“Writing from Africa is not simply about where one writes, but under what conditions one writes. It is about who controls infrastructure, who sets the terms of visibility, and who benefits from the circulation of cultural production. If we take these factors seriously, then writing from Africa in the digital age is not just a literary or academic question, it is a political one…And so, if there is to be any coherent answer to the question of what it means to write from Africa, it must begin with a commitment to agency. Rather than prescribing a fixed definition of African writing, one based on geography, subject matter, or formal constraints, the only meaningful response is to insist on the agency of the writer themselves. Their ability to choose, to reject, to interpret, to define their own practice.”
This is an excerpt from a talk by William Shoki, editor of Africa is a Country on what it means to write from Africa when “navigating a terrain that is simultaneously more accessible and more precarious, more connected.” Shoki was addressing participants of the second “How to write about platformization from Africa?’ workshop, whose title riffs off Binyavanga Wainaina’s famous satirical essay “how to write about Africa”, held earlier this year in Cape Town. Hosted by the African Centre for Cities in partnership with University of Edinburgh, this intensive four-day writing workshop brought together scholars from 18 universities to explore the theme with their counterparts from an array of disciplines. It was co-designed by Liza Rose Cirolia, Andrea Pollio, Amir Anwar, Tammy Wilks, Michel Wahome and Anye Nyamnjoh, who further played an integral role as mentors to the participants.
The workshop aimed to engage in creative and generative ways with platform writing; connect interested scholars with publishing opportunities; strengthen the network of platform scholars working on and in Africa; and fill the gaps in the geographies of knowledge that are currently represented in the scholarly debate.
In a session on analytical writing, Shari Daya, Associate Professor and Director of the Umthombo Centre for Student Success in the Humanities Faculty at UCT, explored innovative ways of simplifying the writing process and identifying the most relevant components to use. Using an analogy of a dinner party, Daya took participants through some activities that can assist them to narrow down the data they choose when faced with a plethora of scholarship along their journey. Minenhle Ncube, a PhD in Anthropology student at UCT said the activity helped her “clear the clutter” in her writing plan, echoing her peers’ sentiments.
Discussing her work on smart urbanism, Nancy Odendaal, UCT-UniBas Professor of Urban Studies based at ACC, prompted participants to think about how platforms are impacting urban spaces. She added that there are many interesting moments worth researching to explore on “how they [platforms] could be utilised in ways that are quite developmental and inspirational.”
Jack O’deo, a doctoral candidate in the Department of Human Geography at Stockholm University, attended the first workshop as a participant and returned this year to chair the conversation with Will. He reiterated the significance of the workshop in building “this community of thinking and writing and conceptualising the urban space and digitality from our cities,” adding that “there is something worthwhile to contribute to the global academic debate about what the future of society is from a platform perspective.”
An addition to this instalment was a field trip to Teraco, the largest data centre in Africa, which according to Cirolia was an ethnographic opportunity to understand the purpose and workings of a data centre and the ways in which they present themselves to the public. Although one of the key outcomes of the workshop is to contribute towards a special issue in the Platforms & Society journal, Anwar added that it is equally important is to promote the transfer of skills and share tips and tricks of academic publishing between the established scholars and participants.
The second how to write about platformization from Africa workshop was made possible by British Academy, with support from the
