[A12n-forum] "Local content & the African information society" (interview w/ Francis Egbokhare)

["Don Osborn" <dzo@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

FYI, this interview appeared in the July 2003 issue of iConnect Africa
http://www.uneca.org/aisi/IConnectAfrica/v1n5.htm (thanks to John Daly for
bringing this to our attention on Afrik-IT).  DZO


"Local content and the African information society"

Interview with Francis Egbokhare, African Languages Technology initiative
(ALTI) of Nigeria

- ALTI won second place in the 2003 AISI IICD Local Content Applications
Award. This prize recognizes innovative features that apply ICT to the local
context. iConnect Africa talked to Francis Egbokhare on ALTI activities in
general and the significance of the award in particular. -


iConnect Africa: What does winning the IICD Local Content Prize mean to you
personally and professionally?

FE: Personally, it is a great recognition and I am delighted. It is an
important leverage and an opportunity to add my voice towards influencing
the development of African languages and promoting a positive attitude
towards technology and ICT. Professionally, it is a confirmation of the
validity of a new thinking towards multi-disciplinary interfacing, engaging
of ICT, adopting and localizing technology. The award provides the
encouragement to continue to move in this direction for the benefit of
African languages, cultures and peoples. And for the African Languages
Technology Initiative and the Department of Linguistics and African
Languages, University of Ibadan, it is a great beginning and a good
recommendation.

iConnect Africa: What are your views with respect to the preservation of
African languages in the information society?

FE: There are over 2,000 languages in Africa. This is a third of all the
languages in the world. Within the next one hundred years or less, over 90%
of them and their accompanying cultures, folk wisdom, medical practices,
fauna, verbal arts, etc. will be gone. Language is a huge resource, an
encyclopaedia, a library of sorts. Language is our window to the world, it
is related and connected to everything. The loss of the least language is a
tragic loss to humanity. It is imperative for us to take the preservation
and transmission of languages seriously. ICT provides us with an opportunity
to tackle the problems of endangerment and language death pragmatically and
cost effectively. Technology provides us with an opportunity to move from '
communication babel' to 'linguistic Pentecost'. ICT provides the bridge
between languages, the gateway between cultures and the network between
minds. We must however engage it, adapt and deploy it.

iConnect Africa: Could you describe the significance of the Yoruba keyboard?
How will it help advance use of ICTs in Nigeria?

FE: It is significant in two respects. First, it helps to nativise
technology. Its greatest impact is that technology will no longer be seen as
belonging to foreign cultures and peoples. In this sense, it will influence
the thinking process and attitude to technology. Second, it will increase
the sense of pride and value in local languages and cultures and thus help
to preserve them. ICT becomes something that can be owned and appropriated.
Third, it will enable Nigerians, especially over forty million Yoruba people
engage in the Global Information Infrastructure. This innovation has a
potential for redefining literacy since one can be literate only in Yoruba
and still have access to the GII.

[for image of keyboard see article original at
http://www.uneca.org/aisi/IConnectAfrica/v1n5.htm]

Keyboard guarantees that no Yoruba character will require more than two
keystrokes

Sample Yoruba Text:
[for image of text see article original at
http://www.uneca.org/aisi/IConnectAfrica/v1n5.htm]

Translation:

As he visits communities, so does he visit big countries
Teaching, daily, in their synagogues
He preaches good tidings of the kingdom of God in heaven
Exactly like the good shepherd.
Who ensures man's steadfastness


iConnect Africa: How will it contribute to bridging social exclusion?

FE: It bridges the gap between those who are literate in English and those
literate in indigenous languages. Language is a principal instrument of
inclusion and exclusion, not necessarily because of in built capacities but
due to historical, economic and political dynamics. The disadvantage and
advantage associated with a language can be further extended depending on
its utility as an ICT medium. It is in this light that one can project that
the equal opportunity may be realized first in the linguistic realm. If we
engage ICT in the way we have done, perhaps linguistic rights may be
realistic in the near future.