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The Struggle of an African-language Wikipedia

A reader writes to mention an International Herald Tribune article discussing the troubles an African-language Wikipedia faces in getting underway. While there is a lot of interest, the primary obstacle is that of exposure: the majority of people on the continent of Africa do not have internet access. From the article: "What use is an encyclopedia when literacy rates among a language's speakers approach zero? (This is not a problem for Swahili.) And who should control the content in a local language if not enough native speakers are inclined, or able, to contribute? If it had been native speakers only who contributed to the Swahili version, that Wikipedia might not exist at all."

2 of 234 comments (clear)

  1. Re:African bushman entry by 228e2 · · Score: 1, Offtopic

    dont incourage this kind of ignorance. this is disrecpectful and childish. mod this flamebait, not funny.

    --
    Since when does being a Socialist mean 'someone who has a different opinion than me'?
  2. Re:Not going to be PC by TheoMurpse · · Score: 0, Offtopic
    I speak, read and write 6 languages (English, Chinese, Japanese, German, French, Spanish) so please don't accuse me of language bigotry.
    What about Korean, you imperialist bastard!