A woman with long black braids fall behind her head and are wrapped at the top of her head. She wears orange and has long beaded earrings.

Chao Tayiana Maina

Founder and Director
African Digital Heritage

Kenya

Chao Tayiana Maina is the Founder of African Digital Heritage, a non-profit in Kenya that seeks to encourage a more critical, holistic, and knowledge-based approach to digital solutions within African heritage. In 2018, she also co-founded the Museum of British Colonialism, a trans-national volunteer collective challenging British colonialism myths and elevating underrepresented voices globally. Chao also co-founded Open Restitution Africa project, an open data initiative seeking to make accessible information on the restitution of African material culture and human ancestors. In 2023 she was selected as a winner of the Dan David Prize, the largest history prize in the world.  She has a background in computer sciences with a specialization in digital heritage studies.