Digital Africa Working Group

The overall aim of this new working group and initiative is to facilitate discussions of a critical and informed character on a broad range of issues related to what we call “Digital Africa”. While the reference to the “digital” implies a particular focus on the role that social media and the emergences of new digital technologies and innovations – including Artificial Intelligence – play in the African context, our use of the term “digital” implies a broader thematical and geographical attention. In addition to recognizing and exploring the role that numbers, data and indicators play in the many processes that various actors engage in to create new possible and virtual futures in Africa, we intend to move beyond a digital in Africa perspective. More specifically we will include a focus on the networks and mobilities of people, things, ideas, and viruses (digital as well as biological) that move out of, and to Africa – and which often are fueled and facilitated by digital innovations and social media. By creating this working group we hope to bring together faculty and students from diverse backgrounds and to facilitate interdisciplinary dialogue and collaboration on a wide range of issues that are fundamental for understanding the role of Africa in a new digital age.