Paper Details

Name: Sanjeev Kumar
Country: India

Year: 2026
Volume: Volume No: 13, Issue No: 1 (January-June)
Page Number: 231-236
DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.22704426

ABSTRACT
The present research paper uses the writings of Kofi Awoonor and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie to analyse how African cultural memory has evolved from oral tradition to artificial intelligence. It examines how Adichie’s reconstruction of African histories and identities and Awoonor’s interaction with Ewe oral traditions, ancestral memory, and cultural continuity challenge colonial control over representation and knowledge, drawing on postcolonial and decolonial viewpoints. In addition to posing a threat of digital colonialism through linguistic marginalisation, data extraction, and algorithmic bias, the article illustrates that artificial intelligence represents a new technical site for the creation, preservation, and dissemination of cultural memory. It further argues that current epistemic hierarchies may be replicated by the under representation of African languages and indigenous knowledge in artificial intelligence systems. The paper recommends a decolonial approach to artificial intelligence that supports African linguistic, cultural, and epistemic sovereignty by putting African literary memory into conversation with algorithmic technology.

Keywords: African cultural memory; Kofi Awoonor; Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie; oral tradition; artificial intelligence; digital colonialism; decolonisation; epistemic sovereignty.