Towards Afrocentric NLP for African Languages: Where We Are and Where We Can Go

TL;DR

This paper advocates for an Afrocentric approach to NLP development for African languages, emphasizing linguistic, sociopolitical challenges, and community-driven solutions to foster inclusive language technology.

Contribution

It highlights the unique linguistic features of African languages and proposes a framework for developing culturally relevant NLP tools tailored to local community needs.

Findings

Current efforts include datasets and tools for African languages.

Identifies challenges and opportunities in African NLP.

Recommends community-centered development strategies.

Abstract

Aligning with ACL 2022 special Theme on "Language Diversity: from Low Resource to Endangered Languages", we discuss the major linguistic and sociopolitical challenges facing development of NLP technologies for African languages. Situating African languages in a typological framework, we discuss how the particulars of these languages can be harnessed. To facilitate future research, we also highlight current efforts, communities, venues, datasets, and tools. Our main objective is to motivate and advocate for an Afrocentric approach to technology development. With this in mind, we recommend \textit{what} technologies to build and \textit{how} to build, evaluate, and deploy them based on the needs of local African communities.