Short Abstract

The proliferation of digital technologies across Africa has shifted creative expression from print to network-driven spaces prompting an exploration of how digital platforms refract traditional African literary aesthetics into dynamic digital spectrums, aligning with ECAS 2027 African Prisms theme.

Long Abstract

The rapid adoption of network tech across Africa has shifted creative works well beyond traditional published books. By grounding our inquiry in the African Prisms theme, this panel investigates how creators use digital platforms- including TikTok, X, Webcomics, and interactive audio Apps- to splinter traditional storytelling forms into dynamic digital expressions. Online networks give artists direct routes around traditional gatekeeping and state censorship. At the same time, these platforms breed distinct cyber-lingos: fluid mixes of internet culture, indigenous phrasing, local urban slangs, and technological words. Questions such as the following arise; How do platform mechanics change the ways creators construct stories and interact with readers? What happens to literary histories and archival memory when works exist purely on ephemeral digital networks?

We invite multidisciplinary contributions- spanning literary analysis, sociolinguistics, and digital humanities- that explore these mechanics. Potential focus areas shall include: social media narrative forms, including micro-fiction, serial threads, and video storytelling; the development of local digital dialects, meme slang, and platform-specific idioms; speculative digital fiction, pod dramas, and narrative driven gaming from African creators; and platform algorithms, language accessibility, and the survival of regional African languages in online ecosystems. Therefore, this panel shall explore how digital spaces expand what counts as African literature today, creating decentralized hubs for narrative experiment.

Keywords: Digital Storytelling, Cyber-Dialects, Electronic Literature, Social Media, and Platform Algorithms

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