Akan VaultDid you know?
When was Children's Defense Fund founded, and who was among its founders?
In 1973. Its founders include Marian Wright Edelman.
Source: ROR release v1.19 · Check it on Wikidata: Children's Defense Fund
A digital preservation institution
Preserve Black history for the world.
Akan Vault is a governed, evidence-centered archive for Black history across the global African diaspora. Free to the public, verified by people, and traceable to its sources.
From the Vault and public sources
From the archive
Photographs are published records. Questions come from those records or from cited public data. Every slide shows where it comes from.
Did you know?
Where was Nat King Cole born?
Montgomery, in 1919.
Source: TheaterEncyclopedie · Check it on Wikidata: Nat King Cole
Did you know?
Which of Laurence Fishburne’s notable works came out in 1999?
The Matrix.
Source: sfi.se · Check it on Wikidata: Laurence Fishburne
Portrait: Kevin Paul · CC BY 4.0
Did you know?
What honour did Mary McLeod Bethune receive in 1982?
Florida Women's Hall of Fame.
Source: flwomenshalloffame.org · Check it on Wikidata: Mary McLeod Bethune
Portrait: Unknown author · Public domain
Did you know?
What office did Bobby Rush take up in 1983?
Alderman.
Source: bioguide.congress.gov · Check it on Wikidata: Bobby Rush
Portrait: US House of Representatives · Public domain
Did you know?
When was Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee founded, and who was among its founders?
In 1960. Its founders include Diane Nash and Ella Josephine Baker.
Source: kinginstitute.stanford.edu · Check it on Wikidata: Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee
Did you know?
Where was Dorothy Vaughan born?
Kansas City, in 1910.
Source: blackpast.org · Check it on Wikidata: Dorothy Vaughan
Did you know?
Which of James Baldwin’s notable works came out in 1955?
Notes of a Native Son.
Source: Integrated Authority File · Check it on Wikidata: James Baldwin
Portrait: Allan warren · CC BY-SA 3.0
Did you know?
What honour did Esperanza Spalding receive in 2011?
Grammy Award for Best New Artist.
Source: rockonthenet.com · Check it on Wikidata: Esperanza Spalding
Portrait: Løken · CC BY-SA 4.0
Did you know?
What office did Valerie Jarrett take up in 2009?
Senior Advisor to the President of the United States.
Source: obamawhitehouse.archives.gov · Check it on Wikidata: Valerie Jarrett
Portrait: Joyce Boghosian · Public domain
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Did you know?
When was International Cospas-Sarsat Programme founded, and who was among its founders?
In 1979. Its founders include Canada, France, Soviet Union and others.
Source: spacefoundation.org · Check it on Wikidata: International Cospas-Sarsat Programme
Portrait: Post of the Soviet Union · Public domain
Did you know?
Where was Whoopi Goldberg born?
New York City, in 1955.
Source: Great Norwegian Encyclopedia · Check it on Wikidata: Whoopi Goldberg
How a record travels through Akan Vault
One · Preserve
Someone opens a box that has been closed for sixty years.
A photograph, a letter, a reel of tape. It is uploaded once and stored exactly as it arrived, with a checksum taken at the door. That original is never overwritten and never edited. Every correction that follows becomes a new version beside it, so the record can always be read as it was first given.
Two · Describe
What it is, who holds the rights, and what may be done with it.
Description is captured alongside consent, provenance, and cultural context — not after them. A family can permit public display and refuse AI use, and that refusal is an instruction the platform obeys everywhere, not a preference it weighs.
Machines may read a document and propose a date or a name. Those proposals are labelled drafts and stay drafts. A person authors what is published.
Three · Verify
Nothing publishes itself.
Rights, description, and history are examined by different reviewers, and the reviewer cannot be the contributor. Approval is recorded with a reason and a name. A record that is later challenged stays readable and says that it is contested, because withdrawing it would erase the fact that someone raised the question.
Four · Discover
Free to read, and never behind a subscription.
A published record is searchable by anyone with its provenance, its verification state, and its reuse terms visible. Restricted, embargoed, and withheld material is not filtered out of those results — it was never put into the index in the first place.
Five · Cite
Every claim leads back to a page you can open.
Akan AI answers only from approved evidence, and a sentence that cannot name its source is not shown at all. A citation resolves to a page of a document or a span of a recording, so you can read the thing itself and disagree with us.
The archive today · free to the public, always
Start with a single record.
Search what has been preserved, ask a question the evidence can answer, or add something your family has kept. No public record is ever placed behind a subscription.
- published records, free to read
- 0
- of 10 regions on the globe have a record that names a place in them
- 0
- records do not yet name a place that can be matched to a region
- 0
A marker lights only where a published record names a place. No routes are drawn: Akan Vault holds no voyage or migration data. Records without a recognisable place are counted, not dropped.