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Nairobi Spoken Word dataset

We’re delighted to share the completion of a project carried out by poet and Swahili lecturer (at the Centre for African Studies, Copenhagen University) Lisa Mumbi Macharia. This dataset documents over 10 years of spoken word poetry performances in the city of Nairobi.

Mumbi recorded 628 performances from between March 2015 and November 2024, extracting much of this data from posters and social media sites. The dataset highlights the creative voices shaping Nairobi’s urban culture, featuring poets’ names, performance dates, languages used, and links to many performance videos and posters.

If you are interested in this dataset, you can request a copy from almeda@uu.se. The data will be uploaded to the ALMEDA data repository, which will be available for searching towards the end of 2025.

Messy Data, Ephemeral Literatures, and the Future African Archive, Centre of African Studies, University of Copenhagen, 6 May 2026

Ashleigh Harris will present ALMEDA’s work with ‘Messy Data’ at the Centre of African Studies, University of Copenhagen at 15:00 on 6 May 2026. Abstract: A significant portion of African Literature and expressive cultures – from the late 19th century to the present – has been produced as print, audio, video,…

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Linked Open Data and the Future of the African Literary Archive, Campus Condorcet, Paris and Online, 10 April 14:00-16:00 CET.

Join us for a talk by Ashleigh Harris on the ways in which the ALMEDA project uses Linked Open Data and the Semantic Web to create sustainable data on African Literature and expressive culture.

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Locating Film in the Multiple Geographies of the Audiovisual Archive: 26 March 2026, Uppsala University

We are delighted to invite you to this symposium, which focuses on the ways in which audiovisual archives and film historiography in African and diasporic contexts are entangled with one another.   Bringing together film and screen media scholars, filmmakers, curators, and archivists, the symposium will explore the impact of…

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Materialities of Oral Cultures in East Africa: An Online Symposium, 12 March 2026

Join us for a symposium organised by ALMEDA postdoctoral fellow, Gloria Ajami Makokha, on the ‘Materialities of Oral Cultures in East Africa’.

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