Founded in 1954 by Hugh Tracey, ILAM is the greatest repository of African music in the world. A research institution devoted to the study of music and oral arts in Africa, it preserves thousands of historical recordings going back to 1929 and supports contemporary fieldwork. It is currently digitizing its collections. Its journal, African Music, is nearly into its fourth decade.

ILAM aims to discover, record, analyze, and archive the music of sub-Saharan Africa, with the object of establishing a theory of music making in Africa and assessing the social, cultural, and artistic values of African music. It is a subdivision of the Institute of Social and Economic Research at the Rhodes University campus in Grahamstown, South Africa.

The Music Library has purchased 3 CD series totalling over 200 CDs:
-“Sound of Africa Series”
-“Historical Recordings by Hugh Tracey” series
-“Music of Africa Series by Hugh Tracey”

For more information go to the ILAM website