Marking the International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples, the Executive Director of the Pan-African Centre for Cultures and Languages, Dr Lang Fafa Dampha, has called for urgent, concrete action to protect the languages, cultures and rights of Indigenous communities, warning that the survival of this heritage is critical to humanity’s future.
Speaking on the 2025 theme, “Indigenous Peoples and AI: Defending Rights, Shaping Futures”, the Director stressed that Indigenous Peoples are “the custodians of cultures and languages that carry the keys to sustainable living.” He noted that while they make up between 370 and 500 million people worldwide and occupy about 22 percent of the planet’s land, their contributions extend far beyond territory, encompassing most of the world’s 7,000 languages and over 5,000 distinct cultures.
“These languages and traditions are not just beautiful legacies,” he said, “they are living systems of knowledge, offering solutions for biodiversity conservation, climate adaptation, conflict resolution, and sustainable resource management.”
However, he warned of mounting threats, including land dispossession, economic exclusion, and the erosion of cultural and linguistic heritage. “Every time a language dies, we lose more than words,” he said. “We lose a way of seeing the world and a philosophy of balance with the Earth.”
His message also addressed the double-edged role of artificial intelligence in Indigenous futures. While AI can document and revitalise endangered languages, create translation tools, and connect Indigenous youth to global networks, it can also misrepresent identities, distort languages, and appropriate sacred knowledge without consent. Dr Dampha added that the environmental footprint of AI, from energy-hungry data centres to resource extraction for hardware, can threaten Indigenous lands and fragile ecosystems.
Outlining the Pan-African Centre for Cultures and Languages’ vision, he identified three key pillars:
1. Cultural and linguistic rights: Ensuring Indigenous Peoples have the resources and freedom to preserve and transmit their heritage.
2. Data sovereignty and ethical innovation: Giving Indigenous communities control over how their cultural and linguistic data is stored, shared, and used.
3. Inclusive participation: Recognising Indigenous Peoples as equal partners in decision-making on land, climate, technology, and development.
The Director argued that traditional ecological knowledge can help restore degraded landscapes, cultural values can inspire sustainable consumption, and Indigenous governance models can strengthen social cohesion.
Calling for Africa and the world to move beyond symbolic gestures, he urged governments and development partners to commit tangible resources, enforce protective policies, and ensure Indigenous voices shape the decisions that affect their futures.
“In defending Indigenous rights, we defend justice, in safeguarding Indigenous languages, we preserve humanity’s wisdom ; and in celebrating Indigenous cultures, we shape a future that is both sustainable and inclusive,” he concluded.
This is laudable and sharing such information keep people, notably the young’s informed and prepared for the task ahead. Thanks to Dr. Dampha and team at the AU.
A Pan-African Vision for Ethical Technology
This statement is not just about protecting Indigenous peoples—it’s about reimagining the future of Africa. If ethical and Indigenous rights are placed at the center of development, Africa could lead the world in crafting inclusive, sustainable, and culturally rooted tech ecosystems.
Indigenous Knowledge: Africa’s Untapped Treasure
This statement highlights a long-overlooked truth: Indigenous knowledge systems are not primitive—they’re sophisticated, deeply ecological, and rooted in generations of lived experience. They offer practical, tested solutions for climate resilience, biodiversity protection, and conflict resolution. Recognizing these systems as equal to Western science is a vital step toward sustainable development.
Powerful insights. Indigenous legacies have always been the the backbone of everything that humanity have achieved as civilization. Everything modernization and sophistication intrinsically indebted to the indigenous knowledge systems which gave birth to it. Protection as well as development of the indigenous cultures and languages and knowledge systems in its own right needs a bold move all concerned if humanity means to enjoy complete human achievements. We need more voices, strong voices..
Professor Dampha, your argument is eye opener, a prophetic call…We need to work on this…