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Africans get tools to cross the digital divide
A few pioneering experts want to remove the English barrier so the continent can fully join the computer age.
JOHANNESBURG - Dwayne Bailey hears the question all the time. "Why bother translating software into isiZulu?’" people ask him. "Who needs it? English is the language of global business - you’d be better off spending your energy teaching people English."
To which Mr. Bailey replies, quite simply, "Izixhobo kufuneka zisebenzele abantu, hayi abantu izixhobo. Isoftware sisixhobo ngoko ke kumele sisebenzele abantu ngolwimi lwabo lwasemzini!"
Mr. Bailey, a 33-year-old pioneer in software translation, typically declines to translate his reply, in isiXhosa, but it means: "Tools adapt to people not people to tools. Software is a tool, so it must adapt to people and their language."
His point, of course, is that English-based software is as impenetrable to isiXhosa speakers as is his reply to those who don’t speak the South African language.
Source: Bellaciao
