00:02In Cotonou, the school Les Étoiles des Nations runs after-school workshops in Fongbe.
00:08It is one of Benin's national languages, yet many of these children barely understand it,
00:14despite having Beninese roots.
00:16Many of the pupils come from mixed families or from Beninese household
00:21who have spent much of their lives abroad.
00:23For these children, learning a national language is a way of re-establishing a cultural connection.
00:31I decided to learn Fong because it was my father's dream.
00:35Since I started learning it at school, I've been speaking it a little more at home.
00:40And this linguistic revival is no longer limited to the classroom.
00:49At I Am Yoclouno, digital tools are helping people write and communicate in national languages.
00:55A free dictionary, an adapted keyboard and educational contents
01:00are making these languages more visible in the digital world.
01:05Some expressions in our languages cannot be captured by usual emojis.
01:11If we want our languages to be respected, we need modelling.
01:16And today, digital technology is an essential channel which transmits our languages faithfully.
01:21It's a movement that now stretches beyond Benin's borders.
01:26Designed in part for the diaspora, the platform TELI results to technology to preserve and share African languages.
01:34We're starting with the Beninese diaspora and the Fongbei language.
01:38But ultimately, the idea is to help diaspora communities around the world
01:42reclaim local African languages more broadly.
01:46In Benin, technology is also supporting what some describe as linguistic sovereignty.
01:52A national voice database is being prepared to train future artificial intelligence models in local languages.
01:59And on television, the newly launched public channel Benin TV Alafia
02:03broadcasts entirely in national languages.
02:06Evade �anha
02:07It's a national voice O π Scouts
02:07And through the 12-13-16-15- strengthening
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