A new dataset is the outcome of a collaboration with the Centre for Creative Arts, UKZN. This dataset includes biographical information on all the poets who performed at the Poetry Africa festival from 1997 to 2022. The dataset builds on data compiled by University of Kwa-Zulu Natal’s Centre for Creative Arts, as part of a broader Poetry Africa Archive Project. The project was conceptualised by Dr. Ismail Mahomed [Director] and Siphindile Hlongwa [Curator for Literature Festivals] and funded by The National Institute for Humanities and Social Sciences. Karen Byera Ijumba and Steve Jones developed the data organisation and collection structure and flow, and Ijumba was supported by Sinazo ‘Momo’ Gamedala and Sizwe Hlophe in extracting the date, geographical, biographical and visual data from Poetry Africa Festival Catalogues (1997 – 2022). The foundational data set was first published as the Poetry Africa Digital Map.
ALMEDA intern, Max van Loenen structured Poetry Africa’s existing data, extracted biographical elements from the unstructured prose biographies given by each poet, and then enriched this data through reconciling it with Wikidata and VIAF data. The outcome is a major contribution to the ALMEDA project, which will be linking data about all these poets in its repository.
van Loenen, M., Ijumba, K., Jones, S., Hlongwa, S., Gamedala, S., & Hlope, S. (2025). Poets’ Biographical Data: Poetry Africa Festival 1997–2022 [Data set]. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.14963202
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