Fallou Ngom

Panel II
Fallou Ngom, Boston University
Ajami Digital Scholarship: Challenges and Opportunities

Although written records are rarely regarded as part of sub-Saharan Africa’s intellectual heritage, important bodies of Ajami literature (records of African languages written in Arabic script) have existed in Africa for centuries. I show in this talk how Ajami Digital Scholarship can ensure that African Ajami manuscripts are no longer treated as insignificant vestiges, but rather as major sources of local knowledge without which a holistic and in-depth understanding of Africa will remain elusive.