The University of Botswana is supporting efforts to make Setswana and other African languages more visible online. Its workshop, ‘Preserving Languages: Open, Free, and Accessible Knowledge of All’, brought together academics, researchers, librarians and students.
Professor Thapelo Otlogetswe opened the event, and UNESCO Chair Susan Keitumetse spoke about documenting African heritage and oral histories. The Southern African Centre for Digital Language Resources (SADiLaR) also took part.
Since Wikimedia Botswana became a user group in 2022, Setswana Wikipedia articles have grown from just over 100 to more than 6,000. The workshop offered training in editing, translation and publishing, and organisers hope to form local editing groups.
