Engage Africa NLP

The App

Leveraging Technology to Support Low-Resourced African Languages

Mission

The Engage Africa NLP initiative is a project designed to foster accessibility and use of African languages in the digital realm through the power of NLP and ML.

This program aims to harness the expertise of language experts, native speakers, translators and technologists to develop tools and applications focusing on low-resourced, underrepresented African languages, with an initial focus on Cameroonian languages.

Initial focus on Cameroonian languages

We have started working on Cameroonian languages such as Ghɔmálá’, Fulfulde, Ewondo, Duala, Bassa, Bulu, Fe’fe’, Kom, Medumba, Yemba, Bamum, Pinyin, Ngiemboon, Meta’, Nso’, Tupuri, Cameroon Pidgin and Camfranglais.

More languages will be added with time.

Execution

By gathering diverse linguistic data, we want to help AI serve not just major languages but also those traditionally overlooked such as Ghɔmálá’, Fulfulde, Ewondo, Duala, Bassa, Bulu, Fe’fe’, Kom, Medumba, Yemba, Ewondo, Bamum, Pinyin, Ngiemboon, Meta’, Nso’, Toupouri, Cameroon Pidgin, Camfranglais and more.

The Engage Africa NLP app is now available on both the App Store and the Play Store.

We are currently using the data collection features of the platform to collect linguistic data and build bilingual corpus between English and each language in order to build the tech.

Subsequently, the platform will evolve to host the tools and tech obtained by training the model.

Everyone can help! Please contribute data, provide feedback, suggest a language focus or click around to find the Request a Translation menu, and give us some work to do.

This app will evolve to include the tech built using the data collected.

Time Frame: 1 year

Vision

The data collection platform is the cornerstone of our efforts, designed to gamify the process of linguistic data gathering.

By engaging professional translators, data collectors and native speakers in fun and interactive tasks, we are compiling  and valuable dataset that forms the foundation for all subsequent technological developments.

This approach not only accelerates data collection but also ensures the inclusivity and authenticity of the linguistic information gathered.

Project Updates

The Importance of Bidirectional Data Capture for AI Solutions in African Languages

by | September 24, 2024 | Blog, Engage Africa, Engage Africa NLP | 0 Comments

When collecting translated text to build AI solutions for African languages, some practitioners mistakenly believe that starting with a major language and translating as much content as possible into the target African language will provide sufficient bilingual text...
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Les langues véhiculaires au Cameroun : un pont entre les cultures

by | August 14, 2024 | Blog, Engage Africa, Engage Africa NLP, Engage Cameroon | 0 Comments

Le Cameroun, pays de diversité linguistique exceptionnelle, compte plus de 250 langues. Parmi celles-ci, certaines langues se distinguent par leur rôle de langues véhiculaires, servant de ponts de communication entre différentes communautés. Le camfranglais et le...
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Our Initial Focus on Cameroonian Languages

by | July 13, 2024 | Engage Africa NLP | 0 Comments

We have started working on Cameroonian languages such as Ghɔmálá', Fulfulde, Ewondo, Duala, Bassa, Bulu, Fe'fe', Kom, Medumba, Yemba, Ewondo, Bamum, Pinyin, Ngiemboon, Meta', Nso', Tupuri, Cameroon Pidgin and Camfranglais. More languages will be added with...
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Engage Africa NLP, our Data Collection App for Leveraging Technology for Language Promotion and Preservation, is Ready!

by | May 20, 2024 | Blog, Engage Africa, Engage Africa NLP | 0 Comments

Leveraging Technology for Language Promotion and Preservation: Engage Africa NLP Engage Africa NLP is committed to preserving and promoting African linguistic heritage in the digital age, ensuring these languages remain relevant and widely used. With an initial...
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Leveraging Technology for Language Promotion and Preservation: Engage Africa NLP

by | April 26, 2024 | Blog, Engage Africa, Engage Africa NLP | 0 Comments

  Leveraging Technology for Language Promotion and Preservation: Engage Africa NLP Engage Africa NLP is dedicated to advancing NLP and foster language and tech inclusion for African languages, with a focus on Cameroonian languages since there are as many as to...
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Hiring: NLP Project Coordinator

by | January 14, 2024 | Engage Africa NLP, Jobs | 0 Comments

Job Title: NLP Project Coordinator - Cameroon/Remote Overview: Program Engage Africa is seeking a dynamic NLP Project Coordinator to lead the development of advanced Natural Language Processing and Machine Learning systems. This role is critical in our efforts to...
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Crowdsourcing African Languages Text and Audio Data

by | December 1, 2023 | Engage Africa, Engage Africa NLP, Stakeholders | 0 Comments

  Objective: Project Mirror Africa is an initiative aimed at collecting and preserving a wide array of content and audio data in African languages. Targeting individuals, communities, cultural movements, organizations, and linguists, this project seeks to create...
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NLP’s Role in Supporting Low-Resourced African Languages

by | November 23, 2023 | Blog, Engage Africa, Engage Africa NLP, Engage Ghomala, Partnerships, Stakeholders | 0 Comments

The field of Natural Language Processing (NLP) holds transformative potential for low-resourced African languages. NLP, the intersection of computer science, artificial intelligence, and linguistics, involves the programming of computers to process and analyze large...
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