The online space offers important opportunities to develop resources for African-language documentation and learning, whether drawing on the power of apps and online games to make language learning fun, or on social media, online databases and crowdsourcing as tools to make knowledge of African languages more widely available.
As in many languages, Yoruba names are pregnant with meaning, often containing references to family history, the circumstances of the child’s birth, or the parents’ or other relatives’ wishes for the newborn child. A couple of years ago on Africa in Words we discussed the significance of Yoruba names, and concerns about their Anglicization and loss of integrity, as reflected in this spoken word performance by Femi Amogunla:
Kola Tubosun, a Nigerian linguist, teacher, writer and blogger who specialises in the Yoruba language, was similarly concerned about the need to document and preserve Yoruba names in all their intricacy:
Sadly, today our names are…
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