Arrive with an idea, leave with a community.

African feminists are adopting radical caring as communal and self-represented resistance against various challenges, from backlash to state repression. However, today’s digital landscape has introduced new complexities. Artificial intelligence technologies create contexts from user data, and marketing strategies are fueling online mobs, creating challenges for activists striving to voice concerns and nurture digital communities.

This session will involve a history of the standardization of Kiswahili, taking a look at how colonial powers used the language to their advantage and how the (standardized) language grew and in other instances killed Kiswahili dialects.

This session seeks to open up and spark conversations about localized and contextualized approaches to studying and strategies for understanding the impact of digital media on young people in Africa, from African practitioners, researchers, policymakers, activists and scholars.

The promise of technology to create job opportunities, in developing countries, beyond physical geographical boundaries has hidden unfair labour treatments. The absence of labour market regulatory frameworks in some countries in Africa to address the special conditions of digitally enabled new forms of work, the rise of non-standard employment, a phenomenon rooted in labour market deregulation, is being exacerbated by digital transformation.

In recent years, AI has experienced an explosive surge in popularity, largely driven by breakthroughs like the revolutionary large language models (LLMs) such as ChatGPT. Simultaneously, podcasting has emerged as a formidable medium for creative expression and cultural representation, particularly amid and post the COVID-19 pandemic. This session will explore the possible impacts of AI, both positive and negative, on an industry that gives voice to marginalized communities.