They are all here – from Thomas Mapfumo, the Lion of Zimbabwe, to Miriam Makeba, also known as Mama Africa. The large showcase filled with records by African musicians gives an impression of the many different musical performers in this growing collection. The Institute of Ethnology and African Studies at the University of Mainz is home to the African Music Archive, a unique collection of modern African music in Germany. The recordings include shellac and vinyl records, audio and video cassettes, CDs and DVDs. In the rooms of the institute’s basement archive there are around 10,000 sound carriers, some of which date back to the 1940s. The archive has existed since 1991. It was founded and built up by Wolfgang Bender, a lecturer at the Institute of Ethnology and African Studies and a great fan of African music. He cultivated contacts with Africa, accepted music donations or made purchases to keep the archive growing. Today the archive embraces a broad range, such as Swahili records from Kenya and Tanzania or the digitalized radio archive from Sierra Leone. Other main regions in the collection include Ethiopia, Ghana, Cameroon, Congo (formerly Zaire) and Nigeria.
The new director of the archive is Dr. Hauke Dorsch. He resides on the floor above the AMA and assumed responsibility for the musical treasure trove in March 2010. The ethnologist has carried out a great deal of work on music and migration with a special focus on Africa. Lying on his desk is Dakar-Kingston, the latest CD by the Senegalese music star Youssou N’Dour. But Dorsch’s initial fascination with African music was inspired by an African musical instrument: the kora, a West African harp lute. During the conversation Dorsch talks about interesting new developments, such as kuduro, powerful electronic beat music from Angola, and the first seminar to be held together with musicologists in the coming semester on Western music in Africa and African music in the West.
As head of the AMA, which also contains film and exhibition posters, he wants to document and expand the collection and make it accessible to a broader spectrum of academic and non-academic users. Dorsch says he can well imagine new, fruitful collaboration with archives in Africa. And he adds that maybe, whilst ordering the collection, one or two musical rarities will be discovered which could then be made available to a new fan base with the help of a willing record company.////
