Funded by Gerda Henkel Foundation (2025-2026), this project aims to conserve and digitise around 2000 magnetic audio tapes with traditional and popular music from São Tomé and Príncipe recorded between the 1950s and the 1990s by Rádio Nacional de São Tomé e Príncipe (RNSTP). The so-called “Arquivo Musical” collection and its copies in the “São Tomé” collection, in short the Musical Archive, are part of a wider audio archive stored at RNSTP in the capital of São Tomé. Without intervention, these tapes risk permanent loss. Despite holding significant cultural and historical value, not only for São Tomé and Príncipe, but for a wider community of music researchers, they remain difficult to access. Capturing the history of music and lyrics in different local Creole languages as well as transatlantic and African networks of cultural exchange before and after Portuguese colonial rule, this collection can serve as a key resource for studying the transformations surrounding the nation’s independence in 1975. To the broader public of São Tomé and Príncipe, this project promises enhanced access to and visibility of its local cultural heritage. RNSTP takes this project over in collaboration with Prof. Dr. Barbara Alge from Goethe University Frankfurt. Further institutions involved: International Library of African Music (Rhodes University, South Africa), ABK Stuttgart (Germany) and The African Music Archive (AMA, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Germany).
Press release of Gerda Henkel Foundation
Report of the radio show „Tonart“ Deutschlandfunk Kultur (Dlf)
