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About

Founded in 1954 by Hugh Tracey, ILAM is one of the world’s great repositories of African music. A research institution devoted to the study of music and oral arts in Africa, it preserves thousands of historical recordings going back to 1929 and supports contemporary fieldwork. The majority of its collections are digitised and accessible on its website www.ru.ac.za/ilam. Its journal, African Music, is into its seventh decade.

ILAM aims to preserve, record, analyse, archive, teach, publish and promote the music of sub-Saharan Africa, with the object of establishing a theory of music making in Africa and assessing the social, cultural, and artistic values of African music. ILAM collaborates with the Music Department at Rhodes University and coordinates its Ethnomusicology Programme which offers undergraduate and post-graduate degrees in Ethnomusicology. The courses include training in the performance of African music.

History

Last Modified: Thu, 07 Mar 2024 16:26:43 SAST