Tactical Tech

Digital You: creating a movement around digital and media literacy in Sub-Saharan Africa

8 minutes read | First published: October 14, 2022

The Digital You initiative is a collaboration between Goethe-Institut Kinshasa and Tactical Tech, that invites young people in Sub-Saharan African countries to think critically about their relationship with digital technologies and how tech influences their lives.

The initiative brings together the Goethe-Institutes of Abidjan, Accra, Addis Abeba, Antananarivo, Dakar, Johannesburg, Kigali, Kinshasa, Lagos and Nairobi and partners in 10 Sub-Saharan African countries to create campaigns and training activities on digital and media literacy.

Watch a video about Digital You on Vimeo.

Our history:

In 2021, Digital You supported 20 partners across 11 countries to conceptualize workshop curricula, podcasts, videos, roundtables, events, and competitions promoting verification skills, digital safety, privacy, and online well-being. The project hosted two Knowledge Exchange Summits for partners to promote conversations about how data collection is used to influence political campaigns worldwide, misinformation and verification skills.

In 2022, Digital You extended its work with 12 Lead Partners to develop workshops and events and produce different educational resources like podcasts and videos across Sub-Saharan African countries. Partners were also offered one-on-one support in developing their plans as well as networking opportunities.

Get to know the 2022 lead partners and their projects:

Multimedia Initiatives: Podcasts, Radio, Videos

A few of our 2022 Lead Partners created audio formats as podcasts and online radio shows. Learn more about them here:

  • Africa Matters (South Africa) is a youth-led organisation that empowers African youth between the ages of 12 and 35, providing them with the skills and tools to transform their communities and the African narrative through media, leadership development, social entrepreneurship and advocacy skills. They had an existing podcast, which they added a series of episodes to in the frame of Digital You on the topics surrounding technology, digital activism, as well as online safety and privacy. Listen to Farai from Africa Matters describe their Digital You project on Vimeo.

    Video and image courtesy of Goethe-Institut Kinshasa.

  • Habari (DR Congo) enables young people across social networks to hold democratic debates and disseminates different resources and materials to combat youth manipulation and misinformation. Habari developed a series of podcasts on misinformation and fact-checking for the Digital You project. Each podcast includes a segment on fact-checking news from social networks, an interview with an expert, and a game. Listen to Iggort from Habari RDC describe their Digital You project on Vimeo.

    Video and image courtesy of Goethe-Institut Kinshasa.

  • Vernacular Art-Space Laboratory (VAL) (Nigeria) is a non-profit artist initiative where artists cohabit to exchange ideas and co-create works with uncommon flair. VAL developed an online community radio station to create a virtual meeting space for educative artistic interventions, entertainment, intellectual interactions and information on arts and culture, to provide day-to-day information on socio-political matters, content on popular cultures and artistic endeavours. Listen to Uche from VAL share concerns about digitization in Nigeria on Vimeo. Find ICRadio on Zeno.fm.

    Video and image courtesy of Goethe-Institut Kinshasa.

  • The Fabulous Woman Network (Ghana) supports the growth of women-led businesses providing them with entrepreneurial skills through activities and training programs. In the frame of Digital You they developed a series of videos about young women who learn about the importance of protecting their information and about the problems with sharing data with others. Each video ends in a call to action for viewers to learn more through the Data Detox Kit. Listen to Ama from The Fabulous Woman Network describe their Digital You project on Vimeo.

Training Initiatives and Events

A number of partners were interested in developing and conducting trainings, as they already had networks and a history of doing similar work, or they wished to develop those skills further. Learn about some of those activities here:

  • Amontana (Madagascar) works with young people in Ambositra and provides them with free computer training, project creation, fish farming, e-learning tools and artistic awakening. Through Digital You they organized college tours to raise awareness about online violence and facilitated an inter-college competition asking young people to find solutions to digital addiction and the protection of youths online.

  • Efuye Gela (Ethiopia) run various initiatives, including Chewata Awaqi (a startup that specialises in game thinking), D5 (a developer community building platform), Efuye Gela Publishers (an Ethiopian creative ecosystem building initiative), and more. In the frame of Digital You, they developed an initiative called "We the People", which included a discussion space about the effects of technology on society and to re-imagine the internet, as well as a digital wellbeing community (#CyberJanitors) that meets regularly to discuss, experiment, and showcase crucial digital content and ways of navigating the cyberspace. Listen to Dagmawi from Efuye Gela describe their Digital You project on Vimeo.

    Video and image courtesy of Goethe-Institut Kinshasa.

  • International Center for Accelerated Development (ICAD) (Nigeria) empowers young people around Nigeria with reliable information and opportunities through ICT. In the frame of Digital You, they developed a training of trainers workshop, peer-to-peer digital education (high quality training and mentorship for select in-school youths), formed ‘Digital You’ clubs in schools, wrote a training manual adapting Tactical Tech resources, plus produced of short how-to videos. Listen to Kevin from ICAD describe their Digital You project on Vimeo.

    Video and image courtesy of Goethe-Institut Kinshasa.

  • IRIBA Center for Multimedia Heritage (Rwanda), situated at the intersection between academia and fieldwork, chooses a holistic, interdisciplinary and intercultural approach focused on complementarity and interculturality. In the frame of Digital You, they developed workshops and held discussions on all aspects of online lives, focusing mostly on wellbeing and online harms.

  • Jemmimah Ihura (Kenya) empowers youth people through life skills programs. Some skills include CV writing, networking & interview skills, basic computer skills, fundamentals of public speaking, becoming a digital champion, and building on your leadership skills. In the frame of Digital You, she developed a series of 1-2 hours workshops which incorporated videos and activities to explore the following topics: misinformation, verification, online safety, and data privacy. Topics were inspired by the Data Detox Kit and Digital Enquirer Kit resources. Listen to Jemmimah describe her Digital You project on Vimeo.

    Video and image courtesy of Goethe-Institut Kinshasa. Explore and borrow Jemmie's workshop outlines below.

  • mJangale (Senegal) works to democratise coding by offering various courses and activities that cover mobile and web development, data science and artificial intelligence. In the frame of Digital You, they implemented a training series and coding competition called Coding4You. Coding4You consisted of 3 parts: 1) students take the Digital Enquirer Kit course to learn about how to verify information and navigate the internet safely; 2) students are taught fundamentals of coding; 3) students work in small groups to conceptualize and prototype apps which combine what they learned through the Digital Enquirer Kit and the coding courses, showcasing their new skills and learnings. Watch their Coding4You playlist on YouTube Listen to Christelle from mJangale describe their Digital You project on Vimeo.

    Video and image courtesy of Goethe-Institut Kinshasa.

  • Ubunteam (Cote d’Ivoire) work focuses on issues such as Digital security, Digital inclusion, and Internet Governance. For the Digital You, they developed a series of training programmes (workshops) focused on digital security, privacy, misinformation and foundation of the community clubs. They also tested a Data Detox club as a form of peer-to-peer training. Listen to Ibrahim from Ubunteam share concerns about digitization in in the Ivory Coast on Vimeo.

    Video and image courtesy of Goethe-Institut Kinshasa.

  • Yusuf Ganyana (Kenya) is responsible for the user support and assistance as a librarian. He developed a series of one-hour workshops inspired by the Digital Enquirer Kit resource which looked into: cookies, data breaches, deepfakes, geotagging (metadata), and passwords. Lesson plans provided in-depth and step-by-step guidances for facilitators, making it simple for any trainer to pick up and understand. Explore and borrow Yusuf's lesson plans below in English, French, Swahili, and Portuguese.