AI development in Africa expands to indigenous languages

Africa, home to more than a quarter of the world’s languages, has historically been left behind in AI development, largely due to a lack of data and investment. Most current AI tools, such as ChatGPT, are trained on English and other widely written languages, leaving millions of African language speakers without access to AI tools in their native tongues.

“We think in our own languages, dream in them and interpret the world through them. If technology doesn't reflect that, a whole group risks being left behind,” Prof Vukosi Marivate of the University of Pretoria, who worked on the African Next Voices project told BBC. “We're going through this AI revolution, imagining all that can be done with it. Now imagine there's a part of the population that just doesn't have that access because all the information is in English.”

The African Next Voices project, funded by a $2.2 million Gates Foundation grant, has created AI-ready datasets in 18 African languages, including Kikuyu, Dholuo, Hausa, Yoruba, isiZulu, and Tshivenda. Over two years, the team recorded 9,000 hours of speech across Kenya, Nigeria, and South Africa, capturing everyday scenarios in farming, health, and education.

“You need some basis to start off with and that's what AfricanNext Voices is and then people will build on top of that and add their own innovations,” said Prof Marivate. Kenyan computational linguist Lilian Wanzare added, “We gathered voices from different regions, ages and backgrounds so it's as inclusive as possible. Big tech can't always see those nuances.”

The open-access dataset allows developers to build AI tools that translate, transcribe, and respond in African languages. Early applications are already proving useful. Farmer Kelebogile Mosime in Rustenburg, South Africa, uses AI-Farmer, an app supporting Sesotho, isiZulu, and Afrikaans, to address farming challenges. “Daily, I see the benefits of being able to use my home language Setswana on the app when I run into problems on the farm, I ask anything and get a useful answer,” she said.

For South African company Lelapa AI, which develops AI tools for banks and telecoms, language barriers have practical consequences.

CEO Pelonomi Moiloa said, “English is the language of opportunity. For many South Africans who don't speak it, it's not just inconvenient – it can mean missing out on essential services like healthcare, banking or even government support. Language can be a huge barrier. We're saying it shouldn't be.”

Prof Marivate emphasised the cultural stakes: “Language is access to imagination. It's not just words – it's history, culture, knowledge. If indigenous languages aren't included, we lose more than data; we lose ways of seeing and understanding the world.”

By Sabina Mammadli