By Lihle Sosibo
Following Heritage month, the South African Centre for Digital Language Resources (SADiLaR) at the North-West University (NWU) proudly turns the spotlight inwards, celebrating its own heritage through its history book titled The Story of SADiLaR.
This publication is more than a record of the past – it is a reflection of SADiLaR’s journey, milestones, and lasting impact since its inception in 2016. From advancing South Africa’s official languages to pioneering digital innovation in humanities research, SADiLaR’s story is one of growth, collaboration, and unwavering commitment to preserving and promoting linguistic diversity.
The history book encapsulates how SADiLaR’s vision aligns with national priorities, particularly the Decadal Plan for Science, Technology, and Innovation, which calls for the development and digitisation of all official languages. It stands as a testimony to SADiLaR’s strategy of good governance, inclusivity, and contribution to building a digitally enabled multilingual future for South Africa.
By documenting its legacy, SADiLaR not only honours the strides made but also inspires future generations to value and expand on this foundation. While we celebrated the richness of South Africa’s collective heritage in September, we now continue to celebrate SADiLaR’s unique legacy in shaping the future of languages and digital scholarship.
More about SADiLaR
SADiLaR is a national centre supported by the Department of Science, Technology and Innovation as part of the new South African Research Infrastructure Roadmap. The research infrastructure is an independent national centre hosted by the NWU. Following a hub-and-spoke model, the hub of the infrastructure is hosted at this university, while multiple contributing nodes are spread across various institutions.
SADiLaR has an enabling function, with a focus on all official languages of South Africa, supporting research and development in the domains of language technology and language-related studies in the humanities and social sciences. The infrastructure supports the creation, management and distribution of digital language resources, as well as applicable software, which are freely available for research purposes through the Language Resource Catalogue. The history and development of SADiLaR is presented and accessible here.
