Although Arabic as a language has over 250 million speakers worldwide with 100 million of these found on the second most populated continent; Africa. Arabic is also the most widespread official language of many African countries with the biggest number of Egypt having the biggest number of about 54 million speakers which has earned it the nickname; the Latin of Africa. Continue reading “
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Did you know that there are over 30 million Portuguese speakers on the African continent! Well, 14 million is the number of those who have Portuguese as their mother tongue or first language while the rest have it as second or third language and because of the many indigenous languages spoken in countries where Portuguese is, African Portuguese Translation is vital for purposes of effective communication.
This was as a result of King John the 1st wanting to access West Africa so as to get hold of the gold there. Some of the African countries currently speaking Portuguese happen to be former colonies of the Spanish and retained the language as a mother tongue for most born after colonization and also as an official language. The official status of the language is visible in government instituions, schools to mention a few and such countries include;
Then there are countries where Portuguese is spoken as a result of the speakers fleeing from their countries of origin as a result of civil wars and thus continued to use their language of origin in their new host countries. Such people now live in the Southern parts of the African continent and they include Angola, Mozambique, South Africa, and Senegal to mention a few. There is a new member of the Portuguese speaking African countries and this is Guinea Bissau.
Portuguese speaking countries in Africa are fewer than the English and French speaking countries and therefore translation services are crucial for effective communication between these countries to take place. Africa Portuguese Translation is important in both the Portuguese speaking countries and for these countries with others.
The reason is that the Portuguese African countries have got several indigenous languages which makes communication a bit hard between people of different indigenous languages. There is therefore a need to translate from Portuguese to the indigenous languages and from indigenous languages to Portuguese.
Then there is the need to carry out translations from African Portuguese to languages outside the Portuguese speaking countries both in Africa and other countries outside Africa.
At some point it seems like African Portuguese is into an invisible battle with English and French because the former is spoken by a few countries compared to the other two languages. Therefore the Portuguese speaking countries in Africa are working hard to preserve the Portuguese culture and this is already seen in many songs by African artists singing African Portuguese.
By Angela Kyolaba
Sudan recently passed away in Kenya at the age of 45, which is the equivalent of a 90 year old human being. No, Sudan in this case is not a country; he was rather the last Northern White male Rhinoceros remaining because of the species rarity. Although he left behind two daughters, the entire Wild life fraternity world over is saddened by his passing because his subspecies is a rare gem.
Sudan passed away at the Ol Pejeta conservancy in Kenya leaving behind two females and it is with the latter that Wild life sympathisers have hope placed that one day they will be carriers of the next generation of the Northern White Rhino.
It should be noted that Kenya, a country in East Africa was home together with other African countries to several of the white rhinos; the other countries included;
It is reported that the population of the northern white Rhino was wiped out in the 1970’s and 80’s when poaching was at its pick due to the demand of rhino horn for Chinese medicines and daggers made in Yemen.
Although the death of Sudan has saddened many, it should not e over looked that there is still plenty of wild life basking in the tropics of the African continent with many other species that are successfully regenerating. This is evidenced by the ever increasing number of the wild life tourism sector and the difference this time is that the locals in these countries too are part of the tourists that flock these wild life centers.
The boost in the wild life tourism sector in Africa has also highlighted the need for professional Translation Services. Translations and interpretations have always existed in the tourism sector with tour guides gambling their way through with broken English or with the tourists throwing a few words they pick up in the African languages.
However, there is the rise of professional translation services in Africa all together thus knitting Africa closer to itself and to the outside world through effective communication.
Professional translation services are the way to go for purposes of high quality results in which ever field one specialises in; could be Education, Health, Medical, Nature etc.
By Angela Kyolaba
While the African continent is known to have over 1500 indigenous languages used and spoken, one wonders how many of those African languages are still used while in the Diaspora. It should be noted that thousands of Africans cross to other continents for various reasons and these include; recreational purposes like tourism or holidays, educational purposes, marriage purposes, work related purposes and Medical purposes to mention the major ones.
Continue reading “African languages in the Diaspora”
Oxfam has been making headlines a while ago and all for the wrong reasons which is very ironic given the fact that this is a combination of about 17 charitable organisations operating in 90 countries including African countries like Nigeria, yet one would think it is only mentioned for bringing relief to those marred with disasters.
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It is actually very exciting that an African language is featured in this revolutionary movie. Why revolutionary? Finally, may blacks admit that they feel a fair representation especially because part from the biggest number of the cast being black, the majority of those have dark skin tons which is rarely the case as blacks with lighter skin tons usually feature in the mainstream movie industry.
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France coercing Joseph Kabila to pull out of the coming presidential polls to take place in Congo while in the southern part of the continent, the ANC party members which is the ruling party in South Africa voting to oust the incumbent Jacob Zuma as the country’s president thus gaining it’s name, Zexit thus the phrase when Africa’s Leaders hold onto power.
Continue reading “Have you heard of the Zexit? When Africa’s Leaders hold onto power.”
In 2004 Chissano while bidding farewell s the then African Union chairman, he used the Swahili language even though it is not his mother tongue. Swahili spoken by more than 100 million people on the African continent is a lingua franca created from Arabic and several other languages and popular in countries like Kenya, Burundi, Tanzania, Rwanda, Central African Republic, some parts of Uganda to mention a few. Chissano was then the president of Mozambique and wanted to show other African leaders how important Africa’s identity is in regard to languages.
This is an interesting question because at the look of things, in all major official gatherings that take place on the continent including the Au summits, it is the foreign languages used as means of communication. Although effective communication is very important for such events, focusing on using African languages as the main means of communication should be highly considered for the sake of the future generations.
It should be noted that the languages used in the African union include; Arabic, Portuguese, French and English which act as the official languages in Africa simultaneously.
Speaking of future generations, it is very important that they inherit the kind of patriotism that includes the richness of Africa’s indigenous languages. Yes, richness because Africa alone has over 1000 languages with certain countries boasting of more than 80 at ago.
Zimbabwe should pat itself on the back for having several of its indigenous languages among its long list official languages and these include;
Therefore, more countries should borrow a leaf from Zimbabwe because listing the indigenous languages as official languages is a step to popularizing these languages.
So I’m I saying the foreign languages should be done away with? Not at all because they make communication easier by bringing together almost all ethnicities that exist while at the same time maintaining the global village notion. In other words, foreign languages are great and useful and a uniting factor of Africa to the outside world and should be further encouraged but not meant to be a replacement for the African languages.
It should be noted that the foreign languages are those used mostly for official purposes and as the main languages of instruction in African Education institutions and were introduced during the scramble and partition of Africa in the 1800s.
In fact, at all times professional translation services should be highly considered when dealing with important events with parties speaking different languages. For example, at events like the AU, interpreters should be used to interpret from African languages and vice versa so as to build the African language legacy.
By Angela Kyolaba
It looks like the African continent is gradually adopting a new language; Bitcoin and although it might among the last places to embrace this new craze it is actually picking up faster than other developed places.
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Following president Trump’s remarks of allegedly referring to African countries as shithole during an Oval office meeting concerning immigration and his desire to have less people from them but would rather have immigrants from countries like Norway, African based groups and governments have given statements condemning this act and insisting of the dignity of African countries. In fact some African governments have allegedly summoned US diplomats in their countries to get closure for example, Ghana, Nigeria and South Africa with other countries expected to follow suit.
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