The President of the Assembly of Academicians, Emeritus Professor in linguistics at the University of Yaoundé in Cameroon, Prof. Beban Sammy Chumbow has disclosed the intention of African Academy of Languages, ACALAN to digitalize African languages before 2063.

The former vice chancellor of three universities and former Prof. of linguistics in Nigeria languages at the University of Ilorin, made this known in an exclusive interview with CEOAfrica at the just concluded African Languages on Cyberspace workshop in Gaborone, Botswana.

Prof. Chumbow who served as a director of general studies and national awareness at the University of Ilorin, said ‘‘the essence of the workshop was to establish school of interpreters and translators for the African union which would emphasize translation involving African languages into European languages, the official languages of various countries, to ensure that knowledge that is needed by the people for development is available in the languages they speak, so that, they would be informed, knowledgeable and become fruitful agents of development in the developing process.’’

He said, another cogent issue discussed at the workshop was the development and production of data and data basis, in ensuring that African languages can be used for internet and function within the cyberspace. ‘‘By 2063, African Union expects that, African countries should have attained certain standard of development. However, this can only be done if the people are socially empowered and we believe language is the key.’’

While responding to a question on whether Experts and Academicians have been able to do justice to the topics the workshop is meant to address, Prof. Chumbow said ‘‘I think to a large extent, justice have been done to the topics through various presentations by experts and specialists and we have been able to capitalize on their presentation to ensure that we set up two committees that will put together the elements presented to new ideas that emerged from their presentation so that, we can have a blue print or a template of action that will be undertaken or carried out by the Academy for the future. So to a great extent, a lot have been done.’’