Digitizing collections of musical instruments in Africa

In 2013–2014 the Musical Instruments Museum (mim) in Brussels worked with Musée de la Musique (MMO) in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, and the Musée Panafricain de la Musique (MPM) in Brazzaville, the Republic of the Congo to build digital inventories of their musical instrument collections. The purpose of this digitization campaign has been to provide a more complete view of musical world heritage by incorporating not only African instruments but also the African terminology that describes these instruments, into international research databases. The cooperative digitization work has helped bring attention to valuable but not easily accessible collections. Both the musical patrimony held in African museums and the metadata they provide are proving to be valuable sources for understanding musical world heritage.