Digital Empowerment: African Women and Creative Media

Abstract

Drawing from seven years' research with women singers, dancers, emcees, and ritual practitioners in Senegal and beyond, Dr. Neff examines the ways in which ethnic traditions intersect with the possibility of digital futures. Although their work is often overlooked in conventional conversations about digital invention, African women engage digital technologies--from the hip-hop recording studio, to religious media, to pop videos, and, perhaps most importantly, social media, in ways that contribute to their global social empowerment.