African Heritage Documentation & Research Centre

African Heritage Documentation & Research Centre (AHDRC) is a non-profit organisation founded in 2016 and based in Brussels, Belgium. The Centre is dedicated to the documentation, preservation, and facilitation of scholarly research on classical sub-Saharan African material heritage. Central to AHDRC’s activities is a comprehensive online research database that provides access to an extensive photographic archive of African art. This archive comprises both published and unpublished material and currently includes more than 225,000 unique objects. The images are sourced from private and museum collections, art dealers, general archives, and a wide range of existing literature, including scholarly publications, articles, notices, and auction catalogues. In addition to the photographic archive, AHDRC maintains the most extensive database of individuals associated with classical African art, commonly referred to as the Who’s Who in African Art. This resource contains approximately 20,000 entries and documents artists, collectors, scholars, photographers, dealers, and other figures relevant to the field. The primary objective of AHDRC is to systematically register and consolidate existing knowledge relating to African cultures and their customs. Given the fragmented nature of this knowledge across institutions, publications, and private holdings, the Centre seeks to provide a centralised and structured point of access for academic research. The database is intended exclusively for research purposes. By offering access to a broad scholarly audience, AHDRC aims to support and encourage rigorous scientific inquiry and interdisciplinary research.

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