Situating digital storytelling within African communities

We reflect on the methods, activities and perspectives we used to situate digital storytelling in two rural African communities in South Africa and Kenya. We demonstrate how in-depth ethnography in a village in the Eastern Cape of South Africa and a design workshop involving participants from that village allowed us to design a prototype mobile digital storytelling system suited to the needs of rural, oral users. By leveraging our prototype as a probe and observing villagers using it in two villages in South Africa and Kenya, we uncovered implications for situating digital storytelling within those communities. Finally, we distil observations relevant to localizing storytelling and their implications for transferring design into a different community.

Research highlights► This research situates digital storytelling in rural African communities. ► It shows the relevance of a dialogical approach. ► We localize and design a mobile digital storytelling system. ► Observations point towards a rural African interpretation of digital storytelling. ► In this setting, stories strongly reflect social relations and identity.