Development of English-isiZulu Language Translator to Bridge Language Barrier Between EWS and Bantu Language Speaking Farmers. Case of Swayimane, KwazuluNatal, South Africa

Abstract

Climate change continues to supress food and water security in the world and its impacts are worse in Sub-Saharan Africa where there are limited mitigation and adaptation strategies. Although African continent has received massive attention in the development of EWSs, number of researches have highlighted ineffectiveness of these systems such as lack of community engagement throughout their developments. As such, many rain-fed agricultures and rural communities remain vulnerable in the presence of EWSs and persist to be demoralised by harsh realities of climate change. In this paper, we develop English-isiZulu language translator that will be embedded into the EWS that integrates both indigenous and scientific knowledge to aid farmers in cropping decisions and foreseeing of climate related events. The translator is built around agricultural vocabulary related to weather and cropping decisions. The aim of this translator is to enhance communication and dissemination element of the EWS by translating EWMs to isiZulu language to bridge the language barrier between semi-literate isiZulu speakers and EWS.