About ANN
Africa Must
Tell Its Own Stories.
The African Narrative Network is a pan-continental organisation dedicated to documenting, preserving, and amplifying Africa's intangible and tangible cultural heritage — led by Africans, for Africans and the world.
Our Founding Belief
History is always told by those with the loudest platform.
For over 500 years, Africa's history has been documented, interpreted, and distributed largely by outsiders. The result is a body of global knowledge about Africa that is incomplete, distorted, and often deeply wrong.
We exist to correct that — not through anger or reactivity, but through the patient, rigorous, community-led work of building an African archive that Africa itself controls.
Mission
To document, preserve, and amplify Africa's intangible and tangible heritage — ensuring it belongs to African communities, not foreign institutions.
Vision
A world where Africa's full cultural, historical, and intellectual contribution is recognised, celebrated, and protected.
What Makes Us Different
We centre African voices
Every project, publication, and partnership is led by Africans, in African languages, with African communities holding final authority over their own heritage.
We treat oral traditions as primary sources
Spoken knowledge is not secondary to written records. We apply the same scholarly rigour to oral archives as to ancient manuscripts.
We reject extractive research
Communities own their stories. We document and return — we do not extract knowledge for the benefit of foreign institutions or academic careers.
We work across borders
African heritage does not respect colonially imposed boundaries. Our work is pan-continental, connecting communities that share histories across modern national lines.
A Brief History
Pre-History
Before Borders
Africa hosts humanity's oldest civilisations. Egyptian empire, Kushite Kingdom, The Nok, Axumites, Mali Empire, Great Zimbabwe, and Kingdom of Kongo flourished for millennia before European contact.
1884–85
The Scramble for Africa
The Berlin Conference carved the continent into European colonies, erasing existing political, cultural, and ethnic boundaries — and reshaping how African history would be told for over a century.
1960s–70s
Independence & Erasure
African nations won political independence, but colonial academic and cultural frameworks persisted. African histories remained largely absent from global scholarship.
2000s
The Digital Era & New Risks
Globalisation brought new opportunities for cultural exchange — but also new forms of erasure. Oral tradition holders die without successors. 2,000+ African languages face extinction.
2024
ANN Is Founded
The African Narrative Network launches with a mandate to document, protect, and amplify Africa's intangible and tangible heritage across 54 nations, working from the community upward.