dataforge-africa 0.1.0

Algorithm-first NLP utilities for African languages

DataForge Africa NLP

Algorithm-First Language Intelligence for Africa

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Overview

DataForge Africa NLP is an open, algorithm-first foundation for building trustworthy, explainable, and inclusive language systems for African languages.

This project exists because African languages are often:

• excluded from mainstream NLP tooling
• treated as “low-resource” by default
• forced to conform to foreign linguistic assumptions

We believe African languages deserve engineering rigor, not approximation.

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Why This Project Exists

Most NLP systems are:

• model-first
• opaque
• dependent on large datasets and paid APIs

DataForge Africa NLP takes a different path:

• Algorithm-first before AI-first
• Deterministic and explainable by default
• Inclusive of real-world typing and linguistic variation
• Designed for education, public services, and community use

This makes the project suitable for:

• learners and educators
• NGOs and public institutions
• researchers and practitioners
• low-resource and low-connectivity environments

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Core Principles

This project is guided by the
📜 DataForge Africa NLP Manifesto

Key principles include:

• African languages are first-class citizens
• Normalize for people, not keyboards
• Determinism before probabilistic behavior
• Trust and safety over fluency
• Education is a core output

Every contribution and design decision is evaluated against these principles.

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Project Structure

dataforge_africa/
├── nlp/
│   ├── normalization.py
│   └── __init__.py
│
├── __init__.py
│
.github/
├── ISSUE_TEMPLATE.md
├── PULL_REQUEST_TEMPLATE.md
│
MANIFESTO.md
CONTRIBUTING.md
CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md
README.md