This article presents Vibes, a prototype interface for visualising multilingual online discourse in Southern Africa. We developed the prototype during a three-day hackathon with a multidisciplinary team. The interface combines computational tools, manual coding and visualisation methods to work with data that standard NLP tools cannot process due to their monolingual design. We tested Vibes on two YouTube datasets: English/isiXhosa comments from the @cmtvsa channel and comments on videos discussing a hair product advertisement controversy. Through this work, we encountered practical challenges, including language identification failures, code-switching within single posts, non-standard orthographies, and multimodal communication through emojis. The challenges led us to propose an interface for collaborative coding that accounts for translanguaging practices. The hackathon development process highlighted the need for context-sensitive tools to study linguistic diversity in the Global South.

In the age of increasing digital participation, the role of social media in shaping and revealing identity has become an important area of scholarly inquiry. This article explores the viability of content analysis as a method for inferring identity markers of amaXhosa in multilingual online discourse, focusing on isiXhosa- and English-dominant YouTube comments. Draw ing on the theoretical framework of performativity, the study examines how amaXhosa construct and express cultural and linguistic identities through language use in digital spaces shaped by English dominance. A curated selection of 80 YouTube videos related to isiXhosa culture, interviews, and pranks was analysed. Comments were mined using the YouTube API, and the South African Language Identification Tool (SA-LID) was applied for language cate gorisation. By grounding its approach in local language use and identity, the study contributes to African sociolinguistics and the broader field of African Digital Humanities, demonstrating how social media data can inform context identity research in multilingual societies.

Although romantic deception is prevalent in many societies, it may not be readily acceptable to publicly acknowledge approval of acts associated with such deception. This article explores the publicly acknowledged sentiments of viewers of two YouTube channels aimed at the exposure of romantic deceit through two shows for facilitating a “couple switching phones” game. Specifically, we analyse videos where all participants are caught engaging in extra-relationship affairs. Our study reveals a prevailing trend of neutral comments from viewers, indicating a reluctance to openly acknowledge approval or disapproval of the depicted acts. Interestingly, the discussions primarily revolve around tribal issues [specially focused on the Xhosa tribe] rather than focusing on the subject of romantic deception itself.