African Discoveries – Powered by The Methods Tree - Methods Lab

In this episode of African Discoveries, we sit down with Lindsey Wallett, founder of See-Contact Solutions, to explore a powerful yet often overlooked form of innovation, making better use of the technology we already have.

While many organisations rush to adopt new digital tools, Lindsey’s work focuses on uncovering inefficiencies within existing systems and helping businesses reduce service costs while improving customer experience. Through her insights, we learn that true transformation is not always about adding more, but about thinking differently.

The conversation unpacks the hidden challenges of customer service technology, the realities of digital transformation in African businesses, and the strategic thinking required to turn operational weaknesses into strengths. Lindsey also reflects on her journey as a founder, the lessons she has learned along the way, and her vision for the future of service optimisation in an AI-driven world.

This episode is a must-listen for entrepreneurs, business leaders, and anyone interested in innovation that is practical, impactful, and rooted in real-world problem solving.

In this episode of African Discoveries, host Shaun of Thought sits down with Blessing Chiparausha, University Librarian at Bindura University of Science Education, to explore one of Africa’s most overlooked engines of transformation: the academic library.

Far from being silent spaces, African libraries are emerging as powerful hubs of digital innovation, research visibility, and knowledge production. Together, they unpack how library resource sharing, social media, and free and open-source software are reshaping how African scholarship is created, accessed, and amplified.

The conversation dives into critical questions of epistemic justice, digital decolonisation, and intellectual sovereignty — asking who controls African knowledge, who makes it visible, and how the continent can move from consuming knowledge to producing it on its own terms.

This episode reframes the librarian not just as a custodian of books, but as a knowledge activist and architect of Africa’s intellectual future.

In this episode of African Discoveries, Shaun of thought sit down with youth leader and founder Tebatso Mamabolo to talk about dignity, leadership, and building African solutions for African communities.
From student leadership to founding the League of Dignity, her journey shows what happens when young people move from being recipients of change to creators of it.
This is a conversation about purpose, courage, and the power of youth to shape Africa’s future.

In this episode of African Discoveries, Shaun of Thought speaks with Kutloano Malahlela, founder of the Eye of Hope community Development Organisation. Established when he was just 14 years old, Eye of Hope responds to poverty, educational inequality, and cultural erosion through Afrocentric, community-driven approaches.

This conversation explores:

- Youth-led and African-centred development models

- Indigenous languages, literacy, and identity

- How lived experience and academic theory intersect in practice

-Organising hope into action--without waiting for external solutions

The first episode of the year on our African Discoveries, explores Ukuthunywa as an African-centred research methodology that challenges dominant Western academic traditions. Joined by Dr Nombulelo Shange, the conversation reframes Ukuthunywa—commonly understood as “being sent to run errands”—as a profound system of knowledge production rooted in service, spirituality, community, and ancestral guidance.
Drawing from Dr Shange’s ethnographic work with African healers known as the Mountain Doctors, the episode illustrates how Ukuthunywa transforms research from an extractive practice into a relational, ethical, and communal process. The discussion highlights African ethical principles such as ukuzithoba (humility), bika (stating one’s purpose), reciprocity, and learning through lived experience, dreams, and collective participation.
This episode argues that recognising Ukuthunywa as a legitimate methodology is essential for decolonising knowledge systems, reclaiming African intellectual spaces, and advancing African-led science and solutions grounded in indigenous epistemologies.

Welcome to African Discoveries. Today we have the honour of speaking with Professor Sisanda Nkoala, a distinguished scholar whose work has significantly contributed to our understanding of visual culture, methodologies, and how representation interacts with power, identity, and memory.

In this episode, we’ll explore visual methodologies from an African perspective, how African scholars, artists, and communities are not merely consumers of visual technologies or traditions, but active discoverers, adaptors, and innovators of visual knowledge.

Welcome to today’s episode of African Discovery, where we explore the innovations, voices, and knowledge systems shaping the continent and the world. Our guest is Bobby Shabangu, the President of Wikimedia South Africa and a leading advocate for decolonising knowledge through Wikipedia.

Bobby has been at the forefront of transforming how Africa documents and shares its stories, especially by finding ways to reference and publish oral knowledge that has long been passed down across generations, but too often left out of written archives. Today, we’ll talk about what it means to decolonise our knowledge systems, the role of Wikipedia in amplifying African voices, and how the future of digital knowledge might finally reflect the richness of African realities.

We’re thrilled to welcome Dr. Collence Takaingenhamo Chisita, a distinguished scholar in Library and Information Science, as our special guest.

Join us as we unpack the evolving role of libraries and digital libraries in the digital age.

Dr. Chisita has collaborated with leading institutions including UNISA, Durban University of Technology, and the UJ Methods Lab, and has made remarkable contributions through his books, chapters, and research publications.

Don’t miss this insightful conversation on innovation, knowledge, and the future of information access.

Episode 2 – African Discoveries (Powered by UJ Methods Lab)
In this episode, we welcome Dr. Sizwe Zwelakhe Dlamini, Senior Lecturer in the Department of African Languages at the University of Johannesburg. Together, we dive into the concept of SHAKAI, unpack the importance of linguistic justice, and reflect on how artificial intelligence is influencing Africa’s cultural and linguistic future. This thought-provoking conversation highlights the intersection of technology, identity, and language, offering fresh insights into how Africa can shape its own digital destiny.

Welcome to the official podcast of the UJ Methods Lab, a space for thinking, questioning, and reshaping how we do research. In this episode, Distinguished Professor Kevin Durrheim sets the scene for what the UJ Methods Lab is all about. He reflects on the Lab’s vision as a collaborative and dynamic space for rethinking research, one that values context, creativity, and care.

This episode explores the foundations of the Methods Lab, the importance of grounded methodologies, and why experimenting with how we do research is essential for both academic and community-based knowledge-making.

Whether you're a student, scholar, or practitioner, this conversation invites you to imagine new possibilities for research that is engaged, experimental, and deeply rooted in the world we live in.