#230 Christian Elongue on Advancing the Language Industry in Africa

SlatorPod

Christian Elongue, Managing Director of Ghana-based consulting firm and language service provider (LSP) Kabod Group, joins SlatorPod to share his insights into the African language services landscape, recounting his journey into language advocacy.

Christian describes Kabod Group as a dual-purpose organization, offering translation services primarily to nonprofit clients, while advancing social impact projects for African language professionals with initiatives such as the Network of African Language Translators and Teachers (ALATT) and the Association of Language Companies in Africa (ALCA).

Christian discusses the unique challenges of Africa’s language landscape, which spans over 2,000 languages and requires localized solutions. He notes that demand varies widely across regions, with West Africa focused on French-English translation, East Africa on Swahili, and North Africa on Arabic. However, limited data and lack of standardization pose challenges for developing language technologies and machine translation for African languages.

To address these gaps, Christian advocates for increased local investment in African language technology. He highlights projects like Masakhane, which develops datasets for low-resource languages but stresses the need for more African-led funding. Christian also urges international LSPs to support Africa’s language industry by sharing resources and facilitating professional exchanges.

Christian concludes the podcast with a call to action: empowering African languages is key to preserving cultural heritage and fostering economic growth.

Chapters

1. Intro (00:00:00)

2. Professional Background and Founding Kabod Group (00:01:04)

3. Key Client Profiles (00:03:03)

4. Social Impact Initiatives (00:04:02)

5. Regional and Cultural Differences in Africa (00:07:08)

6. Africa's Linguistic Diversity (00:09:29)

7. Ghana's Languages (00:11:41)

8. Key Buyers of Translation in Africa (00:12:43)

9. Mobile-First Language Solutions (00:14:57)

10. Leveraging AI (00:15:45)

11. How Good is Machine Translation and Language AI (00:17:08)

12. Impact of Meta's No Language Left Behind (00:22:33)

13. Need for Local Tech Investment (00:23:57)

14. Creating Learning Resources (00:26:55)

15. The Association of Language Companies in Africa (ALCA) (00:29:33)

16. ALCA's Mission (00:31:31)

17. How International LSPs Can Get Involved (00:35:38)