During the 4th edition of the Ake Arts and Book Festival I took a break from the book chats for a one-on-one with linguist, writer, and teacher, Kọ́lá Túbọ̀sún.
He led a 2012 campaign to include a translation of Twitter into Yoruba, one of Nigeria’s three major languages. Two years later, his advocacy paid off when Twitter in Yoruba was launched.
Yorubaname.com has been Kọ́lá Túbọ̀sún’s strongest tool for advocating the preservation of indigenous languages. In 2015, Yoruba keyboard layouts for Mac and Windows were released to users. A version combining Igbo and Yoruba was released a year later.
Could you tell us more about Yorubaname.com?
Yorubaname.com is a dictionary of Yoruba names. We are trying to build a multi-media dictionary, a place online where you can find how to write a Yoruba name, pronounce it, discover its meaning, tone mark it, and click to listen to the sound.
The site was designed to help people in Nigeria who want to pronounce friends’ names, those who don’t have parents or relatives to explain the meaning behind their names, and people abroad who have Yoruba friends and want to learn how to pronounce their names.
We break down the names into their component partsWe are gathering stories of all the names that exist, tracing their histories, putting the proper tone marks, and creating an online resource.
Are more languages going to be added to the directory?
Yoruba is where we are starting from, but we want to do this for as many languages as possible, so we are looking for volunteers and funding. In particular, People who think they have enough information on disappearing languages or can form a team that can justify creating a product like this.
The overall idea is making technology work for us in documenting African cultural experiences. Over time, older ones will be gone. One day there would not be people who know all the information we need. It would be great to go to technology and find it there.
How many people use the site, Yorubaname.com?
We get about 300 hits every day and 2000 users every month. It used to be higher when we first started, but when people find what they are looking for, that need is satisfied.
Currently, there are about 70% dedicated users and 30% new users every month. As long as there are new and returning visitors, our work will remain useful.
We are such a small team running this resource, so we created a platform where people can submit their own names. If you know the meaning and dynamics of your name and would like to correct or add more meaning to existing names, you can make a submission. Every time I log on, there is always someone who has submitted a name or more information. That interaction is what I find particularly interesting.
Does this project affect you on a personal level? When you hear mispronunciations of Yoruba names, does that irk you?
Yes, it does. It has for a long time. I have seen people change the spelling of their names to sound cool. I mean if that is what they want, I am fine with that. But something that irks me a lot is seeing Nigerians who grew up abroad and who actually know how to pronounce their names, allow foreigners murder the pronunciation of their names when they know the correct pronunciation. When Jimmy Fallon interviewed David Oyèlọ́wọ̀ and mispronounced his name, Oyèlọ́wọ̀ said, that is not how to pronounce it, but I will let you keep it that way. It was funny and cute then, but if a media person was interviewing someone from Germany or Switzerland, they will learn how to pronounce the interviewee’s name. When it is an African name, they want us to agree that our names are too hard to pronounce, which is not true. With the existence of a platform like Yorubaname.com, they do not have an excuse anymore.
What makes you happy about the future of preserving our culture and heritage?
I am very happy that technology exists. This was not a creative project I always wanted to do. One of the reasons why I continued with this project that started out as a thesis in University is that over time I have found that there is an actual need for this platform and technology makes it possible. I would have loved if someone had done it before I did, so I could go online, find it and be satisfied. Since no one did it, I am happy to initiate such a platform.
