Current projects

2020-2022

Digital Dictionary Resources for N|uu

This project is funded by DSAC and will be delivered in 2022. The aim of the project is to deliver a physical and digital dictionary in four languages: N|uu, Khoekhoegowab, Afrikaans and English. This resource will be made available digitally for free, with limited edition hard copies available for the ǂKhomani San.

2020-2021

Maguire San Ethnobotanical Collection

Digitisation of Ethnobotanical Collection with a focus on Ju|'hoansi and !Xoo

The aim of this project is to share via open source digital means, an historical collection of San ethnobotanical data. The data was collected between 1954 and 1975 by Mr Brian Maguire and his wife Dr Judy Maguire in close collaboration with Ju|’hoan and !Xoo communities of the Kalahari.

This is a comprehensive collection, meticulously documented in various mediums available at the time (slides, photographs, field-notes, journals, manuscripts and drawings) providing detailed descriptions of plant use by our indigenous first peoples, most especially food plants in water scarce areas.


Free online access to the digitised content so far is available via Stellenbosch University at the following link:

2020-2021

Bilingual Plants Posters

These posters was developed collaboratively with mother tongue speakers of Ju|'hoansi, an endangered Ju language spoken in Namibia and Botswana.


The purpose of the poster is to share indigenous knowledge about food plants as used by the Ju|'hoansi in the Tsumkwe area of the Nyae Naye conservancy in Namibia.


This poster is bilingual Ju|'hoansi and English in order to facilitate mother tongue education and incorporate the national language of Namibia, English. There are two versions of this poster, 1) the pdf with embedded sound clips, intended to be used online 2) the pdf with QR codes for the sound clips - intended as a print version.


All audio recordings were done by a mother tongue speaker and translator, Fridrik |Kunta. Artwork and layout, Nicola Poulos. Consulting linguist and project coordinator Dr Kerry Jones. Director of African Tongue, Postdoctoral Researcher for Rhodes University and Research Associate at Stellenbosch University.


Funding for this project was jointly provided by the Kalahari Peoples Fund and the National Research Fund (South Africa).


This content was inspired by the Maguire San Ethnobotanical Collection housed at Stellenbosch University and is the life's work of Brian Maguire and his wife Judy Maguire.


Baobab example available at the following link:


https://figshare.com/articles/poster/poster-1-Baobab_v7_DIGITAL_RichMedia_pdf/14816088

Bilingual Baobab Poster in Ju|'hoansi and English (embedded audio)This poster was developed collaboratively with mother tongue speakers of Ju|'hoansi, an endangered Ju language spoken in Namibia and Botswana. The purpose of the poster is to share indigenous knowledge about food plants as used by the Ju|'hoansi in the Tsumkwe area of the Nyae Naye conservancy in Namibia. This poster is bilingual Ju|'hoansi and English in order to facilitate mother tongue education and incorporate the national language of Namibia, English. There are two versions of this poster, 1) the pdf with embedded sound clips, intended to be used online 2) the pdf with QR codes for the sound clips - intended as a print version. To hear the audio of the embedded pdf: Please download the poster, then open in Adobe, then click on the "speaking head' icon to hear the Ju|'hoan words provided in bold.All audio recordings were done by a mother tongue speaker and translator, Fridrik |Kunta. Artwork and layout, Nicola Poulos. Consulting linguist and project coordinator Dr Kerry Jones. Director of African Tongue, Postdoctoral Researcher for Rhodes University and Research Associate at Stellenbosch University.Funding for this project was jointly provided by the Kalahari Peoples Fund and the National Research Fund (South Africa). This content was inspired by the Maguire San Ethnobotanical Collection housed at Stellenbosch University and is the life's work of Brian Maguire and his wife Judy Maguire. https://digital.lib.sun.ac.za/handle/10019.2/15524

2020-2021

|Kaggen Sculpture and !Ora Star Names

Art installations to be installed at the new South African Astronomical Observatory (SAAO) in Cape Town, South Africa.

Inspiration and Engagement with Astronomy Through Khoi and San Starlore

2015-2021

ǂKhomani San | Hugh Brody Collection

Digital curation of the contents of this collection housed at the University of Cape Town

This is an ongoing collaboration between African Tongue, UCT and the ǂKhomani San to digitise and preserve the history of the ǂKhomani San. This includes the development of transcript files in the highly endangered N|uu language as well as Khoekhoegowab and Kora (!Ora).

Endangered African Languages Featured in a Digital Collection: The Case of the ǂKhomani San | Hugh Brody CollectionPresentation supporting a paper published as part of the Proceedings of the Language Resources and Evaluation Conference (LREC - organised virtually) 2020 first workshop on Resources for African Indigenous Languages (RAIL) on May 16, 2020. The presentation was also updated for the 50th Colloquium of African Languages and Linguistics on Wednesday September 2, 2020 (updated with more discussion curating place names).The ǂKhomani San | Hugh Brody Collection features the voices and history of indigenous hunter gatherer descendants in three endangered languages namely, Nǀuu, Kora and Khoekhoe as well as a regional dialect of Afrikaans. A large component of this collection is audio-visual (legacy media) recordings of interviews conducted with members of the community by Hugh Brody and his colleagues between 1997 and 2012, referring as far back as the 1800s. The Digital Library Services team at the University of Cape Town aim to showcase the collection digitally on the UCT-wide Digital Collections platform, Ibali which runs on Omeka S. In this presentation we highlight the importance of such a collection in the context of South Africa, and the steps that were taken to prepare the transcripts which were generated from the audiovisual material for publication. We outline our development process in preparing the collection for a linked data online showcase website, from digitisation to repository publishing as well as present some of the challenges in data clean-up, the curation of legacy media, multi-lingual support, and site organisation.TOC:00:00 | Welcome and Intro05:30 | Overview of Collection and Transcription Process09:38 | Digital Curation18:13 | Conclusion19:12 | ReferencesAs both conferences were held online the presentation was pre-recorded in each case.