Nikitta Dede Abena Adjirakor, PhD
Dr. Nikitta Dede Abena Adjirakor is an activist-scholar committed to designing educational and cultural systems. She has taught undergraduate and graduate courses in literary theory, research methods, and African and postcolonial studies. Her publications and research interests revolve around multilingualism, popular culture, death narratives, digital humanities, African and world literature, and decolonial education. She is also a multilingual creative writer and is the author of multiple children鈥檚 books in English with translations into French, Ga, and Asante Twi. Her debut poetry chapbook, 鈥淟earning to Say my Name,鈥� was published by The African Poetry Book Fund in 2023 and explores the intersections between language, death, and Black women鈥檚 sexual and reproductive health. She is also a writer for and the producer of the film 鈥淎 Thousand Needles鈥�, which expands upon similar themes of language and health.
Courses Taught
Urban Cultures, Social Innovation, and the Afro-Chic
Sankofa: Cultural Legacies and Afro-Futures
Research Methods and Ethics
Selected Publications
Adjirakor, N. D. (2025). Ga Literature as Ultraminor Literature: Contesting the Texture of a Ghanaian Multilingual National Literature. Journal of World Literature, 10, 499 – 518.
Adjirakor, N. D. (2025). Ga Literature in the Digital Space as Afrophone Literary Activism. Journal of the African Literature Association, 1-15.
Adjirakor, N. D. (2022). Funding Popular Culture in Tanzania: Crowdfunding, Self-funding and the Live Performance as Fundraiser. In G, Musila (Ed.). Routledge Handbook of African Popular Culture (pp. 222-236), London: Routledge.
Adjirakor, N. D. (2021). The Vibe is Really Important: Experiencing Hip-hop and Performance Poetry in Dar es Salaam. Eastern African Literary and Cultural Studies, 7(4), 245-257.
Adjirakor, N. D. (2021). Fieldwork as Decolonising African Literary Studies: Researching Tanzanian Hip-hop and Spoken Word Poetry as a Ghanaian.鈥� University of Bayreuth African Studies Working Papers, BIGSASworks!, 27(10) 40-54.
Adjirakor, N. D. (2020). Represent 255: Language, Style and the Construction of Identity in Tanzanian English Hip-hop.鈥� Linguistics Vanguard, 6(4), 1-7.
Adjirakor, N. D. (2017). Constructing the African City through Hip-hop in 鈥楴ai ni ya who?鈥� by Muthoni the Drummer Queen. Research in African Literatures, 48(1), 116-134.
Selected Presentations
Adjirakor, N.D. (2025, May 6). The Work of Publishing in African Languages [Presentation]. Recalibrating Afrikanistik Forum, University of Bayreuth, Germany.
Adjirakor, N. D. (2024, November 20-22). African Language Literature in the Digital Space [Poster Presentation]. Alexander von Humboldt Network Meeting, Erlangen, Germany.
Adjirakor, N.D. (2024, February 29). Digital Afrophone Literature: Marginalized Languages and Digital Geographies [Presentation]. Institute of African Studies Seminar, Emory University Atlanta, USA.
Adjirakor, N.D. (2023, December 16). Mourning a Country: Elegy, Orality and the Postcolony in Ghanaian Contemporary Poetry [Paper Presentation]. Point Sud Conference, University of Ghana, Ghana.
Adjirakor, N.D. (2022, October 27 鈥� 29). Between Theory and Practice: Contemporary Ghanaian Intellectual Activists and the Project of Decolonisation [Paper Presentation]. Global Ghana: In Search of Africa鈥檚 Black Star Conference, University of Ghana, Ghana.
Adjirakor, N.D. (2022, April 9). Texts that Metamorphose: The Variability of Spoken Word Poetry [Paper Presentation]. Disobedient Forms Conference, Stellenbosch Institute of Advanced Study, South Africa.
Adjirakor, N.D. (2021, February 14). African Language Literature and the Paradigm of World Literature [Paper Presentation]. Multilingual Locals and Significant Geographies Seminar, SOAS, UK.
Adjirakor, Nikitta D. (2018, March 20 鈥� 25). Crowdfunding Poetry in Dar es Salaam [Paper Presentation]. BIGSAS Symposium, Moi University, Kenya.
Research Interests
Digital Humanities
African, Decolonial, and Postcolonial Studies
Popular Culture
Multilingualism
African Literature
Education
- PhD, Literatures in African Languages, University of Bayreuth
- MA, African Language Studies, University of Bayreuth
- BA, English and Swahili, University of Ghana
