Registration opens on 1 July 2025 and will close on 31 July 2025

RhythmKeepers: Preserving Africa’s Sound Through Code

The Story:

From the gentle pluck of the mbira to the thunderous resonance of the djembe, African music is a living archive of identity, memory, and spirit. But with each elder musician we lose, we risk losing rhythms that can’t be Googled, melodies that exist only in hearts, not hard drives.

Sekuru Mandebvu, a revered mbira master from Harare, is watching history fade in real time. He fears his generation’s unique techniques may vanish — not because they lack passion, but because they lack preservation tools.

Now imagine if you could code a solution that ensures Africa’s musical soul is never lost — but instead shared, studied, and celebrated globally.

The Challenge:

Design a Raspberry Pi–based system that helps digitize and preserve Africa’s traditional music using motion capture and intelligent storage.

Build a solution that can:

• Track Movement: Use sensors or cameras to capture the hand, finger, and instrument motions while playing.
  
  
• Convert to Notation: Translate those motions into readable sheet music or tablature — something anyone, anywhere can learn from.
  
  
• Create a Learning Platform: Build a local/offline-accessible tool for students, musicians, and enthusiasts to learn, practice, and teach.
  
  
• Support Many Instruments: From the mbira and marimba to ngoma, djembe, or balafon.
  
  

Bonus Challenge:

• Enable real-time collaboration between remote musicians — can they jam live across borders?
  
  
• Visualize rhythm patterns or techniques across different regions
  
  
• Create archives that auto-tag recordings by instrument, region, or artist
  
  

Tools & Tech Stack:

• Raspberry Pi 4, Pi Pico
  
  
• IMUs like MPU6050 or BNO055
  
  
• Camera tracking with OpenCV
  
  
• Audio + movement sync tools
  
  
• Sheet music software (MuseScore, custom JSON/XML formats)
  
  
• Python or Node.js
  
  

Why It Matters:

You’re not just building tech — you’re coding culture into permanence.

This challenge is about digital heritage, cultural storytelling, and intergenerational equity. Africa’s rhythms don’t belong in museums — they belong in music schools, jam sessions, and open-source platforms. You, as students, have the power to give Africa’s sound a new digital heartbeat.

Let’s write history in code, one beat at a time.

Click here for PreRegistration