African Ceremonies Foundation
Recording the Past, Empowering the Future
Five decades of immersion in the continent have seen Beckwith and Fisher cultivate a long and deeply respectful relationship with African tribal peoples. They recognize the significance of the values that Traditional Cultures uphold and live by, and strongly believe there is much that the world can learn from them. From this, the African Ceremonies Foundation was born. Established in 2002, the Foundation seeks to record and preserve the enormously rich array of cultural traditions, ceremonies, customs and art forms from across Africa and share them with the world so that they may live on in perpetuity.
Current Projects
AFRICAN CEREMONIES, Inc. is a registered 501(C3) organization. Our current projects are focused on completing our fieldwork and preparing The Archive for its final role as a major educational resource and repository of cultural heritage. These projects include:
African Ceremonies Museum
Africa Online Museum
Educational Outreach
The Cultural Heritage Centre in Arusha, Tanzania, known as “Africa’s Guggenheim”, is the largest gallery of pan-African art and artifacts on the continent. Within this complex, a new museum is being built as a permanent home for the African Ceremonies Archive. This is a dream realized for Beckwith and Fisher’s lifetime of work and will enshrine this record of cultural history in the heart of Africa for generations to come.
A digital version of the archive, designed as an interactive experience free for all to access. Much of the online museum is completed and available for use, with goals to add the remaining sections as soon as we are able.
We have also been using the archive materials to create twenty short documentary films intended for use in museums and universities as part of our mission to foster the archive’s role as an educational resource.
Fieldwork
Upcoming Book
Outreach to Africa Programs
In order to assemble the most comprehensive record of the rituals and ceremonies that move African people through life, from birth to death, Carol and Angela endeavour to carry out fieldwork in the remaining African countries they have not yet worked in.
The creation of our next book is underway which will see the compilation of our top images from the last fifty years of work, in collaboration with prominent African writers to celebrate the creativity and wisdom of the African continent.
Development of exhibitions for African museums, and development of educational resources.