Americans and Westerners generally do not associate Africa with Islam. And yet 20 percent of Muslims worldwide live in Africa, and nearly half of the African population is Muslim. Islamic practice in Africa dates back over 1400 years, to the beginning of the faith. Many early Muslims creatively combined Islamic and indigenous beliefs to give rise to African Muslim traditions of incorporation, toleration, and mutual respect.

This web site features carefully-crafted galleries of audio and video interviews, photographs, maps, written documents, and multimedia presentations that enable users to explore Islamic traditions in the West African countries of Ghana and Senegal. These rich resources shed much-needed light on how Muslims in West Africa accept religious difference and create productive interactions among Christians, Muslims, and practitioners of other faiths.

Drawn from a number of African language communities, these rare materials also provide exciting opportunities for foreign language learners to listen to native speakers of seven African languages - including Pular, Wolof, Mandinka, Jóola Foñi, Bamanankan, Twi, and Hausa.