Five Windows into Africa: A CD-ROM

Abstract

Through CD-ROM technology, including high-quality video, still images, sound and text, Five Windows into Africa vividly captures the vitality and immediacy of life in contemporary Africa. Guided by the individual experiences of the five authors, this interactive CD-ROM conveys a first-hand sense of discovery and understanding by bringing African peoples and cultures into focus and revealing critical social, political, economic and cultural issues as they directly impact Africans. Five Windows into Africa opens a spectacular range of local events from the perspective of the participants, including: a bird dance by an itinerant masquerader in a small community outside Bamako, Mali; the funeral of a Liberian expatriate who died in the United States and whose body is returned to his native land and laid to rest; Muslim Friday prayers in the city of Wa, Ghana; the Lancaster House Constitutional Conference that took place in London in the fall of 1979 at which leaders of white and black Rhodesia negotiated the agreement that led to the creation of Zimbabwe; and life in the city of Lagos, Nigeria, where views of popular culture reveal the dynamic lifestyle that characterizes Africa's most populous city. Designed as a companion to Indiana University Press's widely used textbook, Africa, edited by Phyllis Martin and Partick O'Meara, Five Windows into Africa is an engaging and compelling multimedia tool for exploring important issues, questions and practices of aesthetics, spirituality and power as they affect African individuals and communities everyday. Five Windows into Africa provides an exciting and unique experience for the armchair traveller and anyone interested in exploring the complexity of African social and cultural life.