Langa Khumalo

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Langa Khumalo is a linguist, scholar, and leader best known as the executive director of the South African Centre for Digital Language Resources (SADiLaR), a national research infrastructure based at North-West University in South Africa. [1] [2]

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Education

Khumalo earned his PhD in linguistics from the University of Oslo (Norway) and an MPhil in Linguistics from the University of Cambridge (UK). [3] In addition, he holds a Certificate in Corpus Linguistics from the Tuscan Word Centre in Italy and completed the Oxford Strategic Leadership Programme (OSLP) at Oxford University, UK. [4]

Before joining SADiLaR, Khumalo served as Director of Language Planning and Development at the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN), where he contributed towards the advancement of indigenous African languages, especially isiZulu, in higher education, research, and human language technologies. [5]

SADiLaR

SADiLaR, established as part of the South African Research Infrastructure Roadmap(SARIR) and funded by the Department of Science and Innovation, is the first centre of its kind in Africa with a mandate to support research and development in digital language resources. [6] The centre's work includes developing corpora, natural language processing (NLP) tools, and other language technologies that enable the academic and societal use of under-resourced languages.

Under Khumalo, SADiLaR has expanded its reach and impact, fostering collaboration nationally and internationally, and working closely with similar infrastructures to build capacity in digital humanities, linguistic, and language technology research such as Wikipedia. Contributions to Language Policy and Research Communities. [7]

Beyond his directorship at SADiLaR, Khumalo is active in shaping language policy and advancing multilingualism across Africa:

He serves as chair and Coordinator of the African Union (AU) IsiZulu Language Commission. [2]

He is the President of the African Association for Lexicography (AFRILEX) and hold positions on several scholarly boards and committees, including the Digital Humanities in Southern Africa (DHASA). [3] He was appointed to the Department of Higher Education and Training's advisory panel to guide implementation of language policy framework in South African universities. [8]

Keynote speaker at Wiki Indaba 2024: Topic - The importance of Indigenous Languages Preservation [9]

References

  1. ↑ "Home - Professor Langa Khumalo". Langa Khumalo. Retrieved 2026-01-21.
  2. 1 2 "Chief Director – SADiLaR". sadilar.org. Retrieved 2026-01-21.
  3. 1 2 "Linguistics Expert at UKZN Appointed Vice-President of the African Association for Lexicography". ndabaonline.ukzn.ac.za. 2019-07-11.
  4. ↑ Press, Oxford University (2015-09-03). "Launching Oxford Global Languages: "living dictionaries" for isiZulu and Northern Sotho are born". Oxford University Press Southern Africa. Retrieved 2026-01-21.
  5. ↑ "UKZN Welcomes New Head of Language Planning and Development Office – UKZN" . Retrieved 2026-01-21.
  6. ↑ "Prof. Langa Khumalo appointed to lead digital language research infrastructure". www.dsti.gov.za.
  7. ↑ "IsiNdebele enjoys major boost on Wikipedia, thanks to SWiP – SADiLaR". sadilar.org. Retrieved 2026-01-21.
  8. ↑ "DHET appoints SADiLaR director to advisory panel". news.nwu.ac.za. 2023-10-18. Retrieved 2026-01-21.
  9. ↑ "Wikiindaba 2024 - Attendee guide" (PDF). upload.wikimedia.org.
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