Jalingo: What if the most effective way to combat language endangerment is to empower community members to document their own languages? The Kam Language Project is an example of how community-led efforts can help preserve endangered languages. Kam (also known as Nyingwom) is a language spoken in 29 villages in the Bali Local Government Area of Taraba State in Nigeria. There are an estimated 8,000-11,000 Kam language speakers today. Like many other Indigenous languages in northeastern Nigeria, Kam received no attention from researchers before 2016. As a result, there was no written literature, dictionary, standardized orthography, or audiovisual recordings of the language that could be used for documentation and preservation.
According to Global Voices, Dr. Jakob Lesage, a linguist and lecturer at the Institute of Asia and African Studies, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, started the Kam Language Project in 2016. Over ten years, he worked alongside Kam community members using what he calls a decentralized app
roach: Rather than parachuting in as an outside expert, he trained a language documentation team comprising 14 members of the Kam community. At the completion of the ten-year project in March 2026, the team had produced grammar reference material for the Kam language, a digital Kam dictionary, 307 recordings (audio and video), and a website dedicated to the Kam language.
Speaking to Abdulrosheed Fadipe via WhatsApp, Lesage shared the story behind the documentation project. He emphasized Nigeria’s enormous linguistic diversity and the urgent need for documentation, highlighting that about half of Nigeria’s 500-plus languages have never received serious scientific attention. He explained that the Kam language, belonging to the Niger-Congo family, does not fit neatly into any known subgroup, making its study a valuable scientific endeavor.
Lesage described Kam as locally stable but vulnerable due to changing lifestyles and economic shifts. He stressed the importance of documenting the language while it is stil
l in active use. Lesage also discussed the ethical considerations of documenting a language that is not his own, emphasizing the need for community involvement and ownership in the documentation process.
Babangida Audu, a community member and language documentation coordinator, shared how the project began with Lesage’s engagement with community elders. The project involved creating teams to conduct recordings, transcriptions, and translations, ensuring that the community’s values and priorities were central to the documentation efforts. Garba Rahab Precious, another team member, highlighted the project’s success in preserving the language for future generations through collaborative efforts.
The project faced challenges, including the COVID-19 pandemic, which disrupted travel plans. However, remote training and local collaboration allowed the work to continue. The lack of a writing system for Kam was addressed by trusting speaker intuitions and adapting as challenges arose. Lesage expressed pride in the te
am’s accomplishments and the project’s success in empowering the community to document their own language.
Lesage believes that if the Kam language were to disappear, the world would lose a unique cultural and linguistic perspective. The project’s achievements demonstrate the potential of community-led initiatives in preserving endangered languages, providing valuable insights for similar efforts worldwide.