African Digital Cultures

James Yékú teaches African literature and postcolonial digital humanities at the University of Kansas. His work sits at the intersection of African cultural production and digital humanities, and he is the author of Cultural Netizenship: Social Media, Popular Culture, and Performance in Nigeria (Indiana University Press, 2022) and The Algorithmic Age of Personality: African Literature and Cancel Culture (Michigan State University Press, 2025).Leah Junck is a senior researcher and digital anthropologist at the Global Center on AI Governance in South Africa. Her work explores how computational technologies shape human relationships, future imaginaries, and the interplay between personal tech experiences, structural frameworks, and public discourse.

• List of ContributorsAfrican Digital Cultures: IntroductionJames Yékú and Leah JunckPart 1: InfrastructuresChapter 1: “Big Auntie Like Me”: The Humor of the Digital DivideAdwoa A. Opoku-AgyemangChapter 2: Youth as Digital Infrastructure: Radical Openings, Internet Shutdowns, and Forward MomentumsClovis BergereChapter 3: Digital Citizens of an Analog State: Infrastructure and Epistemic Closures in NigeriaJames YékúChapter 4: Counting Water for an African future? Smart Water Billing in South AfricaIna Dietzsch and Amber AbramsPart 2: PlatformsChapter 5: Technologies of Capture: From the Slave Ship to InstagramEjiofor UgwuChapter 6: Podcasts and Emerging Listenerships in KenyaDina LigagaChapter 7: Undisciplining the Digital: Multimodal Poetry as Decolonial Method in Koleka Putuma’s Hullo Bu-bye Koko Come In (2021)Susanna SacksChapter 8: Locating African Cultural Agency in the Global Digital Economy: The Case of Music Platform Insider ActivistsJaana SerresChapter 9: Debating the Ethics of Ownership and Appropriation in Global Digital Afrobeats CultureBakar Abdul-Rashid Jeduah & Tom SimmertChapter 10: Sharevangelism: Religion, Technology, and Platform RelationsAdunni AdelakunPart 3: PublicsChapter 11: “I Don’t Take Card”: What Uber Drivers and Users in Ghana Can Teach Us about Localizing Foreign Technology.” Elias Adanu and Stephen DadugblorChapter 12: Digital Citizenship in Nigeria: Claims Making, Civic Engagement and Social Justice Activism on XOchega Etu- AtagubaChapter 13: Voices of the Ordinary People in the Digital Era: Rebuttals to A President’s Facebook EulogySelina Linda MudavanhuChapter 14: Media Identities and Risks: Mobile Money and the Dilemmas of Digital Exposure in Urban CameroonPrimus M. TazanuIndex