The Iroko Framework: Semantic Vocabularies for Governing Access to Afro-Atlantic Sacred Knowledge System

The Iroko Framework is a modular semantic web vocabulary system for governing access to Afro-Atlantic sacred knowledge systems. Release v1.4.0 comprises sixteen modules and two alignment modules, with 101 classes, 413 properties, 76 concept schemes, and 655 concepts. Published at ontology.irokosociety.org under a CC0 1.0 Universal dedication, it combines six design principles: 1) field-level access control across six tiers, 2) contested knowledge modeling through assertion reification, 3) provenance tracking through oral transmission chains and fieldwork events, 4) sovereign agency for sacred agents and community governance bodies, 5) postcustodial design that leaves authority with communities wherever their knowledge is held, and 6) semantic interoperability with established vocabularies and standards. This second edition presents the framework as the shared semantic infrastructure of the Iroko Historical Society’s digital archive, research library, and living museum. It documents the published vocabulary’s architecture, modules, and access philosophy, emphasizing the separation of public vocabulary from governed records. It examines two application corpora, the fifty-record Ewé pilot and the 20,279-record Hyatt Hoodoo corpus, and specifies a reference architecture for server-side enforcement of field- and passage-level disclosure decisions. A proposed twelve-month pilot reviewing 321 Hyatt records provides a bounded implementation path. The paper distinguishes the published v1.4.0 vocabulary from designed infrastructure and changes under consideration for v2.0.0. Technical appendices provide module counts and versions, access-level definitions, synthetic RDF examples, an institutional architecture diagram, and a record of corrections to the first edition.