How to Preserve African Languages: The Role of Technology

Africa is home to more than 2,000 languages, about a third of the world's linguistic heritage. Yet according to UNESCO's Atlas of Endangered Languages, between 500 and 700 African languages are threatened with extinction. Every language that dies out takes with it centuries of knowledge, oral traditions and unique ways of understanding the world.

Faced with this urgency, technology is emerging as an unexpected ally. From learning apps to artificial intelligence models to the digitisation of oral traditions, digital tools offer unprecedented means to document, teach and revitalise African languages.

The scale of the threat

Several factors are converging to put African languages at risk. Rapid urbanisation is pushing millions of people towards big cities where vehicular languages (French, English, Swahili, Hausa) dominate at the expense of local languages. Education systems inherited from colonisation teach almost exclusively in European languages. Globalisation and English-language digital media add further pressure.

The result is a phenomenon of language shift: parents, concerned about their children's economic future, choose to speak to them in French or English rather than in their mother tongue. In one generation, a language can go from "living" to "endangered". In two generations, it can disappear.

Digitising oral traditions

Most African languages are first and foremost oral. For centuries, knowledge has been passed down by griots, elders and storytellers. This wealth is fragile: it rests on the living memory of speakers who are often elderly.

Digitisation projects make it possible to record, transcribe and share these traditions. Initiatives such as Google's Endangered Languages Project or the archives of SOAS University of London collect audio and video recordings of endangered languages. Field linguists use mobile apps to document languages that have never been written down, creating reference dictionaries and grammars for the first time.

Learning apps: democratising access

Until recently, learning an African language outside its geographical context was close to impossible. No textbooks in bookshops, no online courses, no apps available. That gap has started to close.

Platforms dedicated to African languages are emerging, offering methods adapted to the specific features of these languages: tones, noun classes, complex verb systems. Unlike the big generalist apps that treat African languages as a marginal add-on, these specialised tools place audio at the centre of learning, recognising that these languages are passed on first through listening and speaking.

The impact is twofold. On one hand, members of the diaspora can learn or relearn their parents' language wherever they live. On the other, curious learners around the world discover languages they would never have had the chance to encounter otherwise.

Artificial intelligence in the service of languages

Advances in natural language processing (NLP) are opening new perspectives. Projects like Masakhane, a collective of African researchers, are working to build machine translation models for African languages. Meta developed the No Language Left Behind (NLLB) model, capable of translating 200 languages, including several dozen African languages.

Speech recognition is also making progress. While voice assistants today work mainly in English, French or Mandarin, researchers are developing models for Wolof, Yoruba, Swahili and other major African languages. These advances are essential: they allow speakers to use technology in their own language, which reinforces its relevance and vitality.

The role of communities and contributors

Technology alone is not enough. The most effective digital tools are those that involve speaker communities in their design and enrichment. The contributive model, where native speakers take part in creating teaching content, checking translations and recording audio, is particularly well suited to African languages.

This model has several advantages. It respects dialectal diversity (each community can contribute in its own variant). It values the skills of native speakers, who are often best placed to teach the subtleties of their language. And it creates a virtuous circle: the more content is available, the more learners the language attracts, which in turn motivates more contributions.

Bilingual education: a policy lever

Technology cannot replace a proactive language policy. Several African countries are experimenting with bilingual education models where teaching begins in the child's mother tongue before gradually introducing the official language. The results are convincing: in Cameroon, Mali and Ethiopia, pupils taught in their mother tongue achieve better school results, including in the second language.

Digital tools can support these policies by providing teaching resources in languages for which no printed textbooks exist. A tablet loaded with lessons in Bambara or Lingala can transform teaching in a rural school in Mali or Congo.

The challenges that remain

Despite this progress, significant obstacles persist. Internet access remains uneven across the continent: in 2025, the internet penetration rate in sub-Saharan Africa is around 40%, compared with more than 90% in Europe. Electricity is not available everywhere. Smartphones, though increasingly widespread, are not universal.

Spelling standardisation is another challenge. Many African languages have no established official orthography, which complicates the creation of consistent digital content. The work of linguists, such as those of the African Academy of Languages (ACALAN), is essential to resolving these questions.

A future being built right now

Preserving African languages is not just a matter of nostalgia. It is a matter of cognitive diversity, social justice and cultural wealth. Each language offers a unique way of categorising the world, solving problems and creating social bonds.

Technology provides powerful tools, but it is the commitment of speakers, learners and communities that will make the difference. Learning an African language, even a few words, means taking part in this preservation. Understanding why this learning matters is already a way of taking action.