A Gendered Intervention: Digital Preservation of West African Cultural Heritage in Ethiopia, 2021–2026

This intervention study examines the intersection of gender, digital technology, and intangible cultural heritage within West African diaspora communities in Ethiopia. It confronts a dual problem: the systemic under-representation of these communities in Ethiopia’s national heritage record, compounded by the disproportionate exclusion of women from digital archiving processes. This exclusion risks a profound, gendered loss of intergenerational knowledge. To address this, the research objective was to implement and critically assess a participatory, women-led digital preservation project. Employing a community-based participatory research methodology from 2023 to 2025, the project trained 45 women from Nigerian, Ghanaian, and Senegalese communities in Addis Ababa in digital storytelling and archival techniques. Participants co-created a digital repository documenting oral histories, culinary practices, textile crafts, and musical performances. Analysis demonstrates that the intervention not only archived over 200 digital artefacts but also catalysed a significant shift in participants’ roles, empowering them as recognised cultural custodians. This process fostered intra-community dialogue and strengthened diasporic cultural identity. The study contends that centring women’s agency in digital preservation fundamentally reorients archival praxis towards greater inclusivity and epistemic justice. Its significance lies in offering a replicable model for gendered digital intervention, asserting that the sustainable safeguarding of African cultural heritage in the digital age must be built upon the active participation and authority of its women bearers.