8 minute read
Africans are Trying to Fix Wikipedia’s Language Problem — Quartz Africa
from DAWN
By Quartz (QZ.COM)
ALTHOUGH WIKIPEDIA is an important source of knowledge and one of the world’s most-visited websites, it has a scarcity of content in African languages. To put this into perspective, Swahili Wikipedia has about 69,000 articles, the most of any African-language edition, compared to 6.45 million for the top-ranked English Wikipedia.
But a growing movement in the continent is working to increase African-language content in the online encyclopedia by equipping Africans with tools to create Wikipedia articles in their own languages. As part of it, three Wikipedia AfroCuration “edit-athons”, or workshops, have taken place recently— separately in Mozambique, South Africa then Zimbabwe—resulting in volunteers creating and editing of hundreds of Wikipedia articles.
“Unless you amplify our history it’s gonna die,” says Lwando Xaso, who organized the South African event through the country’s Constitution Hill Trust, a public-benefi t organization.
Volunteers in Wikipedia “edit-a-thons” learn how to create content
African languages are often marginalized in tech, with lack of proper representation in areas such as voice recognition and online learning and knowledge resources. This creates a language divide and a digital knowledge gap that pushes low-income populations and languages that are less widely spoken globally to the periphery. It also prevents some users from benefi ting from these technological applications for their own development.
But increasingly, Africans in tech are working to correct these omissions by shaping their own course and taking tech in the direction that would make it most benefi cial for themselves. These initiatives mostly by Africans for Africans extend beyond language use, to other aspects such as fi ghting for digital rights and equipping women with the tools to combat online violence.
“The survival and growth of African languages will be enhanced by Africans creating knowledge about their cultures in African languages on Internet-based knowledge websites,” says Joyce Nyairo, a Nairobi-based cultural analyst. These sites, she adds, are now a critical space for the amplifi cation of locally-produced knowledge.
In the Wikipedia “edit-a-thons,” which take place online over two days, participants are taught the basics of Wikipedia and writing, editing, and translating articles for the encyclopedia. Lessons include putting references, adding images, and sharing the work. The volunteers then write and edit actual articles. Guest speakers also speak to them for inspiration.
Unless you amplify our history it’s gonna die.
The content worked on is based on a theme for each workshop. For example, the theme for the South African event was the history of women in South Africa and how they contributed to ending apartheid and writing the country’s current constitution. This is notable because globally only
20% of Wikipedia biographies are about women, with the fi gures for Africa being even worse. For the Zimbabwean one, it was the country’s cultural landscape.
Workshop participants worked on hundreds of Wikipedia articles
In total, 135 volunteers participated in the three workshops and they have so far written more than 240 articles and edited more than 290.
Africans writing in their own languages for a platform such as Wikipedia is important “so that the information and knowledge will be passed to generation to generation,” says Lindokuhle Mdluli, a supermarket cashier who took part in the South African workshop.
Mdluli, a native isiZulu speaker, wrote her fi rst Wikipedia articles at the “edit-a-thon.”
“Our native languages are very important,” she tells Quartz. “I will try my best to write all the articles in the world if I can in isiZulu so that it can be passed to generation to generation because this information is very important.”
Other participants, such as Khethiwe Marais, had prior experience creating Wikipedia content. As an editor, rewriter, and translator of academic and other material, Marais had been translating Wikipedia articles for about three years, working in isiZulu and Tsonga.
“If you search in Wikipedia, you fi nd loads of information in every fi eld you can think of, in every sphere, in every sector in English,” she says. “But that is not available in our languages and it is upon us as language activists to participate in creating that content in our languages and make it accessible and available to everybody who is a speaker or user of that language, or reader of that language.”
We have multiple truths, and truths that are spoken in diff erent languages, not just in English.
The AfroCuration series is organized by WikiAfrica Education, a project of the Moleskine Foundation, an Italy-based nonprofi t. It partners with local cultural institutions to hold the workshops, and the
cultural institutions call out for volunteers.
Xaso, the South African organizer, reckons some of the signifi cances of Africans creating knowledge about their culture on platforms such as Wikipedia is that it preserves languages and creates a space online where African languages can thrive. Another, she says, is that it helps development in the virtual world in that algorithms must take into account people that speak in diff erent languages and take their knowledge in their native tongue.
“We have multiple truths, and truths that are spoken in diff erent languages, not just in English,” she says. “I think the truth hits diff erently when it’s in your own language.” https://fastobserver.com/2022/02/africans-aretrying-to-fi x-wikipedias-language-problem-quartzafrica.html
Source: https://qz.com/africa/2126919/africansare-trying-to-fi x-wikipedias-language-problem Image credit: Foss Bytes, Fonts In Use
South Africa’s Most Popular Languages are Coming to Duolingo
By Carlos Mureithi
TWO OF SOUTH AFRICA’S main languages, Zulu and Xhosa, will be made available on Duolingo, one of the most popular languagelearning apps and websites.
But creating them will take longer than usual, mainly because of the challenge of fi guring out how to teach their click sounds, says Myra Awodey, Duolingo’s lead community specialist. “We’re going to have to design entirely new ways of teaching,” she says, adding that they won’t be able to use a template from another language.
The company says that the addition of the southern African languages, which are spoken by 20 million people, is part of its eff ort to bring cultural awareness and exposure of lesser-known languages to a wider audience.
“We have a really important responsibility right
now in the world where language diversity is at risk,” says Awodey. The news is timed with Duocon (2021), Duolingo’s annual festival for language learning, where the company will also publicize the addition of Contestants watch others perform during a Zulu dance Maori (New Zealand), Tagalog (the competition in Durban. REUTERS/ROGAN WARD Philippines), and Haitian Creole.
A local collaboration
The addition of the southern African languages springs from a partnership with Nal’ibali, a South African nonprofi t that promotes multilingual reading. Wanting to expose learnings to more diverse languages and cultures, Duolingo was connected with Nal’ibali by its partner, the Trevor Noah Foundation. Noah, a South African comedian who rose to global fame when he was appointed host of the popular US Daily Show, has a Xhosa mother and speaks Zulu fl uently, among other languages.
Zulu and Xhosa in the South African context
Zulu and Xhosa are two of South Africa’s 11 offi cial languages, and among the most widely spoken languages in South African homes (23% and 16% respectively, followed by Afrikaans at around 14%. Around 10% of people speak English at home).
While the South African government is piloting the use of mother-tongue language instruction at more schools, most use English or Afrikaans as their language of instruction, with African languages as electives Accessing tools and resources to further learn the other languages is diffi cult, because most books in the country are published in English and Afrikaans, says Huston. “Everybody needs to learn English, but surely we should also be learning isiZulu,” she says, calling the South African language by its local name.
Being both Bantu languages of the Nguni people, Zulu and Xhosa are mutually intelligible, and their shared grammar, structure, and vocabulary, is part of the reason Duolingo decided to add them both, according to Katie Huston, Nal’ibali’s chief operating offi cer.
Dr. Luis van Ahn presents on the new languages being added to Duolingo.DUOLINGO
Representing.
More African-language courses
The addition of Zulu and Xhosa, expected in early 2022, will bring to three the number of African-language courses off ered by Duolingo. The Swahili course, which was added in 2017, has 363,000 active users.
For these two language projects, Duolingo will bring expertise on how to build engaging language learning courses using its tools, learning experts, and a curriculum design team, Awodey says. Nal’ibali, she adds, will help fi nd people who will be best suited for the roles of content creation and overall planning, as well as getting community feedback from learners and native speakers for the testing phase, which is an important part of the Duolingo’s curriculum developments.
It’s “just super exciting to see more resources that are elevating and equalizing [our] languages,” Awodey says.
Trevor Noah, for his part, told Duolingo cofounder and CEO Luis von Ahn in a discussion about languages and the new off erings that he is “truly excited for Zulu and Xhosa [to be added]. Xhosa because I want to start learning it, and speaking it fl uently. And then Zulu, just so I can brush up while I’m not in my country.”
But, he adds, “you’re gonna need a whole section in Xhosa just to teach people about the clicks.” https://qz.com/africa/2050074/african-languageszulu-and-xhosa-join-swahili-on-duolingo Image credit: YouTube, slate.com
