June 21 - 23, 2017, the XXIX International Congress on Historiography and Source Studies of Asian and Africa «Asia and Africa: Heritage and Modernity» was held in St. Petersburg. Researcher of the Center for the History and Cultural Anthropology of the Russian Academy of Sciences Irina Tatarovskaya took part in the work of this congress. She made a presentation «Dendrocentric picture of the world in African mythology and culture» at the sectional meeting «Reading the memory of D.A. Olderogge». The organizer of the congress is the Eastern Faculty of St. Petersburg State University. There were 21 sections in the Congress. Historians, philologists, political scientists, philosophers, culturologists from Russian regions and foreign countries came to the conference. A wide range of problems were discussed during the work of the sections and round tables: «Anthropology, Ethnography, Religion», «Literature, Folklore, Sources», «History, Politics, Economics», «Languages of Africa», «Gender Issues in the East», «Ethiopia» and others. The congress played the role of a creative platform where scientists from Russia and other countries had an opportunity to discuss pressing issues of various scientific disciplines.