# Digital Humanities and Artificial Intelligence in African Studies - **Period:** 2025 – 2027 - **Co-directors:** Vincent Hiribarren, Emmanuel Ngue Um, Menno van Zaanen - **Funder:** Volkswagen Foundation · DFG Programme Point Sud - **Web page:** https://www.frederickmadore.com/research/dh-ai-african-studies Digital humanities (DH) and artificial intelligence (AI) are changing how knowledge is produced in African studies. They make new kinds of analysis possible, and new narratives with them: reimagining cultural heritage, widening access to diverse sources, amplifying marginalised voices. As the field approaches an AI-driven “tipping point”, the project explores methods for designing, evaluating and sustaining digital infrastructures. These systems need to be grounded in African epistemologies rather than retrofitted from Western models. These questions run through a collaborative initiative: two workshops in 2026 [(Madore and Hiribarren, 2026)](https://www.frederickmadore.com/communications/volkswagenstiftung-dh-ai-african-studies-workshop-2026.md) [(Madore et al., 2026)](https://www.frederickmadore.com/communications/stias-dh-ai-african-studies-workshop-2026.md) and a co-edited volume, *Digital Humanities and Artificial Intelligence in African Studies*, to be published by Bielefeld University Press. The project brings together scholars and practitioners from Africa, Europe and beyond, and opens dialogue between the Global North and South. Three themes organise the work: transforming research methods through computational tools, building sustainable infrastructures in resource-constrained settings, and centring African knowledge systems in digital design. The move is from policy governance about AI to “practising with AI”, and towards the ethical development of DH across the continent. My contribution addresses the practical “problem of scale” in African digital collections. Tracing my own route from “digital hoarder” to “historian-programmer”, I explore how far agentic coding lowers the barrier to entry: the researcher specifies a problem in natural language, and an AI agent writes, runs and debugs the code. Pipelines built on large language models (LLMs) take over labour-intensive work such as optical character recognition (OCR) and named entity recognition (NER). These [Python-based workflows](https://github.com/fmadore/iwac-ai-pipelines) open up vast, under-resourced collections. The same approach turns a static archive into [interactive visualisations](https://islam.zmo.de/s/westafrica/page/explore): [networks of who appears alongside whom](https://islam.zmo.de/s/westafrica/page/entity-networks), [word frequencies traced year by year](https://islam.zmo.de/s/westafrica/page/words-over-time), [a semantic map that places 12,000 articles by textual similarity](https://islam.zmo.de/s/westafrica/page/topic-modelling). Most link back to the documents behind them, so readers can test their own questions against the sources. I prototype these methods in the [*Islam West Africa Collection* (IWAC)](https://islam.zmo.de/s/westafrica/), whose 30-million-word corpus tests the limits of AI in historical research [(Nobel-Dilaty and Madore, 2025)](https://www.frederickmadore.com/communications/zmo-kitchen-talks-ai-islamic-african-studies.md). Working from Moretti’s (2000) “[distant reading](https://newleftreview.org/issues/ii1/articles/franco-moretti-conjectures-on-world-literature)”, I treat AI as a “co-intelligence” ([Mollick, 2024](https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/741805/co-intelligence-by-ethan-mollick/)) for corpora too large to read in their entirety. AI-assisted sentiment analysis, for instance, examines how Islam and Muslims are represented in Francophone West African newspapers, with the results visualised in an [interactive dashboard](https://iwac.frederickmadore.com/sentiment-analysis/). Human judgement still decides what the patterns mean; AI offers a workable way of handling the volume of digital material African history now generates. ## Grants - **2026** Organisation of a conference, DFG Programme Point Sud (€60,410, Awarded) - **2025-2026** [Scoping Workshops](https://projektdatenbank.volkswagenstiftung.de/projekt/0200686), Volkswagen Foundation (€53,670, Awarded) ## Publications - [When AI Meets the Archive: Transforming the Islam West Africa Collection with Large Language Models](https://www.frederickmadore.com/publications/ai-meets-archive-iwac-llm-2026.md) · Journal article Frédérick Madore. (Forthcoming). “When AI Meets the Archive: Transforming the Islam West Africa Collection with Large Language Models”. African Studies Review. - [Trier, coder, interpréter : comment l’IA redistribue le travail de l’historien face à 30 000 sources sur l’islam ouest-africain](https://www.frederickmadore.com/publications/trier-coder-interpreter-ia-historien-2026.md) · Journal article Frédérick Madore. (Forthcoming). “Trier, coder, interpréter : comment l’IA redistribue le travail de l’historien face à 30 000 sources sur l’islam ouest-africain”. Journal of West African History 12 (2). - [For Whom and For What Purpose? A Position Paper on Digital Humanities and AI in African Studies](https://www.frederickmadore.com/publications/for-whom-for-what-purpose-dh-ai-african-studies-2026.md) · Working paper Frédérick Madore, Vincent Hiribarren, Agata Błoch, Albrecht Hofheinz, Ashleigh Harris, Augustin Ndione, Britta Frede, Cassandra Mark-Thiesen, Duncan Money, Emmanuel Ngue Um, Érika Melek Delgado, Fallou Ngom, Fu’ad Lawal, Irene Mwendwa, James Yékú, Janeth David Nzenga, Johannes Sibeko, Karen Byera Ijumba, Kọ́lá Túbọ̀sún, Leah Junck, Menno van Zaanen, Nuraddin Aman, Oumou Sidibé, Susan Elizabeth Gagliardi and Thompson Gyedu Kwarkye. (2026). “For Whom and For What Purpose? A Position Paper on Digital Humanities and AI in African Studies”. ZMO Programmatic Texts 16. Berlin: Leibniz-Zentrum Moderner Orient. - [From Conversation to Co-authorship: A Workshop on Digital Humanities and AI in African Studies, 18–20 February 2026, Herrenhausen, Hanover](https://www.frederickmadore.com/publications/madore-2026-conversation-coauthorship-dh-ai.md) · Bulletin article Frédérick Madore. (2026). “From Conversation to Co-authorship: A Workshop on Digital Humanities and AI in African Studies, 18–20 February 2026, Herrenhausen, Hanover”. ZMO Bulletin (48): 10. - [Charting New Territory: Digital Humanities und Künstliche Intelligenz in den African Studies](https://www.frederickmadore.com/publications/charting-new-territory-digital-humanities-ki-african-studies-2026.md) · Blog post Frédérick Madore and Vincent Hiribarren. “Charting New Territory: Digital Humanities und Künstliche Intelligenz in den African Studies”. Digital History Bielefeld, 31 March 2026. - [From Private Database to Public Resource to a Testing Ground for AI Methods: The Islam West Africa Collection (IWAC)](https://www.frederickmadore.com/publications/madore-2026-iwac-private-database-public-resource.md) · Bulletin article Frédérick Madore. (2026). “From Private Database to Public Resource to a Testing Ground for AI Methods: The Islam West Africa Collection (IWAC)”. Shared World - People, Faiths, Ideas, Practices: New Directions in Research 2023-2025, Jahrbuch: 113-120. - [Launch Islam West Africa Collection, 9 November 2023, MiCT, Berlin/Online](https://www.frederickmadore.com/publications/madore-2024-launch-iwac.md) · Bulletin article Frédérick Madore. (2024). “Launch Islam West Africa Collection, 9 November 2023, MiCT, Berlin/Online”. ZMO Bulletin (44): 9. - [La Collection Islam Burkina Faso : promesses et défis des humanités numériques](https://www.frederickmadore.com/publications/islam-burkina-faso-collection-2021.md) · Journal article Frédérick Madore. (2021). “La Collection Islam Burkina Faso : promesses et défis des humanités numériques”. Revue d’Histoire Contemporaine de l’Afrique. ## Talks - [Les serveurs MCP pour les GLAM africains : une voie d'avenir à l'ère de l'IA ?](https://www.frederickmadore.com/communications/serveurs-mcp-glam-africains-stias-2026.md) · Workshop presentation Humanités numériques et intelligence artificielle en études africaines : vers des pratiques durables et équitables, Stellenbosch Institute for Advanced Study (STIAS), Stellenbosch, South Africa, 23 September 2026 - [Digital Humanities and Artificial Intelligence in African Studies: Towards Sustainable and Equitable Practices](https://www.frederickmadore.com/communications/stias-dh-ai-african-studies-workshop-2026.md) · Academic event Stellenbosch Institute for Advanced Study (STIAS), Stellenbosch, South Africa, 21-24 September 2026 - [University of Kansas AI and Africa Symposium](https://www.frederickmadore.com/communications/ai-africa-symposium-kansas-2026.md) · Lecture AI and Africa Symposium, University of Kansas, Lawrence, United States, 17 September 2026 - [Humanités numériques (DH) et IA dans les études africaines](https://www.frederickmadore.com/communications/humanites-numeriques-dh-ia-etudes-africaines-reaf-2026.md) · Panel discussion 9èmes Rencontres des études africaines en France (REAF), Paris, France, 30 juin 2026 - [Retour sur une note de synthèse analysant la relation entre Humanités Numériques, l’IA et les Études Africaines (Hanovre, février 2026)](https://www.frederickmadore.com/communications/retour-note-synthese-dh-ia-reaf-2026.md) · Conference paper 9èmes Rencontres des études africaines en France (REAF), Paris, France, 30 June 2026 - [Charting New Territory: Digital Humanities and AI in African Studies](https://www.frederickmadore.com/communications/volkswagenstiftung-dh-ai-african-studies-workshop-2026.md) · Academic event Xplanatorium Herrenhausen, Hanover, Germany, 18-20 February 2026 - [Artificial Intelligence (AI) in African and Islamic Studies](https://www.frederickmadore.com/communications/zmo-kitchen-talks-ai-islamic-african-studies.md) · Podcast ZMO Kitchen Talks, ep. 14, Leibniz-Zentrum Moderner Orient, Germany, 11 December 2025 - [From Archives to Algorithms: Uncovering Transregional Islamic Connections through the Islam West Africa Collection (IWAC)](https://www.frederickmadore.com/communications/archives-algorithms-iwac-2025.md) · Conference paper Eighth European Congress on World and Global History, Linnaeus University, Sweden, 11 September 2025 - [When AI Meets the Archive: Transforming the Islam West Africa Collection with Large Language Models](https://www.frederickmadore.com/communications/when-ai-meets-the-archive-2025.md) · Lecture SADiLaR Digital Humanities colloquia, North-West University, South Africa, 20 August 2025 - [Digital Humanities (DH) and AI in African Studies: Opportunities, Challenges, and Decolonial Perspectives](https://www.frederickmadore.com/communications/dh-ai-african-studies-2025.md) · Panel discussion 10th European Conference of African Studies (ECAS), Prague, Czech Republic, 26 June 2025 - [Historian vs AI: who reads and analyses archives best?](https://www.frederickmadore.com/communications/historian-vs-ai-ecas-2025.md) · Conference paper 10th European Conference of African Studies (ECAS), Prague, Czech Republic, 26 June 2025 - [Humanités numériques et flux de recherche augmentés par l'IA pour la Collection islam Afrique de l'Ouest](https://www.frederickmadore.com/communications/humanites-numeriques-ia-ecole-chartes-2025.md) · Lecture Work talk, École nationale des chartes, France, 22 May 2025 - [Intelligence artificielle et traitement des archives numériques : applications et enjeux dans la Collection Islam Afrique de l'Ouest](https://www.frederickmadore.com/communications/ai-archives-humanistica-2025.md) · Conference paper Colloque annuel Humanistica 2025, Cheikh Anta Diop University, Senegal, 24 April 2025 - [Tracing Islamic Knowledge Production in Francophone West African Newspapers (1990-Present)](https://www.frederickmadore.com/communications/tracing-islamic-knowledge-production.md) · Workshop presentation Workshop Perspectives in Motion: Conceptual Fields from the Global South, Leibniz-Zentrum Moderner Orient, Germany, 2 December 2024 - [Islam, Algorithms and AI](https://www.frederickmadore.com/communications/islam-algorithms-ai.md) · Lecture ZMO Sommerfest, Leibniz-Zentrum Moderner Orient, Germany, 18 July 2024 - [La Collection Islam Afrique de l'Ouest: enjeux éthiques et décolonisation des humanités numériques](https://www.frederickmadore.com/communications/collection-islam-humanites-2024.md) · Conference paper 12th International Conference on Mande Studies, Institut des Sciences Humaines, Mali, 28 June 2024 - [La Collection Islam Afrique de l'Ouest: nouvelles perspectives sur l'histoire des communautés musulmanes via la presse et les humanités numériques](https://www.frederickmadore.com/communications/collection-islam-afrique-ouest.md) · Workshop presentation Enjeux éthiques et juridiques au diapason des données de la recherche en études aréales, Aix-en-Provence, Maison méditerranéenne des sciences de l’Homme, France, 25 March 2024 - [Launch of the Islam West Africa Collection](https://www.frederickmadore.com/communications/launch-islam-west-africa-collection.md) · Academic event Media in Cooperation and Transition (MiCT), Germany, 9 November 2023 - [Digital Humanities in the Making: The Islam Burkina Faso Collection](https://www.frederickmadore.com/communications/digital-humanities-islam-burkina-faso.md) · Lecture Open Day at ZMO, Leibniz-Zentrum Moderner Orient, Germany, 16 September 2022 - [Publishing the Islam Burkina Faso Collection: Collaboration for Digital Scholarship](https://www.frederickmadore.com/communications/publishing-islam-burkina-faso-collection-2022.md) · Conference paper 34th Deutscher Orientalistentag (DOT), Free University of Berlin, Germany, 15 September 2022 - [Publishing the Islam Burkina Faso Collection with Omeka S](https://www.frederickmadore.com/communications/islam-burkina-faso-collection-omeka-2022.md) · Conference paper 3rd Annual conference of the Africa Multiple Cluster of Excellence “Medialities”, University of Bayreuth, Germany, 8 July 2022