Programme
21–24 September 2026
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Every session is streamed live, and the link is open to all.
Last updated: 18 September 2026
Day 1 · Monday 21 September
Welcome addresses
Short welcome addresses on behalf of STIAS — by Edward Kirumira, Director — and on behalf of the DFG programme Point Sud, by Issa Fofana (Point Sud, Bamako), followed by a brief framing of the workshop: its goals, themes and practical information.
Decolonial Methods & Epistemic Justice
Chair: Emmanuel Ngue Um
From decolonial computing to the measurement of citation practices and the digital life of Ajami manuscripts, these contributions move decolonisation from critique to method and infrastructure.
- Before the Algorithm: Decolonial Computing as a Methodological Prerequisite for AI-Assisted Heritage Research in Africa EN Khaoula Stiti
- Electronic Theses and Dissertations (ETDs), Citation Practices, and the Empirical Measurement of Knowledge Decolonisation: A Computational Approach EN Iginio Gagliardone, Christine Mataranyika, Max Milella, Karabo Mohapeloa, Joshua Ward
- Les manuscrits ajami à l’ère de l’intelligence artificielle : enjeux épistémiques, infrastructures numériques et savoirs africains FR Aminata Kane, Augustin Ndione Online
Sustainable and Responsible AI Workflows in History from a Global Perspective
University of Luxembourg
Chair to be confirmed
Centring African Knowledge Systems
Chair to be confirmed
These papers ground digital and AI methods in African epistemologies — reading folktales, Yorùbá thought and literary emotion as knowledge systems that reshape the very tools used to study them.
- Re-coding the Yorùbá Epistemologies in the Era of Artificial Intelligence: A Relational Ethnography of AI-Generated Videos of Ìtàn Ìjàpá, its Creator and Viewers on Facebook and TikTok EN Hammed Olalekan Lawal, Alawiye Basheer Adisa, Elizabeth Olanike Adekoya, Adebanjo Oreoluwa Baderin Online
- L’émotion par le non-dit : pour une stratégie d’annotation des émotions chez le personnage de Ramatoulaye dans Une si longue lettre de Mariama Bâ FR Falimatou Pemgbou
- Moral Ecology of African Folktales: Grounding Digital Humanities in African Knowledge Systems EN Augustine A. Farinola Online
Welcome dinner
Day 2 · Tuesday 22 September
Documenting & Sustaining African Languages
Chair: Iginio Gagliardone
FAIR data practices, generative AI for multilingual literacy and strategies for long-term sustainability: how African linguistic heritage is documented, taught and kept alive in the digital era.
- Preserving Linguistic Memory through FAIR Practices: Lessons from SADiLaR and Ibali EN Benito Trollip, Sanjin Muftić
- AI for the ‘Alphabet without borders’: Piloting generative AI for adaptive multilingual literacy materials in the LILIEMA programme in Senegal EN Friederike Lüpke, Jules Mansaly
- Recherche en sciences sociales et pérennisation des langues africaines à l’ère du numérique FR Evelyne Amana
Manuscripts, Histories & Computational Methods
Chair: Frédérick Madore
HTR for Ajami manuscripts, large language models reading historical codebooks and computer vision applied to images circulating in Sahelian WhatsApp groups show what computation makes legible in African textual and social archives.
- Building NLP/HTR Infrastructure for Ajami Manuscripts EN Oreen Yousuf
- Beyond the Readable Archive: Historical Codebooks, Large Language Models, and the Precolonial African Bead Trade, 1500–1900 EN Lauren Coetzee
- Difference in Similarity: Visual Narratives in Fulani WhatsApp groups in the Sahel EN Luca Bruls, Bruno Allahissem, Matthew Sung, Jelena Prokic, Mirjam de Bruijn
Data centre visit
Guided visit to Teraco's CT2 data centre in Brackenfell, Cape Town, at 57 Tiber Road, Brackengate 2. The facility is part of Teraco's vendor-neutral Cape Town colocation campus.
Day 3 · Wednesday 23 September
Digital Archives, Metadata & Discovery
Chair to be confirmed
AI-assisted metadata, entity linking and protocol-based access converge on a shared problem: making African heritage collections findable, connected and usable across institutions.
- Enriching the Invisible: AI-Assisted Metadata Generation and the Findability of Southern African Heritage Collections EN Sanjin Muftić
- Linking African Studies Metadata to Wikidata: A Training-Free Pipeline and the Gaps It Measures EN Jiayu Yang, Durgesh Nandini
- Les serveurs MCP pour les GLAM africains : ouvrir l’accès, garder la maîtrise ? FR Frédérick Madore
Networking and Communication Strategies for DH Scholars
South African Centre for Digital Language Resources (SADiLaR)
Language AI: Translation & Learning
Chair: Menno van Zaanen
Scaling language technologies for African languages — from a framework for inclusive language AI to rule-based machine translation and multimodal computer-assisted learning under infrastructural constraint.
- From Data to Impact: A 4D Framework for Scaling Language AI Across African Languages EN Tajuddeen Gwadabe, Lydia Kila Taban
- Traduire sans équivalence : enjeux épistémologiques du transfert linguistique dans un système de traduction automatique à base de règles pour la paire français-ewondo FR Eliette Ngo Tjomb Assembe
- Designing Multimodal CALL for African Languages: Pedagogical Innovation Under Infrastructural Constraint EN Rachel Maina Online
Walking tour of Stellenbosch
A guided walk through Stellenbosch’s layered history, departing from STIAS. The Social Justice Walk covers the Stellenbosch University grounds and the changes the university has made to make them welcoming to all cultures; it is followed by a walk through Die Vlakte, the streets surrounding the campus, from which residents were forcibly removed in 1964. Through significant sites, personal stories and creative installations, the tour traces the racial divides of the past alongside the transformation and visual redress initiatives reshaping the university today.
Day 4 · Thursday 24 September
Que sait une machine ? Épistémologie, gestion des données et enjeux de l’IA pour les langues africaines
University of Yaoundé 1
Chair to be confirmed
Sustainable Infrastructures & Frugal Innovation
Chair to be confirmed
Frugal infrastructures, South–South ecologies, community co-production and the limits of generic AI in African settings: what it takes to build research capacity that lasts.
- Frugal Infrastructures and South-South Ecologies for Sustainable Digital Research in African Humanities EN Leonard Kibet Kirui
- Digital Humanities and the “Town Question” in Nigerian History: Accessibility, Co-Production, and Sustainable Infrastructures from a Nigerian Perspective EN John Oluwafemi Daniel
- L’IA générique face aux réalités africaines : défis structurels et voies alternatives pour la recherche en cybersécurité au Burkina Faso FR Mohamadou Konaté