Audio Recordings of Ethnography of the Igbo People

This project will survey and document over 2000 hours of audiotapes currently housed at the Institute of African Studies, University of Nigeria. Collected between 1972 and 1983, as part of the “Igbo Salvage Ethnography Project,” the collection contains information on Igbo life, mythology, ethnomusicology, marriage and burial ceremonies, religion, philosophy, social life, literary and productive arts, history, science, medicine, technology and more. In addition to the audio tapes, the collection includes detailed fieldnotes collected by the ethnographic team that recorded the audio material. The materials provide a first-hand account of the lives and practices of one of Africa’s most important ethnic groups, not filtered through print, academic biases, or Western methodologies.