Our Mission
With over five decades of engagement across Africa, the African Ceremonies Foundation is committed to honoring and supporting the rich cultural heritage of the continent. Guided by a deep respect for the traditions and wisdom of Africa’s diverse peoples, the Foundation’s mission is to help preserve and celebrate these invaluable expressions of identity and creativity - ensuring they remain vibrant and meaningful for generations to come.
By documenting traditional ceremonies, rituals, and ways of life, we seek to foster global appreciation for Africa’s cultural heritage while supporting the communities that sustain it. Through enduring partnerships, a growing archive, and international outreach, we work to keep these stories accessible, valued, and relevant both within Africa and around the world.
I believe that Carol and Angela have responded to an urgent call from the continent’s ancestors to record sacred ceremonies before it is too late. African Ceremonies has been born from their dedication and it stands as an enduring statement for future generations as well as a call to preserve the priceless diversity of Africa’s ceremonial life.”
Malidoma Patrica Somé
Dagara Shaman and Writer
African Ceremonies Museum
A new museum is being built as a permanent home for our two major African Ceremonies exhibitions. Situated at the Cultural Heritage Centre in Arusha, this development is a dream realised 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.
Africa Online Museum
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.
Educational Outreach
We have been using our archive materials to create short documentary films. These are intended for use in museums and universities as part of our mission to foster the archive’s role as an educational resource.
Upcoming Book
The creation of our next book is underway which will see the compilation of Beckwith and Fisher's 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.
AFRICAN CEREMONIES, Inc. is a registered 501(c)(3) organisation. We'd love to invite you to join our mission and help us in this journey going forward. 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:
Current Projects
Support Projects
The African Ceremonies Foundation also carries out projects in traditional societies to reciprocate the support it has received from those communities.
“During our 45 years in Africa recording traditional ceremonies, we have observed that life relies on a continuous cycle of giving and receiving. Each rite begins with a gift or an offering: survival depends on this basic principle. We, too, have looked for the appropriate ways to reciprocate the support given to us by the communities where we have lived. We found that small projects closely tied to communal and personal needs at grass roots level have made a significant difference to the welfare of the people with whom we have worked.”
- Carol Beckwith and Angela Fisher
Some of these support projects include:
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The ongoing aid of two lineages of Wodaabe Nomads with food relief support during the drought in the Sahel region.
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Educational support for a number of African people and their families. We have been incredibly humbled to see what this support has led to, such as Japheson Lekupe, a Samburu man with disabilities, who is now employed by Kenya television to tell the stories of marginalised people, or Makoi Majok who is now in the final year of his PHD in Rural Development Studies at the University of Juba and hopes to use his gifts to support the development of the Dinka People in this challenging time in South Sudan.
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Financing of a schoolhouse for Samburu students, who had previously been studying under a tree, so that they could continue their studies during the rainy season.
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Financing of a number of Turkana projects such as building a shelter for female craftsmen, providing seeds for small gardens for women to grow food, and the making of masks during COVID.
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The digging of three 60 meter wells in the Sahel for Wodaabe Nomads struggling to survive during the dry season. This project used traditional water diviner's and Hausa well-diggers.
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The provision of education and medical kits in collaboration with Niger’s Veterinary Service to keep Wodaabe herds of zebu cows alive during a 10 month dry season and onset of drought.
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Supporting jewellery artisans in Maasailand and Wodaabeland and reinvesting the profits into their communities.