The African Language Solutions Blog

In Cameroon, the prevailing language in many fields, for example in court and in the media, is French. Not only does this mean the Anglophone inhabitants of the country are left out, this trend also seriously threatens Cameroon’s indigenous languages. Professor Peter Wuteh Vakunta, who works at the Department of Defence Language Institute in the…

According to Marianne Thamm, the Afrikaans language isn’t used very often by its speakers. In fact, she believes activists only use Afrikaans to discuss the language itself! This way, the activists have disabled all public discourse on the issue, she says. On the Daily Maverick, Marianne Thamm has written an interesting piece on the African…

Even though European languages are widely spoken on the African continent, some Africans believe that the African people should return to their mother languages. This so-called “African Renaissance” will not only keep Africa’s native languages from extinction, but will also prevent a lot of knowledge from disappearing. According to Apioth Mayom Apioth, ever since the…

Now that internet penetration in many African country is growing, should African entrepreneurs should turn their attention to social media in order to help their businesses grow? According to Jeff Tyson in an article on Devex, African entrepreneurs can use social media to help their business. During a panel discussion held at the U.S.-Africa Leaders…

In our next interview, we hear from Elizabeth Blake from Business in Africa Pays – they help companies and organisations looking to Africa find out all they need to know before making their first steps onto the continent. Elizabeth, could you give us some insight into the main objectives of Business in Africa Pays? Business…

The recently launched Kumisha Takes Wiki Project is aiming to develop a greater online presence for local communities on the African continent. These communities are often underrepresented online, a state of affairs that needs to change. In an article on Global Voices, Francois-Xavier Ada states that it is very difficult for people in Sub-Saharan Africa…

To many, the fact that literacy in African countries often leaves a lot to be desired comes as no surprise. A lot of organisations, however, are looking for ways to turn this around. Take for example Worldreader, who is planning to distribute nearly 400 African ebooks for free! In cooperation with the African division of…

Facebook has today unveiled its plan to get millions of people in Zambia online and of course using Facebook in the process! Internet.org explained to he BBC that 85% of people in Africa who aren’t connected to the internet are actually in places with mobile phone coverage. So why aren’t they logging on? Well two…

Did you think that e-learning requires the most advanced technologies? Think again! E-learning in Africa is taking a flight, and a basic mobile phone is all users need. Recently, over 1,000 people from 68 countries got together in Kampala, the capital city of Uganda, for a conference called “Opening frontiers to the future.” This conference…

A financial grant has recenlty been awarded to a project that aims to document four African languages. This research wants to prevent these languages from dying out, but might prove to be very useful for overall linguistic research as well. If you are a regular follower of our blog, you know that many languages are…