For centuries, the African storyteller — the griot, imbongi, shanachie, or local elder — has served as the living archive of communities. Through them, African memory has been transmitted across generations: stories of migration, battles, kings, spirituality, and ancestral wisdom. In an age where Artificial Intelligence (AI) is becoming an unavoidable force in global culture, a new question emerges: What happens when the griot meets the algorithm? And more importantly — who controls the story?

Today, AI is reshaping how content is produced, archived, and shared. From automatic translation tools to generative text and video platforms, AI is accelerating storytelling at a scale Africa has never witnessed. But beneath the excitement lies a deeper tension: AI can preserve African narratives, yet it can also distort them or place them in the hands of global companies with no cultural accountability.

The continent now stands at a crossroads. The next decade will determine whether African storytelling becomes more empowered — or whether digital colonialism becomes the new threat to cultural sovereignty.