Our project team prepared a talk for the European Conference of African Studies (ECAS) which took place in Cologne from 30th of May to the 3rd of June 2023 under the theme “African Futures”. Our talk on “investigating linguistic creativity through collaborative research on African youth language practices” was part of the exciting and innovative panel “creative and critical: engaging African youth and their futures through collaborative research” organized by Chloé Buire and Laura Nkula-Wenz. We had a very engaged discussion on how to involve African youth on a par in academic research projects in social science and the humanities and the challenges that come with such collaborations.