27 Nov 2025

DSFSI 2025 Retrospective (Day 4): Building Ecosystems, Growing Communities

Day 4 of our retrospective: From Kigali to Khayelitsha, celebrating the communities, conferences, and collaborations that define African AI.

Day 4 of our 7-day retrospective celebrating DSFSI’s remarkable 2025 journey.

Building Ecosystems, Growing Communities

Great research doesn’t happen in isolation. It emerges from communities—people sharing ideas, challenging assumptions, building together, and lifting each other up.

In 2025, DSFSI showed up for African AI communities across the continent and around the world. We didn’t just attend conferences; we co-created them. We didn’t just give talks; we facilitated conversations. We didn’t just publish papers; we built ecosystems.

🇷🇼 Deep Learning Indaba 2025: The Heart of African AI

August brought the annual pilgrimage to Deep Learning Indaba 2025 in Kigali, Rwanda—the premier gathering of African machine learning researchers, practitioners, and dreamers.

DSFSI’s presence was felt across multiple dimensions:

📊 Research Presentations

Thapelo Sindane presented: “Injecting explicit cross-lingual embeddings into pre-trained multilingual models for code-switching detection”

  • Exploring how cross-lingual models can better capture code-switching complexities in African contexts

Nontokozo Manukuza presented: “Teaching AI to Read Between the Lines: Interpreting isiZulu idiomatic expressions through retrieval-augmented fine-tuning”

  • Tackling one of NLP’s hardest challenges: understanding idioms and cultural expressions

Both posters sparked rich conversations about the technical and cultural dimensions of African language AI.

🛠️ Workshop Leadership

Centring Data in African AI Workshop

  • Co-organized by Thapelo Sindane
  • Examined technical and socio-technical aspects of African data
  • Highlighted how ownership, context, and ethics shape AI for the continent
  • Workshop website

Prof. Vukosi Marivate joined the closing panel, sharing insights on building resilient African data ecosystems.

🎤 Keynotes and Panels

AI Policy in Africa Keynote Panel (Wednesday)

  • Prof. Marivate discussed policy frameworks for equitable AI development
  • Addressed regulation, data sovereignty, and continental collaboration

Voices of Africa 2: Building the Infrastructure for African NLP Workshop (Friday)

  • Opening address by Prof. Marivate
  • Set the stage for conversations on sustainable NLP infrastructure
  • Workshop site

👥 The Extended DSFSI Family at Indaba

Beyond highlighted contributions, the DSFSI team was everywhere:

  • Dr. Idris Abdulmumin (Postdoctoral Fellow)
  • Dinorego Mphogo (Student)
  • Takura Wekwete (Student)
  • Fiskani Banda (Intern alum)

Our people presented posters, facilitated workshops, mentored junior researchers, and built connections that will shape African AI for years to come.

🇿🇦 IndabaX South Africa 2025

Before Kigali, we participated in IndabaX ZA 2025—bringing world-class machine learning education to South African communities.

IndabaX events democratize AI knowledge, making cutting-edge research accessible to students and practitioners who might not travel to international conferences.

Read more about IndabaX ZA 2025

🌍 Global AI Summit on Africa (April)

In April, DSFSI represented South African AI research at the Global AI Summit on Africa in Rwanda.

Our delegation:

  • Prof. Vukosi Marivate (PI, DSFSI)
  • Dr. Abiodun Modupe (Senior Member, DSFSI)
  • Dr. Kayode Olaleye (Postdoctoral Fellow, DSFSI)

Panel highlight: “GenAI Gaps and Opportunities for Inclusive Development” (Friday, April 4)

  • Prof. Marivate addressed how generative AI can serve—or exclude—African communities
  • Discussed infrastructure gaps, language barriers, and pathways to equitable access

The summit brought together policymakers, researchers, and industry leaders to shape Africa’s AI future. Being at the table meant ensuring African research voices shaped the conversation.

Read the March recap

Supported by: AI4D, IDRC, FCDO, Gates Foundation, and Meta

📚 Wikimania 2025: Knowledge as Commons

In August, DSFSI participated in Wikimania 2025—the annual gathering of Wikimedia contributors and open knowledge advocates.

Why does a data science research group care about Wikipedia?

Because knowledge infrastructure matters. Wikipedia’s multilingual model, community governance, and open licensing align deeply with our values:

  • Making knowledge accessible in African languages
  • Community-centered content creation
  • Open resources as public good

Our participation reinforced connections between African language NLP and digital knowledge preservation.

Read about Wikimania 2025

🤝 What These Communities Mean

Across all these gatherings, several themes emerged:

1. Ecosystem > Individual Achievement

Success isn’t measured by one lab’s papers—it’s measured by the health of the entire ecosystem. Are we training the next generation? Creating pathways for new voices? Building institutions that outlast us?

2. Pan-African Solidarity

From Kigali to Cape Town, the African AI community is connected by shared challenges and shared vision. We’re not competing; we’re collaborating.

3. Open Knowledge as Foundation

Whether through Indaba’s open tutorials, Wikimania’s knowledge commons, or our own open datasets—accessible knowledge drives equitable progress.

4. Policy + Research + Practice

The Global AI Summit reminded us that research must inform policy, and policy must enable practice. We can’t build African AI in silos.

📊 By the Numbers: 2025 Community Engagement

  • 4 major international conferences (Indaba, IndabaX, Global AI Summit, Wikimania)
  • 2 workshops co-organized (Centring Data, Voices of Africa 2)
  • Multiple keynote panels across events
  • 10+ team members representing DSFSI at Indaba alone
  • Thousands of community members reached

💬 Community Voices

“DSFSI isn’t just a research group—it’s a movement. Being part of Indaba with this team reminded me that we’re building something bigger than papers.” — DSFSI Student, Deep Learning Indaba 2025

“The Centring Data workshop challenged us to think beyond technical metrics. How do we measure fairness, equity, and community benefit? That’s the conversation African AI needs.” — Workshop Participant

🌱 Why This Matters

Communities aren’t just nice-to-have. They’re infrastructure.

They’re where:

  • Junior researchers find mentors
  • Crazy ideas get refined into research agendas
  • Isolated practitioners realize they’re not alone
  • Cross-institutional collaborations are born
  • Policy conversations include practitioner voices

In 2025, DSFSI invested heavily in community—because we know that’s how movements are built.

Tomorrow (Day 5): We celebrate knowledge sharing and capacity building—from postdoctoral seminars to workshops and the next generation we’re training.

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This is Day 4 of our 7-day retrospective. Tomorrow we explore how we’re building capacity and sharing knowledge across the African AI ecosystem.

#DSFSI2025 #CommunityBuilding #AfricanAI #DeepLearningIndaba