ACALAN Drives African Languages into the AI Era to Advance Agenda 2063
ADDIS ABABA – Artificial Intelligence is changing how people learn, work and communicate. But there is one big problem. Most AI tools do not understand African languages.
That means millions of Africans risk being left out of the digital future.
The African Academy of Languages (ACALAN) wants to change that. ACALAN, in collaboration with the National Language Structures (NLS) and Vehicular Cross-Border Languages (VCBLs) Commissions, ACALAN is building an open, sovereign AI pipeline to ensure African languages thrive in digital systems. Target languages include, but not limited to Kiswahili, Hausa, Yoruba, Amharic, Igbo, Fulfulde, Kinyarwanda, Kirundi, Lingala, Wolof, Chichewa, Zulu, Xhosa, Tamazight, and more.
In a virtual technical meeting led by ACALAN Executive Secretary Prof. Vicensia Shule, experts and coordinators from five VCBLs Commissions – Eʋe, Kiswahili, Malagasy, Luganda-Lusoga-Lugwere and Betifang – discussed how to prepare African languages for Artificial Intelligence.
The effort supports the African Union’s Agenda 2063, which envisions an Africa where culture, innovation and technology grow together. The project is also part of the ACALAN initiative to bring AU to people at the community level across the continent.
Today, many AI systems are trained mostly on English and other widely spoken global languages. As a result, they often struggle to understand African languages. This affects everything from online education and healthcare information to digital public services.
ACALAN believes African languages should not be spectators in the AI revolution. They should be part of it. The academy plans to build large collections of language data using textbooks, radio broadcasts, government publications and oral traditions. These resources will help developers create AI tools that understand local languages and reflect African realities.
Such tools could improve healthcare communication, farming advice, education and access to government services for millions of people. However, the Coordinators also raised an important concern: who owns community knowledge?
The VCBLs Commission Coordinators called for strong safeguards to protect intellectual property and traditional knowledge from misuse. Prof. Shule assured the VCBLs Commission Coordinators that ACALAN will work with governments, communities and experts to ensure all data collection follows national laws and respects community rights.
The academy also plans to expand the initiative by partnering with universities, technology companies and civil society organizations across Africa. It is at this juncture ACALAN calls upon all 55 Member States and language enthusiasts to express their interest to be part of the project. For the initial pilot phase, the project is focusing at generating over 23 billion cleaned tokens across the 23 target languages.
For Agenda 2063 to succeed, Africa’s digital future must speak the languages of its people.
If African languages are absent from AI, millions could be excluded from one of the biggest technological changes of this generation. ACALAN’s work is about making sure that does not happenogy grow together. The project is also part of the ACALAN initiative to
bring AU to people at the community level across the continent.
Today, many AI systems are trained mostly on English and other widely spoken global
languages. As a result, they often struggle to understand African languages. This affects
everything from online education and healthcare information to digital public services.
ACALAN believes African languages should not be spectators in the AI revolution. They should
be part of it. The academy plans to build large collections of language data using textbooks,
radio broadcasts, government publications and oral traditions. These resources will help
developers create AI tools that understand local languages and reflect African realities.
Such tools could improve healthcare communication, farming advice, education and access to
government services for millions of people. However, the Coordinators also raised an important
concern: who owns community knowledge?
The VCBLs Commission Coordinators called for strong safeguards to protect intellectual
property and traditional knowledge from misuse. Prof. Shule assured the VCBLs Commission
Coordinators that ACALAN will work with governments, communities and experts to ensure all
data collection follows national laws and respects community rights.
The academy also plans to expand the initiative by partnering with universities, technology
companies and civil society organizations across Africa. It is at this juncture ACALAN calls upon
all 55 Member States and language enthusiasts to express their interest to be part of the
project. For the initial pilot phase, the project is focusing at generating over 23 billion cleaned
tokens across the 23 target languages.
For Agenda 2063 to succeed, Africa’s digital future must speak the languages of its people.
If African languages are absent from AI, millions could be excluded from one of the biggest
technological changes of this generation. ACALAN’s work is about making sure that does not
happen