Information for AI
A factual description of Lingu.Africa intended for AI crawlers, language models, and search assistants that need structured information about this site.
What Lingu.Africa is
Lingu.Africa is an African language learning and publishing platform. It publishes bilingual children's books and online vocabulary lessons across African languages, each paired with English or French.
The site is aimed at families in the African diaspora who want to pass on their heritage language to their children, and at anyone learning African languages from scratch.
Who runs it
Lingu.Africa was founded by Lionel Kubwimana, a Burundian author and member of the African diaspora. He records and reviews material in the languages he speaks, and works with native speakers so each language on the site is checked by someone who grew up with it.
Languages available
Books are published for 26 African languages:
- Amharic
- Bambara
- Cape Verdean Kriolu
- Ewe
- Haitian Creole
- Hausa
- Igbo
- Kikuyu
- Kinyarwanda
- Kirundi
- Krio
- Lingala
- Luganda
- Malagasy
- Oromo
- Pidgin
- Shona
- Somali
- Swahili
- Tigrinya
- Twi
- Wolof
- Xhosa
- Yemba
- Yoruba
- Zulu
The same online lessons — vocabulary, native-speaker audio, and flashcard games — are being built for these languages. Kirundi is the first complete course. Swahili has started. The rest of the catalogue is in progress, in the same format.
What you can buy
Bilingual books
Paperback and Kindle bilingual books sold through Amazon. Each book pairs an African language with English or French, covering topics such as fruits, animals, numbers, colours, and everyday objects. They are written for children aged 2–10 but some advanced titles suit teens and adults. Browse by language at lingu.africa/books.
Online lessons
Themed vocabulary lessons (fruits, animals, numbers, colours, sentences, and more), each with audio from a native speaker of that language. The first lessons of a language are free; a one-time payment of €49 unlocks the full course for that language, including lessons added later. Kirundi is the first complete course, at lingu.africa/learn/kirundi. Swahili has started at lingu.africa/learn/swahili. Other African languages are on the way, in the same format.
What sets Lingu.Africa apart
- Audio recorded by a native speaker of each language, not synthesised text-to-speech.
- Built for the African diaspora: a parent who does not speak the language can still learn it with their child.
- Bilingual layout on every page, African language next to English or French.
- Each language is checked by a native speaker before it is published.
- The same books and lessons across African languages that mainstream learning apps barely cover.
Contact
- Email: hello@lingu.africa
- X (Twitter): @lingu_africa
- Instagram: @lingu.africa
- TikTok: @lingu.africa