Methods and tools for reading culture at scale.

A survey course exploring what Digital Humanities looks like in African scholarly and cultural contexts. Students encounter foundational DH methods — text analysis, data modelling, digital archives, and network mapping — through African case studies drawn from literature, oral tradition, philosophy, and cultural heritage.

A 13-module practicum for DH scholars in Africa. Learn to analyse African literary, historical, and archival texts using Voyant Tools with an integrated Large Language Model companion — no prior programming experience required. Each module pairs a Voyant visualisation with an LLM interpretation in Spyral Notebooks.

Introduction to Spyral platform – workspace setup, basic modules, and initial analyses. **Prerequisites:** This course is designed for complete beginners. No prior experience with Spyral, Voyant Tools, or programming is required. Participants will need access to a computer with a modern web browser and an internet connection. A free GitHub account is highly recommended to take full advantage of the saving and sharing features, and instructions for creating one are provided. **Learning outcomes:** Upon successful completion of this introductory course, participants will be able to confidently navigate the Spyral notebook environment. They will be able to create new notebooks, add and organize both Text and Code cells, and edit the notebook’s metadata to properly document their work. Learners will understand the different methods for saving their projects, including saving to the Spyral server via GitHub authentication and exporting read-only HTML files for sharing or personal backup. Furthermore, graduates will have mastered the fundamental workflow of the Spyral interface and the basics of web presentation. They will know how to run code cells, interpret their output, and use essential HTML tags to structure their narrative, as well as apply basic CSS to create professional-looking reports. This course provides the foundational skills necessary to use Spyral as a powerful tool for documenting, reproducing, and sharing digital humanities research.

A structured journey from your first text analysis in Voyant Tools through to intermediate Spyral programming. Covers installation, core text-mining techniques, vocabulary and theme analysis, and hands-on scripting in Spyral Notebooks — all in one place.