AAL Lab & Affiliates Network Members

The AAL Lab and Affiliates Network brings together Africa-based libraries, archival initiatives, independent publishers, and global institutions that support and champion this work.

This page highlights the members who form the network, connecting across locations and practices to share resources, knowledge, and collaboration. Each entry includes the member or organization, their location, network type, and key contact or representative.

For membership enquiries, contact Naima Hassan, Project Lead, at library@guestartistsspace.com

32° East

Kampala, Uganda

Membership: AAL Lab
Primary Representative: Sheillah Namaganda, administrator in charge of staff & member welfare, finance, and the Library.

32° East provides artists with the support, resources, and community they need to advance their craft, critically reflect our world, and imagine a new one. As part of our resources, we house an extensive Arts library that includes catalogues, books on poetry, painting, art theory, modern art, contemporary art, art history, among others.

African Literary Cities

Cape Town, South Africa

Membership: AAL Lab
Primary Representative: Polo Moji, co-lead for the African Literary Cities: Hubs, Maps and Literary Urban Ecologies project

A collaborative project between the Department of English Literary Studies and the African Centre for Cities at the University of Cape Town, African Literary Cities: Hubs, Maps and Literary Urban Ecologies addresses the “absenting” of African literary cities –a complex engagement with cityness and literariness – in both globally authoritative cultural policy discourses and the emerging scholarly field of Literary Urban Studies. As a form of urbanity, the literary city can be considered a narrative that (re)produces itself in both material and imaginative forms and can thus not be read solely with one single disciplinary lens. This project therefore proposes the notion of “literary urban ecologies” to make sense of the complex entanglements and (re)productions of cityness and literature. We are not concerned with creating an authoritative definition of the African Literary City. Rather, we are interested in mapping how literary cityness is locally produced in the contexts of dynamic African cities that are constantly “ making connections of all kinds through their literary (re)presentation. To this end, we have engaged with different Literary Festivals on the continent, and engage in an ongoing project of mapping representations of African cityness in literary works through a crowd-sourced online map.

The Centre For Contemporary Art, Lagos (CCA Lagos)

Lagos, Nigeria

Membership: AAL Lab
Primary Representative: Kemi Aderinto, librarian and resource manager

The Centre for Contemporary Art, Lagos (CCA Lagos) is a non profit making organization established to promote art and culture. It has a library and a gallery space where artist show case there works

Contemporary And (C&)

Berlin, Germany and Nairobi, Kenya

Membership: AAL Lab
Primary Representative: Ethel-Ruth Tawe, Editor-in-Chief at Contemporary And (C&) Magazine.

Contemporary And (C&) is a platform for international contemporary art and thought. Founded in 2013 as a bilingual online magazine, C& has since unfolded into the C& Cosmos: two online magazines (C& Magazine and C& América Latina Magazine), critical print publications, free education programs, and projects that move between digital and physical space. From reading rooms to mentoring, from artist commissions to the C& Cyclopedia, we create spaces for reflection, connection, and exchange.

Lagos Urban Development Initiative (LUDI)

Lagos, Nigeria

Membership: AAL Lab
Primary Representative: Olamide Ejorh, Founder and Director of LUDI

LUDI is a catalyst for human(e)-centred, inclusive, liveable, and sustainable urban development across African cities. We mobilise people, knowledge, and systems through advocacy, experimentation, and cross-sector collaboration to strengthen urban governance and advance equitable urban transformation. Our work bridges research, policy, and practice, creating spaces where diverse urban actors can collectively shape more just and resilient cities. One component of this mission is the LUDI Library. The Library responds to the fragmentation of scholarship and practice-based knowledge on African urbanism and architecture. By curating and centralising key texts, research outputs, and critical resources, it provides a structured and accessible knowledge platform for students, researchers, practitioners, and policymakers. In doing so, it strengthens intellectual continuity, supports evidence-informed decision-making, and deepens critical engagement with the specific spatial, social, and governance dynamics shaping African cities.

OH INSTITUTE

Dakar, Senegal

Membership: AAL Lab
Primary Representative: Océane Harati, founder and director of OH GALLERY and the initiator of OH INSTITUTE

OH Institute emerged from a simple reality: over the years, OH Gallery’s work has consistently exceeded the gallery format. Presenting artworks was never the end goal—our practice has also been about producing knowledge, building critical tools, and strengthening the conditions that allow local scenes to author their own narratives. The demands we encountered, archives at risk, fragmented resources, lack of shared frameworks, limited access to professional tools, made one thing clear: a dedicated public-interest structure was needed. After three years of preparation, we founded OH INSTITUTE as a public-interest organisation responding to a structural gap: ecosystem-building remains insufficient in the face of current and future challenges, while the frameworks, tools, and methodologies required to strengthen it are still scarce and not widely accessible. OH Institute develops long-term programmes, shared working frameworks, and practical tools, while supporting key stakeholders, including public institutions, in capacity building and cultural sovereignty. The Institute’s activities are structured around six pillars: research and archives; library and publishing; education and mediation; residencies; skills mapping and referral; and third-party missions focused on support, ecosystem structuring, and capacity transfer.

African Style Archive (ASA)

London, United Kingdom

Membership: AAL Lab Affiliates
Primary Representative: Tosin Adeosun, founder of African Style Archive

African Style Archive (ASA) is a research platform and visual repository dedicated to documenting and preserving African fashion history. By collecting photographs, rare books, and ephemera, ASA connects historic and contemporary narratives of African dress, offering scholars, institutions, and cultural practitioners a vital resource for understanding how style reflects identity, politics, and creativity across the continent and diaspora.

Afrosonic Innovation Lab

University of Toronto Scarborough, Canada

Membership: AAL Lab Affiliates
Primary Representative: Mark V. Campbell, founder Afrosonic Innovation Lab

The Afrosonic Innovation Lab is a team of artists, creatives, and scholars actively engaged in the making of music, sound experimentation, and musicological analysis. We actively seek and cultivate projects globally which involve research creation, performance, publication, field research, and curation. While based in Toronto, we work across a number of sites in Canada and internationally.