Africa is a huge market for brands all over the world due to our population. With the population comes diversity of languages, and that is a good career point. Home to a great flow of culture, ethnic groups, and languages, there is now a need for African languages for freelance translation. Africans have been getting into the pool of freelancing for years now, becoming top talents in web development, virtual assistant roles, and even content writers; there are now bigger opportunities to freelance as a transcriber working as translator from home. 

Talking from a brand’s point of view, Africa is highly diverse in terms of languages, and that can be a problem with sales. While colonial languages like English, French, and Portuguese are prevalent, translating information into local languages is very crucial. Why? Because when marketing in Africa, online or for app usage, people prefer to search in their native language, even though quite a number of the people may speak those colonial languages. Importantly, phone and device user guides are much more valued when they are written in local languages.

Why The Need for African Languages For Freelance Translation 

The African market has been unattended to until recently, with a main emphasis on medical translations for patient trials. But now, people are starting to see the potential of a growing population, especially in a country like Nigeria. There are untapped opportunities for African languages for freelance translation as a career path. 

Despite the seemingly positive developments happening, there are still most parts of the continent where people earn low incomes, are not familiar with English, and are close to the poverty line. However, the middle class is expanding in countries like Kenya, Tanzania, Senegal, and other West African nations, which are full of great potential. Healthcare is still a main focus, as many medical studies are conducted throughout the continent. But it doesn’t end at Healthcare as technology continues to grow with the mobile phone, and industry giants like Apple, Amazon, Facebook, Google, and Uber are showing growing interest in Africa, with Microsoft having been there for a long while now.

The need for freelance transcription services keeps increasing because there are now additional requirements to provide details about brands and industries in indigenous African languages. Who better to translate English and other Western languages to African languages than Africans themselves? 

The rate for translation rates also differ based on several factors such as: 

1. Supply and demand: Translation rates are usually higher when fewer translators are available for a specific language combination.
2. Industry specialization: Translations into fields like medical, legal, and technical have higher costs, so you might want to check those out. 
3. Certification and experience: Translators with recognized certifications, such as ATA, NAATI, or CIOL, tend to be better compensated.
4. Globalization and localization needs: Businesses entering new markets require good-quality multilingual content.

Top African Languages for Freelance Translation 

Africa is the second most populous continent in the world, and that means that Africa is also important to brand owners. So many brands are open to hiring freelance transcription services for African languages. Here are some top African Languages for Freelance Translation: 

Swahili 

Swahili is a language used most in East Africa. It’s the official language in countries like Rwanda, Kenya, Uganda, Burundi, Tanzania, and the Democratic Republic of Congo. It is also spoken in some West African states like the Ivory Coast and Gabon. Another characteristic of the language is that, unlike in the majority of the other African languages, a word with an alternate pitch may have a different meaning in Swahili.

 Its lexicon derives from several worldwide languages, such as Arabic, Hindi, and English, which makes it a combination of Arabic dialects, English words, and indigenous African languages. Due to these foreign influences, the language is seen by some individuals as a colonial language. So if you’re wondering the best African languages for freelance translation to go for, try Swahili. 

Zulu

Zulu is the dominant language of South Africa, a significant nation in Africa. It’s the native language of over 10 million people, mostly in South Africa. The Zulus are also present in Tanzania, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Malawi, Mozambique, and the Ivory Coast. 

Zulu is among the few African languages with no Semitic origin. It is part of the Bantu language group and contains influences of Xhosa, Swati, and Ndebele, together with connections to Kongo and Yoruba. Zulu is a tonal language and uses different tones to communicate differently, thus rendering it versatile yet somewhat tricky to learn.

Yoruba 

Yoruba is a tonal language with many Niger-Congo language family dialects. It is one of Nigeria’s official languages, which is Africa’s most populous nation and the world’s seventh most populous country, having more than 200 million citizens. It has millions of native speakers in West African nations, Nigeria, Ghana, Togo, Benin, and Ivory Coast.

Yoruba is also similar to Nigerian languages like Edo, Fula, and Igbo. Moreover, it left its imprint on Western popular culture with television shows such as ‘Bob Hearts Abishola‘, the Western music industry, and many others. 

Hausa 

Another top African language for freelance translation services to consider is the Hausa language. Hausa is a top-notch African language for translation and serves as the official language in Nigeria and Niger, the two most populated countries in Africa. With around 60 million native speakers, Hausa is spoken in various countries, including Sudan, Cameroon, Benin, Ivory Coast, and Ghana.

 Unlike many other African languages, Hausa belongs to the Semitic family and is widely used in the West African and Sahel regions. It falls under the Chadic language group and shares similarities with Fulani, Agnas, and Bole.

Igbo 

The Igbo language belongs to the Niger-Congo language family. It’s an official language of Ivory Coast and Nigeria, but is also spoken in parts of Cameroon, Benin, Gabon, and Equatorial Guinea as well. The language is also associated with the Bantu and Arabic languages.

Summary 

Africa is a globally recognised continent, and that means that it deserves its marketing approach for proper reach. In addition to the languages above, Xhosa, Twi, Wolof, Afrikaans, and Amharic are African languages for freelance translation opportunities. 
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