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Bolingo Consult is a female-led LSP that makes localization for African Languages a seamless process. We have experience in navigating the complexities in localization for African languages. Our services range from translation, interpretation and
media localization to creating data for low-resource languages. We’re on a mission to unlock confidence in African languages!
Akan is a Central Tano Language (a sub-branch of Niger-Congo Language Family), an indigenous language of the Akan people in Ghana. According to Statista, Akan was the most spoken language in Ghana as of 2021, encompassing Akan varieties such as Fante, Akuapem, Akyem, Ahafo, and Asante. Akan was spoken by over nine million people in the country. About 80% of people in Ghana could use the language as their first or second language.
However, the Akan language is more spoken than written within the country. There are major radio and television stations in Ghana that broadcast all their programmes in the Akan language, but publish their written content in English. Even when there is an attempt to write some of these content in the Akan language, there are always errors and the wrong use of special characters, “ɛ” and “ɔ”. This obviously has an impact on the corpus available for the language, and on the use and spread of the language online.
We leveraged on the expertise of our team of Akan linguists, IT personnel and PMs in translating website strings and mobile App UI strings to design and create the first website in the Akan Language (akannews.com). This initiative has received massive support and encouraging reactions from Ghanaians of all walks of life. This platform became a reality through a collaboration with graduates from the Faculty of Ghanaian Languages Education at the University of Education, Winneba, who contribute daily articles to the platform.
“It feels so soothing and beautiful to write in my language. I take pride in it.” Belinda Missaah Tuffour, Akan Language expert & Translator
“Akannews.com is one very sensible thing in the so called 66 years of Ghana’s independence. The next thing is to transform language policies in our education system.” – Nana Yaw Anim, Asante Twi native speaker
