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The folks at LouderPages.org have been working on creating TTS voices for a number of languages. Currently they are looking for testers of Setswana language (A Bantu language spoken in Botswana, South Africa, and Namibia). They have also just released a Nepali voice (used in Nepal). If you would like to try these, please visit their website or write to inq (at) louderpages dot org #Synthesizer #Speech #NVDA #Accessibility #A11y #Language #Africa #SouthAfrica #Neapl


Just three plant species, wheat, maize and rice, account for 60% of all food eaten globally. Crop science expert, Prof Tafadzwanashe Mabhaudhi, argues that many of Africa’s 30,000 edible plants must be revived.
#Food #Farming #Agriculture #Crops #Africa #Wheat #Rice #Maize #PlantScience

60% of Africa's food is based on wheat, rice and maize – the continent's crop treasure trove is being neglected
https://theconversation.com/60-of-africas-food-is-based-on-wheat-rice-and-maize-the-continents-crop-treasure-trove-is-being-neglected-220543


HUGE BREAKTHROUGH, ESPECIALLY FOR SUB SAHARAN AFRICA

BBC News - Malaria vaccine big advance against major child killer
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-66985273

#BlackMastodon
#BlackTwitter
#Africa


On European social media we often discuss American issues and talk to Americans on social media - but doesn't it make sense for us to talk more to Nigerians, South Africans and Kenyans, and about their news, because that's who's awake at the same time as us?

Let me know if you are from these time zones, in #Africa, and I will follow you.


According to some, #WestAfrica is a hotspot of the most talented guitarists around. I agree, but I freely admit I've been biased for a long long time now.
This is Fanta Bourama by Djelimady Tounkara. Considering the above statement, he's mixing in so many styles in this, from #flamenco to jeli ngoni-innspired melodies to #jazzy chromaticism, with immaculate technique and flair, and he makes it all sound effortless. He used to be in the legendary Rail Band before going solo, and is rightfully considered an African #guitar hero. Though not as famous—globally-speaking—as Ali Farka Touré (who occasionally played with the Rail Band’s competition, Les Ambassadeurs), he’s of that same generation of musical pioneers.
#music #musodon #musodons #ethnomusicology #Mali #Africa #guitarist
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zeYN2QW5qrc
Oh hell! Have Mansa as well; an atmospheric and expressive instrumental track progressing to a danceable groove.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eAA9baZ4wCI


I love reading The Continent. I highly recommend it for perspectives from African journalists. You can subscribe to it for free on WhatsApp, Telegram and Signal.

Text of attached image from todays’s issue of The Continent:

NAMIBIA. Another small fragment of stolen Africa returned.

Finland this week handed back fragments of a sacred Namibian stone that was desecrated by two Finns in 1886.

The two, a missionary and a geologist, saw a stone in northern Namibia that no one was allowed to touch but chipped at it, ostensibly because they wanted to know if it was a meteorite. The fragments eventually passed on to the National Museum of Finland and will now go to the National Museum of Namibia.

Africans have yet to go to Europe and desecrate important sites out of curiosity.

Not that they’d get visas.

#Africa


Fascinating article!

"Unearthing a Long Ignored African Writing System, One Researcher Finds African History, by Africans: BU anthropologist Fallou Ngom discovered Ajami, a modified Arabic script, in a box of his late father’s old papers" posted December 21, 2022, written by Molly Callahan

https://www.bu.edu/articles/2022/fallou-ngom-discovers-ajami-african-writing-system/

#linguistics #Ajami #Africa


The greatest African scholar of the 16th century, Ahmed Baba.

According to John Henrik Clarke, Ahmed Baba’s life was a brilliant example of the range and depth of West African intellectual activity before the colonial era.

Ahmed Baba was born on Oct. 26, 1556, in Arwán, near Timbuktu, to the teacher, Ahmad bin al-Hajj Ahmad bin Umar bin Muhammed Aqit. He moved to Timbuktu at an early age to study with his father.

Ahmed Baba’s work ranged from biographies to commentaries, and he was one of the most celebrated professors. He was also the last Chancellor at the University of Sankore, Timbuktu. The University of Sankore has been compared to other higher learning institution during Muslim civilisation such as Al-Azhar in Egypt, Al-Qayrawan in Tunisia, Al-Qarawiyyin in Morocco and Qurtuba University in Spain. It also said to be a source of pride amongst African- Caribbean communities worldwide as it was a great intellectual institution dating back to civilisations in Mali, Ghana, and Songhai particularly during the 12th to 16th centuries.

Ahmed Baba strove to bring together the different ethnic groups that coexisted in Timbuktu at the time. For him, ethnic differences were less important than to knowledge. The Moroccans, despite holding Baba in open arrest, also considered him fully-fledged scholar.

Timbuktu’s institute of Higher Learning and Islamic Research, which houses some 30,000 manuscripts and is one of Africa’s most important collections of Islamic scholarly texts and historical chronicles, is named after Ahmed Baba.

#africa #history

https://schoolforafrica.org/uncategorized/the-greatest-west-african-scholar-of-the-16th-century-ahmed-baba/