ABSTRACT
The gallery, library, archive and museum industries in sub-Saharan Africa represent a developing sector of the cultural economy that is recognised as central to sustainable development. Capacity building to strengthen Africa’s cultural sector and its infrastructure is a priority of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, whose Creative Economy Report identified rapid growth in the creative and cultural industries. The Endangered Archives Programme (EAP) funded three major projects to preserve, archive and digitise the National Sound Archives of the Republic of Guinea. Arcadia is a charitable fund that promotes open access to knowledge ‘without barriers of cost or distance’. In 2001, Arcadia’s initial funding for the Endangered Languages Documentation Programme led to the establishment of the EAP in 2004. In Africa, many institutions hold rich archival collections that are largely unknown to scholars. Endangered Archives Programme grants have funded over 75 archival projects in 30 African nations.
