Coherent Digital today announced the upcoming launch of West African Magazines, a unique collection of over 50,000 pages of historically significant popular magazines and literary journals from West Africa, available digitally for the first time. Spanning the decades from the 1930s to today, the collection promises unparalleled insights into Africa's literary, artistic, and cultural identity during both the precolonial and postcolonial periods. Most of the magazines are available exclusively in this resource, and access in digital format will bring important African voices to complement and diversify existing Western corpora.

Featured titles include Black Orpheus, Bingo, Farfina, Nigeria, and Okyeame. These and other publications showcased literature, art, architecture, politics, and fashion, playing a crucial role in shaping African intellectual thought and identity. Many are rare and have been inaccessible outside Africa until now. The pages feature iconic writers such as Chinua Achebe, Wole Soyinka, and Ama Ata Aidoo, whose contributions have been pivotal in shaping African literature and thought. The collection has global relevance, offering perspectives across a broad range of disciplines including African and African American studies, literature, history, and political science. Western African Magazines will allow scholars to explore African societies, intellectual movements, and the interaction between African and Western influences. About 80 percent of the materials are in English, with 20 percent in French.

Coherent has developed the project in partnership with the African-based publisher Sabinet, sharing a mission to preserve and amplify African voices. Materials have been sourced directly from African libraries and digitized on the continent.

"For the first time, researchers globally will have digital access to rare and significant materials that have shaped African history and artistic expression. This collection not only safeguards Africa's cultural heritage but also highlights ideas that have been underrepresented in global scholarship," said Elizabeth Robey, editor at Coherent Digital.

The database, the fifth to launch on the Africa Commons platform, will be available in late November, 2024.

About Coherent Digital

Coherent Digital LLC is a publisher that uses a combination of editorial and automated techniques to discover, curate, and enrich grey literature. The company has indexed and preserved more than 12 million items of quality content, much of which is unavailable elsewhere.