Fundraising on for Tubosun’s dictionary of Yoruba names

Kola Olatubosun, a linguist and Yoruba scholar who led a successful campaign to make Twitter available in Yoruba, has launched a donation campaign to make multimedia dictionary of Yoruba names available online.

The idea, currently funded on Indiegogo, a crowd funding platform, is aimed at preserving the rich culture and heritage that comes with Yoruba names.

Explaining the emphasis on names and their use in the Yoruba culture, Olatubosun spoke on the power of names.

“To the Yorubas, a name is not just a name. Names have meanings. Names are powerful. Names are an embodiment of history, of a family, of a lineage,” he said.

“Sadly, today our names are being washed away by “civilisation”; we are raising children who are ignorant of this power (or meaning) of their names.

“Soon, one child at a time, a Yoruba name will be lost. Soon, one name at a time, the significance of the naming tradition will disappear.”

In order to halt the gradual erosion of the Yoruba history and naming culture, the culture activist is willing to set up an online multimedia dictionary that preserves the names, history and meaning.

“This project seeks to create an online multimedia database of all Yoruba names; a place of knowledge for those who need it,” he said.

“People removed from their homeland can look to it and find a lost connection while those not familiar with the Yoruba culture can come there to learn about Yoruba names, spelling, etymology, meanings, stories.”

The campaign for funds which started on Monday, January 5, 2015 has realised $565 of the needed $5,000 ahead of the March 5, 2015 deadline for acceptance of donations.

Olatubosun, a Linguistics graduate of the University of Ibadan and 2002-2004 president of the institution’s Union of Campus Journalists, has an MA (Linguistics) from Southern Illinois University Edwardsville.

He has also taught Both English and Yoruba, the latter at the tertiary level in the United States as a Fulbright Scholar in 2009.

He is currently working to translate the Twitter’s standard glossary of terms, which will make Yoruba the only other African language – asides Afrikaans (currently in beta) – to be supported by Twitter.