Wangui Wa Goro and the role of new media content in decolonizing knowledge

'''Episode 15 of Whose Voices? podcast | April 3, 2023'''

Wangui Wa Goro and the role of new media content in decolonizing knowledge

Reviewed by: Erin Ching Introduction:

You are listening to Whose Voices, a podcast from Whose Knowledge?

Adele Vrana:

Hello, this is Adele, and I'm here talking to Wangui during our Decolonizing the Internet’s Languages convening. So Wangui, hello. Can you tell us about yourself and what brought you to Decolonizing the Internet's Languages?

Wangui Wa Goro:

Thank you so much for inviting me, Adele. My name's Wangui Wa Goro. I am a translator, and in the last, since 2006, I've been looking at research on translation and decolonizing knowledges and knowledge management. And when I saw this, it was just perfect because I'm presently writing and finishing a book called Mind the Gap and the role of translation in knowledge management generally. So that's what I've been doing, and that's what brought me here. But also you invited me, and that was just the best thing that's happened to me for a very long time.

Adele Vrana:

Thank you for being here. And how are you and your communities using your language online?

Wangui Wa Goro:

I've been working on something called the SIDENSI Dialogues. So it's an intercultural dialogue where we try and tease out the different ways of knowing in democratic spaces and looking at some of the more challenging issues of gender, disability, and diversity in general and how language works in relations of power and how also we can harness language and knowledge together. Because usually, people have a silo for knowledge and a silo for language. But the two need to work together, and different knowledges are stored in different contexts like the digital world, literary archives, and so forth and so on. So it's looking at a multidisciplinary approach to multiple knowledges across languages. And also, I work in a language department of an international institution, which requires me to know lots of things. And so, I use my research knowledge and consciousness of inequalities and such to bring a new paradigm to ways of knowing. I embody through language and the knowledge that I have, also as a scholar and as a researcher, I embody a new way of being.

Adele Vrana:

That's why we are so lucky to have you here. So when thinking about digital and the online world, can you find content in your language online and what exists and what is missing?

Wangui Wa Goro:

There's a lot of content, and people are trying to reclaim African languages. So you'll find across most African languages, there's growing content. But one of the most popular forms of content is music and videos, and people also doing cartoons, and you know, those kinds of things. They're quite low-level if you think about the big-scale stuff like Hollywood and so on. But people have understood the importance of media and, and media and technology, and ordinary people are using quite basic instruments like, cameras. They're also specialized people who make their living out of making, like wedding videos. So they have the technical skills that people are using these skills to put up content on the web, which is allowing us to harness the language, and they're doing it unconsciously in ways that are pleasurable and serve them. So we are able to harness a lot of words, activities, we're getting to know about each other, we're getting to know about religious festivals, cultural festivals in African languages. Even if you don't understand it, there's a lot of content, and then it's growing because also we have something like Nollywood, which is setting a bar, and now the films are starting to be shown, and then their film festivals and awards and stuff like that. And there are platforms like YouTube and Facebook where you can actually launch your product on Creative Commons. So people are using digital forms, and the mobile phone is very popular, so people are using that also to communicate.

Adele Vrana:

And still, with all the content that is coming online, there's still something that you wish you could create or share in your language online that you can today.

Wangui Wa Goro:

My own work is involved in knowledges that can help local communities and my own communities, rural communities mainly, but also poor communities. So it's to bring the highest level of knowledge that's up-to-date on the key issues that concern people's lives, which is their health, education, anything that can help people move to a way of life that and knowledge that allows them to access life easily. And I think technology allows us to do that. We can leapfrog the texts, and I love books, don't get me wrong, but we can leapfrog knowledge, and access through technology.

Adele Vrana:

And what are some of the barriers that when you try to bring that knowledges, the knowledges or the languages online that are getting in the way of doing it?

Wangui Wa Goro:

Well, as you know, a lot of languages in Africa aren't developed. Some are dying, some don't have, and they haven't grown because of the colonial impact. So we have to grow them to bring them to contemporary life. But they are now more accessible is radio stations. There are people working on dictionaries and translations of mainly religious texts. So it's to use digitalization, machine learning, machine translation, and crowdsourcing of skills and tools like vocabulary terminology and actual knowledge. Also, we have barriers of copyright. So sometimes, we can't afford to get texts because we need the rights of the author, and we can't afford to pay for that. So it's to try and build an ecosystem that privileges translation as a primary activity because now it's not even recognized. People just think it's there and you can just get it for free. I offer translation, and it makes life seamless for people, but it has a cost for me, and I have to read and study and be responsible for the content because sometimes you're being asked to create new words, they have to follow norms, linguistic norms, and sometimes look for communities of learned people who can help invent new words.

So it's a lot of painstaking work, but people who get it know that it's very enjoyable, and we can harness the digital life to speak to communities globally who speak those languages. So we've set up a model, and it's been used across a range of communities, and some communities have grown very quickly. My own hasn't grown very quickly, but the model is working, so we can learn from those models that are working, and it's been used elsewhere.

Adele Vrana:

And what would you highlight as the things that made the models work?

Wangui Wa Goro:

I think there were people who liked this group here who were enthusiastic. It just takes somebody who's excited and who sees the value of what we are doing and just running with it. That's how one of the best models took off. And then they've had access to TED talks and like I've had conferences, big conferences that were funded. So I was able to reach a lot of special people like we are here with this decolonial conference where you have very special people in the room, and then they can go and share the message and say, oh, “we met somebody who's passionate about translation, and we must invite her” or something. Some people have funded me right now. I've got funding from Bellagio. I won a fellowship for one month. So then, just things like that, which really help the process. I have a month to go and think and finish my book, and hopefully, I'll have people want to read it and launch it, and you know, but I want this to be my central life. So I'm trying to make this the center of what I do because, in life, you must pursue your passions.

Adele Vrana:

And speaking about passions and being at this conference, how are you finding the experience being here?

Wangui Wa Goro:

I found it so enriching because I've been struggling with some of the conversations on my own, and they're very emotional because we are at a breakthrough point and to discover that there's a whole community of people who are ethical, who are equally concerned about the same things that I've been trying to grapple with for a long time alone and that we can just speak the same language without justifying ourselves or explaining to each other what the concerns are. We are discomforted a little bit because it's being articulated what we are hiding in our brains, but we are on the same page from different communities and angles. So for me, it's very rewarding to see that I'm not alone, and I'm not crazy, and that there is a real big issue that we are at the pinnacle of pioneering the resolution and that people are driven, people are passionate, and driven, and they're willing to travel and meet others. This says so much to me, it's very meaningful. I'm very, very honored and very excited for that. This opportunity arose, and it arose here in my city, now London, one of my cities. So I'm very happy that the opportunity and the resources could be found to bring this group of people together.

Adele Vrana:

So we are ending our conversation, and are there any closing thoughts? Anything that you would like to say that I have not asked you that you would like to then share with us?

Wangui Wa Goro:

I'd like to see the community of practice grow, however we do it – whether consciously or unconsciously. That we take these messages, that we keep in touch, that we find physical spaces to share what we've shared here. So I'd like to see this community of practice grow, and I want to be part of making it grow, and I want to be part of it going forward, and I'm very thankful. I think that's the one last thing that I'd say that this has changed a lot of things for me. And you will see me in this scene a lot more.

Adele Vrana:

Yes, we hope so. Thank you so much.