SAFOS 2025 EXPLORES THE TRANSFORMATION OF FOLKLORE FROM FIREPLACE TO DIGITAL SPACE

The Southern African Folklore Society (SAFOS) International Conference 2025 officially opened at Walter Sisulu University’s Mthatha Campus on 22 September 2025, bringing together scholars, cultural custodians, and creatives to reflect on the theme: “Transformation of Folklore: From the Fireplace to the Digital Space.”

Hosted by WSU’s Department of African Languages, the four-day gathering runs until 25 September 2025 and is set to feature paper presentations, workshops, and poster sessions that interrogate folklores’ role in contemporary society.

Delivering the welcome address, WSU’s Deputy Vice-Chancellor for Research and Innovation, Prof Nosisi Feza, emphasised the importance of the theme for African scholarship.

“What was once shared around the fireplace now finds new life in podcasts, digital archives, and virtual storytelling platforms. This evolution is not a departure from tradition, it is its continuation,” she said.

Feza highlighted that the conference affirms WSU’s commitment to advancing indigenous knowledge systems, while aligning research and innovation with the lived realities of African communities.

The conference is aimed at deepening understanding of folklore as a dynamic and adaptive knowledge system.

The keynote speaker and University of Johannesburg Department of African Languages Senior Lecturer, Dr Lukhanyo Elvis Makhenyane, delivered his address titled “Qashi qashi, ndinamntu wam…: Folklore(ing) in the Digital Age and Space.”

Blending personal anecdotes with scholarship, Dr Makhenyane illustrated folklore’s journey from imbawula storytelling circles to TikTok, memes, and hashtags. While celebrating the digital era’s capacity to preserve and expand folklores reach, he warned against cultural appropriation, misinformation, and intellectual atrophy.

“Our philosophers spoke in proverbs, our scientists encoded medicinal knowledge in myths, and our historians recited genealogies,” he said.

Makhenyane reminded the delegates that when the roots are deep, there is no need to fear the wind, calling for authenticity and depth as folklore mutates in digital spaces.

Both Feza and Makhenyane highlighted that folklore is not a vanishing tradition but a living, creative practice that adapts across generations.

By Anita Roji