What do you do as a Research Fellow?

My PhD fellowship at Huma forms part of a larger research cohort funded by the Carnegie Corporation of New York, called Future Hospitals: 4IR and the Ethics of Care in Africa. My ethnographic research concerns understanding how an AI-driven technology in Zambia is changing maternal care practices in Zambia. It contributes to scholarship on care ethics concerning digital technology and digital anthropology. Collectively, fellows at Huma think about the state of the 4IR by interrogating how the African continent grapples with industrial changes impacting humanity and livelihoods.

What’s been a highlight of your career so far?

Harnessing the value of the social sciences in the improvement of digital innovation. There is a significant bias on how technologies are designed, which favour less on people from developing countries. Providing an interdisciplinary approach to AI-driven technology of the Internet contributes to designing more user-friendly and culturally sensitive applications. Furthermore, it enhances the ethical and inclusive development of AI systems to address a plethora of needs and avoid potential bias.

Looking back, what advice would you give to current students?

Students should network as much as possible with their peers, professors, and professionals in their field of interest. Taking part in extracurricular activities is important when showcasing your leadership skills. Should you find an opportunity to intern, this would enhance your skills and provide insights on future career paths. While the social sciences are largely qualitative, it helps familiarising yourself with some statistical analysis software, data visualisation tools or anything else related to improving your technology proficiency, which might give you a competitive edge in the future.

What are some of the challenges you have faced in your career?

While working for two startups at the HighTechXL, it was difficult translating complex anthropological insights for tech-focused teams and navigating fast-paced development cycles that don't’ align with traditional research timelines. There remains a resistance in integrating qualitative, human-centric research methods within tech spaces that prioritise quantitative approaches.

What is the most fulfilling part of your job?

Studying the interaction of people and technology and AI offers insights on the shifts in our societal dynamics. Realising the value of qualitative or empirical research in innovation and technology is quite fulfilling as significant aspects of my work provide valuable user experience insights for the technologies I study. Furthermore, having interdisciplinary engagements with others working in policy, computer science, engineering and ethicists fosters our mutual learning and enriches anthropology as a discipline overall.

What pulled you towards your field?

Having been exposed to the technological entrepreneurship space in Brainport Eindhoven, I became curious about the creativity and innovation in Southern Africa, presenting infrastructural and economic inequalities. Colonial legacies shape patterns of tech development, inequality and access; furthermore, the existing diversity in our region, environmental challenges and resource extraction all of which intersect with technological interventions encourage me to inquire on how innovators might be adapting technology to serve their communities. This engagement is necessary for the improvement of frameworks that govern data or technology in developing countries.

How do you see your industry evolving in the near future?

Anthropology in Southern Africa could evolve to incorporate the social impact of emerging technologies, as researchers explore how these technologies shape human interactions, redefine social structures and influence our practices. In the past few years, the Internet has expanded on metaverses with which most of us engage, reordering our interactions and structures. These changes in life prompt shifts in the discipline that is transcending beyond traditional ethnographic methods through the study of virtual environments. Here, new methodological tools for data collection and analysis encompassed by digital ethnography enables the study of social phenomena in new ways.