Digital preservation of indigenous languages
AIMED at promoting all South African indigenous languages online, a two-day Wikipedia workshop was last week held at the University of Zululand's uNgoye campus.
The SWiP project (SADiLaR-WikipediaPanSALB) was hosted by the university's Department of African Languages and is a collaborative initiative by the South African Centre for Digital Language Resources (SADiLaR), Wikipedia and the Pan South African Language Board (PanSALB).
Themed 'Preserving Languages and Open, Free, and Accessible Knowledge for All', the workshop provided a theoretical overview and practical training on how to create, edit, translate and contribute content on Wikipedia.
The project brings together communities of language users and provides them with skills to create and review content on Wikipedia.
In doing so, communities can collectively increase their respective languages’ digital footprint online.Acting dean of teaching and learning, and lecturer in the Arts and Languages department of the Faculty of
Humanities and Social Sciences at Unizulu, Professor Zanele Buthelezi extended a hearty welcome to academics, professional staff and students who attended the workshop, and emphasised the value of training and skills transfer.
She added that training is one of the best ways to impart and grow knowledge.“Our indigenous languages must be promoted, encouraged and be used in critical ways, and the SWiP project is providing a pathway on how we can digitally preserve knowledge for generations to come,” said Buthelezi.
She urged workshop participants to put in maximum effort in sharing their newlyacquired knowledge and skills with their peers and keep the SWiP flame burning.
The SWiP workshop was facilitated by Bobby Shabangu, president of Wikimedia South Africa.
“There is a serious lack of online presence when it comes to South Africa’s indigenous languages on Wikipedia. We are therefore here to empower anyone who is interested in contributing content to Wikipedia in their own language, and ultimately promote and preserve our indigenous languages and protect them from disappearing over time,” said Shabangu.