The African shelf gathers folklore, religion, history, and diaspora traditions from across the African continent and the Atlantic world. It is not one tradition. It is a continent and a set of diasporic survivals, with Yoruba, Hausa, Igbo-adjacent, Bantu, Xhosa, Zulu, San, Jamaican, New Orleans, and African American materials gathered here as a first public map.

Many texts in this shelf were recorded by colonial-era collectors. They preserve valuable stories, ritual vocabulary, and religious description, but their language and assumptions can be dated, hostile, or exoticizing. Read them as records that need context, not as final authorities over the peoples they describe.

The shelf is organized by region and historical movement: West African traditions, Yoruba and Ife, Central African and Bantu traditions, Southern African traditions, African diaspora and Atlantic traditions, and general historical or comparative studies.