[A12n-forum] Dinka project (& role of diaspora in ICT for Afr. lang's)

["Don Osborn" <dzo@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

This item concerning a small Dinka on the web project was posted by Andrew
on the AfricanLanguages group but may be of interest here too.   DZO

----- Original Message ----- 
From: Andrew Cunningham
To: AfricanLanguages@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Thursday, January 01, 2004 12:30 PM
Subject: Re: [AfricanLanguages] Re: Conversing With Africa: Politics of
Change


Dear Don and everyone.

Happy New Year.

The literacy course is being developed by the same people working on the
Dinka langauge site. So they're stretched very thin. Once course material is
developed it will become avaiable on the web site. The material will cover
literacy resources, langauge learning resoures ofr non-Dinka, and material
discussing Dinka grammar and writing style.

It will also become a repository for material written in Dinka, poetry and
stories. We'll also be digitising collections of traditional folktales,
songs, and proverbs that have been gathered by the websites editor.

Currently, all Sudanese websites are in Arabic (both Aabic script and latin
transcriptions on dicussion boards) and in English. We hope to foster the
use of Dinka on the web. Some are laready using tools like MSN Messenger to
chat in Dinka. Part of the problem is that any standard tools for website
development, and plug in components are not well internationalised.

An example is http://home.vicnet.net.au/~naath/feedback/index.html

The web server the site resides on has a variation of formmail running on
the server allowing users to email contents of teh form.

I've had to set up an additional copy of the cgi script on one of my
websites and modify the script to make it default to unicode. Allowing the
form to send utf-8 email messages to the websites editor.

A local community organisation that provides settlement servvices to its
local community here in Melbourne (Ethiopian, Eritrean, Somali and Sundanese
communities) has identified the need for internet training in their local
community. The availabilty of information and resources in their own
langauge, including newspapers, health information, etc. is limited (more
like non esistant) in Australia. The internet is seen as a possible media
for access to resources (both informative and recreational).

Dove tails well with some of teh discussions we've been having in australia
about the next generation of electronic multicultural library services and
the need for libraries to cooperate with emerging ethnic commmunities in
order to develop resources and assist the communities in publishing material
themselves.

Andrew


----------------------------
Don Osborn <dzo@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Thanks, Andrew. Is the literacy work you mention connected with your
assisting creation of Dinka language web content? One area that
interests me a lot is the potential for sharing literature and other
educational, cultural, and creative materials among diaspora
communities (and individuals) and the communities in the home country
(ies). The role of diaspora communities is one aspect that could be
very dynamic for African languages & ICT. I note already some e-mail
lists of speakers of Hausa, Swahili, and Fula, which primarily use
these languages, and on which some of the participants do not reside
in Africa. A really nice Sango language website has been run for
several years by a Central African scholar in France. There are other
examples and probably many more that I'm not aware of.

Don Osborn
Bisharat.net

--- In AfricanLanguages@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, Andrew Cunningham
<andj_c@xxxx> wrote:
[ . . . ]
>
> A friend of mine is running literacy courses for his
> community. One of the things we were discussing last
> night, is that he hopes to encourage his students to
> write about their personal stories. To allow them to
> use the written word to express themselves. He felt
> that for many, they could be more eloquent and
> expresie in their own langauge, than they would be in
> English.
>
> Andrew
>
...