Comments on: A Conversation on Digital Pan-Africanism

By: abdurratln

abdurratln — Sat, 28 Apr 2007 01:14:46 +0000

These are about the most interesting and exciting moments of my lif, e so far. The interest in Pan-Africanism is spreading like wildfire. I am absolutely delighted to find such a lively discussion. My thanks to you.

Pan-Africanism offers hope for solutions to the many problems that we face now. This is why the best minds among us are active and dynamic on this subject. New ideas, new insights, new theories are coming forth so rapidly, I am not sure that I can keep up with it all.

When you see my site, you are sure to be impressed, if I do have to say so myself. hahaha

By: Abdurratln

Abdurratln — Sat, 28 Apr 2007 00:51:38 +0000

Of the three most widely used languages in Africa: English, French and Arabic, Arabic is the most widely used. This is due mainly to the fact that Islam is transmitted mainly through Arabic. Therefore, to the extent that Muslims lives in virtually every African country, every African country has some use of Arabic.

Actually, I think that with the three languaeges mentioned, one can communicate with virtually everyone in Africa, especially the literate.

Visit my site to share cutting edge knowledge and thoughts about all aspects of Pan-Africanism.

By: t

Fri, 20 Apr 2007 23:28:21 +0000

Interesting thoughts. Thanks for the inspiration + reminder to reach across borders.

By: pitcardie

pitcardie — Wed, 18 Apr 2007 22:34:22 +0000

Let us look at it this way:
* As Nino said, “localisation” is used to publish a website in the languages of its readers. That is the website menu, the navigation link and the editorial content is changeable to the user’s language.
* Then the user can give the permission to the editors or to a localisation team to translate his/her intervention in all relevant languages to the website “net-audience”.
* The “localisation team”, a fancy name for translators, is comprised of volunteers selected by the sites editors and rated by those who read their translations of the original articles or writings.

By: pitcardie

pitcardie — Wed, 18 Apr 2007 22:23:51 +0000

Let us look at it this way:
* A

By: Nino

Nino — Tue, 17 Apr 2007 23:00:53 +0000

I don’t think language is a too huge barrier to overcome.
It can be overcome, but it shouldn’t be forgotten..

When you go to http://www.akopo.com, you’ll probably see it in English..Me, I’ll see it in French. And it’s possible to have more languages.
There are some technics that allow multilingual websites to deliver contents in regard with the language of the browser.
Of course, after, you will need differents teams to target every language.

It’s sure that african may have more work to do to be pan-african.
But it’s not enough to say that as Europe is not pan-european, african websites shouldn’t/can’t be pan-african.

By: kofi annan

kofi annan — Mon, 16 Apr 2007 15:33:11 +0000

I think there should be allowances for both country-specific and Africa-general content. If the goal is to strengthen the African blogosphere, then there is no question about the categories needed, imho. There is much strength in numbers and while some of us identify with a specific country, many times we are left out of the census because we do not reside in that particular country. I don’t really consider my blog a Ghanaian blog. Though I am Ghanaian, my content is more about Africa(ns).

By: JKE

JKE — Mon, 16 Apr 2007 15:11:40 +0000

Is it possible for a website (or web application/platform) become relevant to Europeans throughout Europe?

Eh?

The language-based approach makes the most sense, I think.

By: Wilfred

Wilfred — Mon, 16 Apr 2007 11:04:11 +0000

Another possible way of looking at it would be region-focused platforms. For example, in West Africa we have the economic community of West African states who try to liase and harmonise policy such as customs and trade. It would mean that the news is closer to home as what happens in Sierra Leone has a much greater influence on say Guinea (french speaking) than Mozambique.

By: imnakoya

imnakoya — Mon, 16 Apr 2007 00:32:40 +0000

The heterogeneity of the “Africa audience” is clearly a factor that have to be addressed in the design of pan-African web platforms, and it’s probably the most difficult to address as well.