The Research Project

Decoding Origins Web Portal addresses the concerns of accessible design and deployment of a visual database and an interface which facilitates storage, access, and analysis of this textual and visual information by scholars of historical and contemporary of Africa. We have developed this web-based platform and searchable visual database enabling in-depth and accurate analyses of manuscripts, potentially revealing individual’s identities and origins. In addition, this web portal will is suuported by machine learning-based virtual mathematical models that are capable of cross-referencing individuals with all known patterns in the database, powering the likelihood of identifying kinship and birthplace. This research work will shed new light on demographic change, individual identities and patterns of slave-taking. This new interfaces we have designed, giving accessible access to the data visualizations and the database, will become tools to study familial history as we further refine them. The digital architecture of the Decoding Origins Web Portal allows specialists to add and organize information for diverse analyses, and to ideate and perform research projects based on the curated data. The ultimate goals of this project are to respect the provenance of important historical and personal data, and to use design, data gathering, analytics and visualization to join with ongoing efforts to restore and recover African identities which the slave trade sought to erase.

 Collaborating Projects