For decades, Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been trained on vast reservoirs of digital text—mostly in English, European, and Asian languages. This abundance of written material has given AI models like ChatGPT incredible fluency and versatility.
But for millions of Africans, this technological revolution has felt out of reach.
Africa is home to more than 2,000 languages—accounting for over a quarter of the world’s linguistic diversity. Yet very few of these voices exist in AI datasets. The reason? Many African languages are primarily spoken, rarely written, leaving almost no usable material for training. That absence creates a stark divide, excluding huge populations from AI’s benefits.
“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,” says Professor Vukosi Marivate of the University of Pretoria.
The African Next Voices Project: A Breakthrough for Inclusion
In response to this challenge, linguists and computer scientists launched the African Next Voices project, an initiative to build the largest open dataset of African languages to date.
Funded by a $2.2 million Gates Foundation grant, the project has already recorded 9,000 hours of speech across Kenya, Nigeria, and South Africa, covering everyday topics in farming, health, and education.
The dataset includes languages like Kikuyu and Dholuo in Kenya, Hausa and Yoruba in Nigeria, and isiZulu and Tshivenda in South Africa—each spoken by millions of people but largely invisible in AI development until now.
“We gathered voices from different regions, ages, and backgrounds so it’s as inclusive as possible,” explains computational linguist Lilian Wanzare from Kenya.
“Big tech can’t always see those nuances.”
This dataset, released as open access, is a foundation for AI-driven translation tools, transcription services, and chatbots that work in African languages. It’s not an endpoint but a starting point—one that others can now build on.
Why African Languages in AI Matter
The impact of this effort goes far beyond making technology convenient. Language determines access to opportunity.
Take farmer Kelebogile Mosime from South Africa’s platinum region. On her 21-hectare farm, she grows spinach, beans, cauliflower, and tomatoes. As a relatively new farmer, she turned to AI-Farmer, an app designed to provide crop advice—in multiple South African languages, including Setswana, her mother tongue.
“When I have problems on the farm, I just ask in Setswana and get an answer,” she explains. “From diagnosing plant diseases to finding natural pest control, it’s changed how I work.”
For farmers like Mosime, the tech isn’t just convenient—it’s transformative. It bridges the digital divide, empowering rural communities by letting them interact in languages they understand best.
And it’s not just agriculture. AI in banking, healthcare, education, and government services becomes exponentially more powerful when African citizens can engage in their local languages.
As South African AI entrepreneur Pelonomi Moiloa, CEO of Lelapa AI, puts it:
“English may be the language of opportunity, but for millions who don’t speak it fluently it can mean missing out on essential services. Language can be a huge barrier. We’re saying it shouldn’t be.”
Language as Identity: Preserving Africa’s Heritage in AI
The urgency here is about more than business or convenience. For many researchers, leaving African languages out of AI risks erasing cultural identity itself.
“Language is access to imagination,” says Prof. Marivate. “It’s not just words—it’s history, culture, knowledge. If indigenous languages aren’t included, we lose more than data; we lose entire ways of seeing and understanding the world.”
By capturing African speech patterns, idioms, and local contexts, projects like African Next Voices do more than improve AI—they preserve identity while expanding access.
The Road Ahead: Africa’s AI Future
The launch of AI-ready datasets in 18 African languages is a milestone, but it’s still only a fraction of the more than 2,000 spoken across the continent. The real challenge—and opportunity—lies ahead: scaling investments, building practical tools, and ensuring Africa doesn’t just consume AI built elsewhere but actively creates AI shaped by its own voices.
From farmlands to fintech and from villages to metropolises, Africa’s AI story is unfolding differently:
- Inclusive datasets will power apps and services that work in indigenous languages.
- Local entrepreneurs will build solutions for banks, schools, and health clinics.
- Cultural heritage will be safeguarded for future generations.
The AI revolution is here. And for Africa, the most important step is ensuring every voice counts—literally.
