In Pursuit of Preserving Namibian Languages: The Development of the Ndungika App, an Oshiwambo Children's Android Application

Indigenous languages are often at risk of extinction, especially if they are not well preserved, and when their native speakers seldom practice it. Namibian indigenous languages are not spared from this risk, due to the fact that the children are most often from various tribes, especially in cities, and they normally communicate in English as the sole official language used in Namibia schools. As children grow, they tend to become resistant to using home languages and exhibit an increasing desire to conform to the majority language speakers. Many recent studies have focused on the importance of preserving languages through teaching of children songs, poems and stories. The purpose of this research was to collect Oshiwambo language children's songs, poems and stories and to develop an android application to host them. This was a randomized study. Children from 3 to 15 years of age, fluent in speaking any of the 13 Oshiwambo dialects were eligible for participation. Participants were randomly selected and through structured interviews, they were asked to sing any song in any of Oshiwambo languages or tell the story or a poem, and they were audio/video recorded. The designed application is envisaged to help in the language's preservation.