Cracking the Code of Indigenous Language Preservation in Africa with EdTech and AI: Exploring Potential Solutions

“Miles away in Kenya’s Rift Valley region, Yakunte, a language spoken by the Yaaku tribe, an offshoot of the Maasai community is on its deathbed with less than seven people who are over 70 years speaking it

Bob Koigi

The African continent is the most linguistically diverse continent, it has 54 countries with over 2000 living languages which make up approximately one-third of the world's languages. However, all these languages are at risk of extinction, UNESCO estimates that more than 50% of the world's languages will disappear by the year 2100 if action is not taken to preserve them. Furthermore, it is estimated that up to 95% of the world's languages may become endangered in the next one to two decades raising a serious concern. Preserving these languages is very important, yet challenging at the same time, with the power of technology applications there is an opportunity to once and for all Immortalize these languages. I strongly believe language learning Edtech apps can be a solution for solving this problem combined with the newfound power of Generative Artificial Intelligence.

"Losing these languages means losing a great part of our human heritage, because languages are much more than spoken or written words and sentences – they are also the means through which cultures, knowledge, and traditions are preserved and transmitted between generations,"

Mona Rishmawi, Chief of the rule of law, equality and non-discrimination branch of UN Human Rights

Language is more than just a communication tool, it is a way of seeing the world, and given the oral history of sharing information in Africa, it is also a knowledge system. Language is a vessel for preserving cultural heritage and identity. Within the intricate threads of these languages, one can find the embodiment of norms, values, and beliefs, all working together to carry the accumulated wisdom of generations.

Maintaining Indigenous languages around the world and in Africa has become significantly challenging. Urbanization is often referred to as one of the major challenges, in addition, to the lack of support from other key stakeholders, for example, the government through the education system and policy. The major challenge that has been frequently cited is the cost of preserving these languages, which causes a reluctance to Invest in the resource needed for example the changing school curriculums. UNESCO has even declared the year 2022-2032 the years of Indigenous languages to draw attention to the critical situation of many indigenous languages not only in Africa but globally.

Many also point to globalization and technology as reasons why these languages are disappearing rapidly. With about half of all the content on the internet in English and Chinese, there's not much room for other languages to be used online. As a result of globalization and other historical factors in some African countries, the perception of indigenous languages is not positive, one of the reasons being that many people that strive for a better life end up prioritizing the languages that will give them the most benefits in the global economy, which exacerbates the challenges in preserving these languages.

There is a need for more Innovative solutions to ensure that these languages are revived. I strongly believe that when considering solutions it is important to take into account how modern society functions holistically, and also the technological tools that are already available to us. There are already many language-learning applications that have proven to be successful and effective in helping teach languages.

However, In many countries, those that speak indigenous languages are excluded from both digital and analog information, as mentioned before the information on the internet is mainly in English, and there are also not a lot of books in Indigenous languages. Even though the technology tools face criticism there is the potential to help in addressing the challenges faced in language preservation. Over the past decade Language learning applications have increasingly become popular and the usage of these apps has increased. The rise of smartphones and mobile technology played a significant role in the popularity of these apps and in Africa, most people have mobile phones which means there is an opportunity to introduce language learning.

On the other hand, Studies conducted by international organizations like UNESCO and the World Bank all agree that using a child's native language is the best way for them to start learning in school. For example, UNESCO says that using the language they speak at home is the most helpful for kids when they begin primary school, both for how they feel and how well they learn. This also highlights utilizing Edtech applications that offer to learn educational content in indigenous languages.

Generative AI has also become a talking point recently globally and the utilization of this in language learning can pay huge dividends to preserve languages. It is important that when preserving languages using technology, we must also understand that language itself is a technology. Language evolved so that people could communicate with each other better and also share information to improve people's lives. It is important to understand that there is a high chance that even with modern technology it is not enough to just put a language on a computer because it might become an important archive for history class. If a language continues to be useful to people they will continue to use it, but if a language has no use it is likely to fall part of history.

Below are two African tech startups that are focused on languages and not just from a preservation perspective but rather from a utility perspective.