Short Abstract

Who designs the prism through which Africa’s digital memory becomes visible? This panel examines how archives, algorithms, metadata and digital infrastructures shape what Africa can remember, represent and know, and who holds the authority to decide.

Long Abstract

Digital transformation does not simply preserve African memory; it reorganises the conditions under which Africa can be remembered, represented and known. As archives, records and cultural collections move into digital environments, decisions embedded in selection, description and access increasingly intersect with metadata, platforms, algorithms and artificial intelligence. Digitisation therefore expands access while also reshaping architectures of knowledge and authority. Taking African Prisms as a critical provocation, this panel asks: if the prism shapes what can be seen, who designs the prism? Which histories become digitised, searchable and computationally legible? Whose languages, memories and knowledge systems remain obscured? What happens when archival silences migrate into datasets and potentially become algorithmic silences? When African memory becomes machine-readable, who acquires authority to classify, interpret, reuse and govern it? The panel brings archival and records studies into conversation with African studies, digital humanities, heritage studies, critical data studies, artificial intelligence and information governance. We invite conceptual, empirical and practice-based contributions addressing archival and algorithmic silences; metadata and classification; indigenous knowledge; community archives; AI training data; digital restitution and repatriation; platform power; and data and digital sovereignty. Rather than asking only how Africa is represented through digital prisms, the panel interrogates how those prisms are constructed and governed. It seeks pathways through which African institutions and communities can exercise greater visibility, voice, authority and control over the infrastructures through which Africa is remembered, represented and known.

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