Kola Tubosun

Kọ́là Tùbọ̀sún (born 22 September 1981) is a Nigerian linguist, writer, and filmmaker best known for his work in African digital humanities. A Fulbright Fellow and Chevening Scholar, Túbọ̀sún has led efforts to integrate African languages into global technology, including the introduction of Nigerian English to Google’s voice recognition systems. He is the publisher of the literary platform OlongoAfrica and the director of the documentary Ebrohimie Road: A Museum of Memory (2024). In 2016, he became the first African to receive the Premio Ostana "Special Prize" for his advocacy in indigenous language rights. He is currently the Africa editor of the Best Literary Translations anthology, published by Deep Vellum. Quotes The heavy hum-dum of numb dumbbells lazing on a dirty rug does not rise above this state, nor do the electro-carts that tug in whimpers at his idle mind. There stirs and falls in random beats, like hearts half-baked in a searing whirlwind of summer heats, doses of silence, filtered in cold, frittered in the evening eye. “It will not be tonight when the world ends.” Only a cycle crawls by. A poem on home alone,traveller A new man peers across a ledge, pondering time, pondering faces; and only a thicket of quiet responds, louder than a din of dank spaces. It bobs, it weaves a yarn of times. It reeks of a kind of cold, sour breath, of stories told again and again; a non-listening ear. A certain death. It is silent here now, as memory plays roughly along the helm of choice, heaving noise: “It will not be tonight when the world ends,” in a low lone voice. Translation is fascinating, mostly because it leads in many different directions. Sometimes, the final work is a totally new work entirely, bearing a new ideological direction. Government policies, publisher efforts, individual dare-devilry, technological advancements, direct action, educational policy, legal and constitutional changes, social media, self-reorientation, the marketplace etc, have bigger roles to play. Well, language is everything, isn’t it? It is what allows us to communicate with and understand each other. I’d been interested in languages for as long as I remember, so linguistics seems like an obvious choice of study. My mission is to create a space, an industry, and resources, for those already interested in learning about their names and those of others, for those interested in helping to create such a knowledge industry with the aid of technology. Not just in names alone but in the full expression of culture on the Internet. Names are just the start. Don’t wait. Start where you are, and use what you have, and be the change you want to see. He advises young aspiring entrepreneurs in the area of literary innovation Writing that story began with a real encounter at the hospital that I found quite moving but it began as an attempt to share my experience with friends. It started out as a report of a hospital visit and ended up as a work of fiction with required embellishments. I like the fact that it gave me a chance to contribute to the discourse on health, attitudes, and society from my own vantage point. On how he wrote the story for the book 'Behind the Door' in the African Roar Anthology. Headfirst into the Meddle is a collection of much of my early poems written between 1996 when I started writing poetry and 2005 when I left the University. The subtitle of the collection was “consciousness sustained,” and the title of the book derives from my attempt to define that crucial period of questioning and turbulence. I decided to put them all in a book form because I walking away from that mental and emotional epoch that I may never recover, nor care about anymore after then. It is a crystallization of that early stage of my precociousness. Talking about his book poetry titled 'Headfirst into the Meddle'. Sound plays a very important role to me when writing poetry. It has become a fascinating challenge for me to be able to create something as fun and as beautiful without losing sight of meaning and craft in the process. But it’s as much about the music it makes to your ears and eyes as about the overall meaning it makes to the reader, and the relief it gives to the writer for having completed it. It’s a science of sorts, and I like science. On what he loves most about poetry. Language is just the most fascinating tool known to man. It is what separates us from the lower animals – our ability to come up with the most complex, most arbitrary creative expressions from childhood to adulthood. A study in multilingualism makes it even better. It’s a whole new interesting world of fascinating discoveries, and it was inevitable that I’d find myself here. I’ve always been interested in words and their prospects. Sharing how much he values language as a translator. Even though it is inevitable that English becomes a global language of communication and interaction, writing first in a native language will add to the experience of that global identity rather than remove from it. Nobody wants to live in 1984 where everyone thinks and behaves in the same way, using the same speech. It is a disservice to the cultural kaleidoscope of the world today to try to deny us of such experience by shutting us up under one language lid. That that language must be English alone is worse, another contentious issue of its own. It insults the beauty of our collective cultural and religious diversities. On whether writers should use English as a unifying language, or whether language choice even matters. Translating from Yoruba to English is easy. I don’t get paid to do that much. What is hard is translating from English to Yoruba, and this is because of many elaborate ways in which the Yorubas express themselves. On how easy it is to translate from Yoruba to English. External links Category:Living people