Research & Insights · AI & ethics

AI & ethics

Explore essays and reflections on ai & ethics, grounded in African realities and open to new questions.

2 August 2026

One road does not fit all

Why interventions must be fit for purpose Development is built on solutions. Roads improve access. Schools improve education. Health centres improve health. Credit improves live…

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AI & ethics

28 July 2026

The wrong solution to the right problem

What counts as evidence in development? I am a mathematician. Numbers make sense to me. Equations make sense to me. Econometrics makes sense to me. Models bring order to complex…

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AI & ethics

28 July 2026

The economy the market cannot see

Rethinking poverty, livelihoods and economic activity. The questionnaire was designed to measure consumption. But the people I interviewed were not consuming in the way the ques…

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AI & ethics

13 February 2026

Mama, how did you build a world without a phone?

My children ask me now. They hold sleek devices in their palms. They swipe, tap, and connect instantly to anyone anywhere. They ask with genuine curiosity, a little bewilderment…

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AI & ethics

8 January 2026

The nobody at home

A visitor comes to the door. The call goes out. Is there anyone here? Is anyone at home? From within, a woman’s voice answers. No. Nobody. But she is there. Her daughters are th…

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AI & ethics

31 December 2025

Who CODEs the digital rules for gender justice?

Can a digital tool be neutral? A government launches an online portal for reporting gender-based violence. The technical achievement is clear. Now consider the woman in a rural…

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AI & ethics

24 December 2025

Your name is raw material: When AI confidently erases you

What does it feel like to watch a machine assemble a stranger and label it you ? It is not a minor error. It is a quiet violence. I asked an AI who I am. It gave me four differe…

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AI & ethics

14 December 2025

I asked AI who I am. It lied

I asked an AI who I am. It gave me four answers. Four different lives. Four confident, detailed biographies of complete strangers. It lied every time. The first described a tele…

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AI & ethics

12 December 2025

Your silence is his permission: The bystander's bargain

Your inaction is not passive. It is an active, internal transaction. In the heartbeat between seeing harm and looking away, you make a bargain. You trade her safety for your com…

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AI & ethics

1 December 2025

The currency of power: Economic violence as the invisible chain

We are taught to recognise violence in the bruise, the broken bone, the shouted threat. But we are less adept at tracing its outlines in an empty purse, a stolen business profit…

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AI & ethics

26 October 2025

Building a Modern Village: Reclaiming Community in Our Lives

We often hear the proverb, "It takes a village to raise a child." For our ancestors, this was not just a saying; it was a practical reality. The village was a living network of…

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AI & ethics

12 October 2025

Reclaiming Our Mother Tongue, Our Stolen Dignity

We often use the term "mother tongue," yet we must speak of our mother's tongue—and the profound dignity it carries. This matter transcends language itself. It strikes at our ri…

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