Leon Bomela Loombe

Leon Bomela Loombe is a CCNY Postdoctoral Research Fellow at HUMA. He has recently completed his doctoral dissertation in the Department of English Literary Studies at the University of Cape Town. His project, titled “The Anglophone Problem in Francis Nyamnjoh’s Ethnographic Fiction: Negotiating Nationalism, Belonging And Flexible Cameroonian Citizenship” focused on Francis Nyamnjoh’s ethnographic fiction. His research interests include African literature, postcolonial theory, decolonial theory, narrative studies and ethnographic fiction. He engages critically with contemporary literary discourses, contributing to the ongoing scholarship in the field of English literary studies and African literature. At HUMA, Leon is working on a book project: Narrating Liberation Through Code: African Speculative Fiction in the Age of Digital Technology and Artificial Intelligence (AI). Using speculative fiction, his current study argues that African writers are actively decolonizing how we conceptualize technology, specifically AI. The selected novels and seminal scholarships reposition Africa not as a passive consumer of AI, but as a critical producer of ethical, situated, and culturally resonant technological imaginaries. African literature offers not only critique but vision: a world where AI is not the new colonizer, but a companion in the ongoing struggle for sovereignty, justice, and futurity.

Africa AI Ethics: Carnegie Corporation of New York + HUMA