film & cinema
- History & world culture
- Race & ethnicity
- Women’s studies
- And other areas.
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African Academic institutions that subscribe to either the South African Magazines, West African Magazines or Southern African Films and Documentaries will receive free access to the East African Newspapers, Magazines & Films and the History and Culture Modules.
Africa Commons: History and Culture
Showcasing rare and endangered African cultural materials.
The most comprehensive place for searching and collecting African historical and cultural materials. The collection features:
- Central access point to over 609 000 digital cultural artefacts
- Curated from more than 4 500 collections worldwide
- 600 contributing organisations
- Books, newspapers, government documents, letters, diaries, posters, and manuscripts
- Oral history, photographs, art, music, and videos
- Simple, powerful search
Users can find thousands of digital collections of African materials in one place. Organisations located in Africa can upload their relevant content for free to the platform to make it more discoverable.
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Africa Commons: East African Newspapers, Magazines & Films
Showcasing the work of this iconic Kenyan journalist, publisher, and social commentator.
The Archive provides access to over 100,000 pages of digitised publications from Ng’weno’s media company, including:
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- The Weekly Review (1975-1999)
- The Nairobi Times (1977-1983)
- Rainbow children’s magazines (1976-1995)
- The Kenyan Heritage Series films
Users can explore Kenyan history and culture in one place.
Explore the collection
This service adds value to:
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Academic researchers and students
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Independent researchers
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Corporate researchers
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Public library patrons
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Government departments/researchers
Africa Commons is the answer to exploring African intellectual identity through literature, art, culture and commentary.
Sabinet and Coherent Digital share a common goal of preserving African content and facilitating its accessibility to researchers in South Africa and Africa, making us ideal partners.
Resource centre:
Download brochures relating to all our legal, news and research content.