Computational and Engineering Issues in Human Computer Interaction Systems for Supporting Communication in African Languages

The computational and engineering issues surrounding the development of computer-mediated communication (CMC) technologies for supporting African language discourse is the focus of this presentation. The thesis of this presentation is that, to obtain acceptable results, services for supporting CMC intended for use in African environment should exploit and implement language technologies developed around African languages and cultures. We discuss the key issues relevant to achieving this as well as the technicalities and strategies for its realisation. The aim of this presentation is to motivate and impel a robust, well articulated, research and development agenda on African language technologies relevant to CMC.