African Digital Heritage: Advancing African Culture Through Digital Technology

Overview

African Digital Heritage (ADH) is a Nairobi-based non-profit organisation working at the intersection of storytelling, culture, and technology to promote a critical, holistic, and knowledge-based approach to digital solutions for African cultural heritage. ADH focuses on digital preservation, documentation, and visualisation, partnering with institutions across the African continent to highlight heritage at risk of destruction or disappearance.

History and Founding

African Digital Heritage was founded in 2017 by Chao Tayiana Maina, a Kenyan historian and digital humanities scholar. Maina, who is also a 2023 Dan David Prize winner and a Google Anita Borg Fellow for Women in Technology, established ADH in response to an urgent need to address the fragility and invisibility of African cultural heritage in an era of rapidly changing technologies. The organisation grew out of a recognition that Kenya's cultural treasures — from ancient archives and oral histories to monuments — were slipping through the cracks of history without sustainable preservation infrastructure.

Projects and Activities

ADH has undertaken notable projects including Save The Railway (documenting Kenya's historic railway heritage), the McMillan Library archives digitisation in Nairobi, and the Mau Mau detention mapping project, which traces and visualises the history of detention during Kenya's 1950s State of Emergency. ADH also produced a report on the state of audiovisual archives in Nairobi and Kenya. The Skills for Culture (S4C) programme, created in 2019 as part of the British Council's Cultural Heritage For Inclusive Growth initiative, delivered practical skills training to heritage practitioners across Nairobi, Mombasa, and Kisumu. ADH has received recognition and funding from the British Council, Open Society Foundation, and European Union.

Media and Journalism Relevance

ADH's work on digitising press and audiovisual archives — including the McMillan Library newspaper collections — contributes directly to the preservation of Kenya's media heritage. The organisation's report on audiovisual archives in Nairobi is a key reference for understanding the state of broadcast and film heritage preservation in the country.

Access and Usage

ADH's resources, publications, podcasts, toolkits, webinars, and blog posts are available on the organisation's website at africandigitalheritage.org. The organisation engages with both institutional partners and the general public.