Media Coverage — Kọ́lá Túbọ̀sún

Media Coverage

Radio & Broadcast

Preserving Yorùbá and Other African Languages in the Digital AgeBridging The Gap (Podcast) · June 2026
Translating and Publishing World Literature: Editors RoundtableWorld Literature Today · 2025
On Nigeria's New Mother Tongue Language Policy in EducationBBC World Service · Dec 2022
29 Nigerian English Words Added to the Oxford English DictionaryBBC World Service · 2020
On Google's New Nigerian AccentThe World / PRI · 2019
Nigeria's Indefinite Twitter Ban Sounds the Alarm on Free SpeechThe World / NPR · 2021

Print & Online

Of Language Work and Interventions — also in FrenchAfrican Studies Library · 2026
Kọ́lá Túbọ̀sún Is Making a Documentary on Onitsha Market Literature, Titled Life Turns Man Up and DownBrittle Paper · September 2026
Translating and Publishing World Literature: Editors' Roundtable with U.S. Poet Laureate Arthur SzePoets & Writers · 2026
Translating and Publishing World Literature: Editors Roundtable — also on YouTubeWorld Literature Today · 2025
The Battleground for Language SurvivalAsymptote Journal · 2026
On Best Literary Translations 2025 — InterviewBomb Magazine · 2025
Setting Forth from Ebrohimie RoadThe Republic · 2025
How Kola Tubosun and His Team Gave Google a Nigerian AccentTechPoint Africa · 2019
How Google's Nigerian Voice Accent Was CreatedQuartz Africa · 2019
"An e-Book is a Book" — Nigerian Poet and LinguistGlobal Voices · 2013
Nigeria's New ChapterForeign Policy · 2023
Nigeria's Twitter Ban Continues to Silence CitizensForeign Policy · 2021
Nigeria's Twitter Ban Is Another Sign Dictatorship Is BackForeign Policy · 2021
In Africa, Rescuing the Languages That Western Tech IgnoresVOA News · 2022
A Renaissance Is Badly Needed in African Language LiteratureAfrican Writer · 2018
On YorubaName.com, Language, and Digital HumanitiesBrittle Paper · 2016
On Google, Translations, and African LiteratureIsele Magazine · 2020

Aké Arts & Book Festival — Selected Sessions

Yorùbá: Linguistic Vehicle or Value System — Panel with Femi Taiwo, Arinpe Adejumo & Feyikemi Niyi-OlayinkaAké Festival · 2019
Book Chat — with Olumide Popoola and Mohale MashigoAké Festival · 2017
Book Chat — with Alain Mabanckou and Okey NdibeAké Festival · 2016
Exhuming the Author: How the Media Approaches New Writing — PanelAké Festival · 2016
Modern Africa Poetry — Panel with Damilola Ajayi, Kei Miller, Bassey Ikpi & Jumoke VerissimoAké Festival · 2014
Guest InterviewAké Festival · 2015
Full archive — 217 photos and videosGoogle Arts & Culture

Translation Conversations — with Ibrahim Fawzy · BostonVimeo · April 2025
African Literature in Translation After Ngugi — Roundtable · NY Black and African Literature Festival 2025NYBALF · 2025
Conversation with Howard French — The Second Emancipation · NY Black and African Literature Festival 2025NYBALF · 2025

Conversation with Howard French · The Second Emancipation · NY Black and African Literature Festival 2025

Conversazione con Kọ́lá Túbọ̀sún — Premio Ostana · Interview by Valentina MusmeciPremio Ostana · 2020
For Whom the Language Bells Toll: African Languages & Technology — Barnard College, New YorkMarch 2025
Best Literary Translations 2024 PanelThird Place Books · 2024
Translating and Publishing World Literature: Editors RoundtableWorld Literature Today · 2025
Translation Panel — Lagos Book FestivalNovember 2020
Book Chat — with Abi Daré — Aké Arts & Book FestivalAké Festival · 2019
AI Saturdays Lagos — Language Interview2019
Book Chat — with Bernardine Evaristo & Nicole Dennis-Benn — Aké Arts & Book FestivalAké Festival · Nov 2019
Towards Religious Freedom in Northern Nigeria — Kabafest Panel — moderator · with Mubarak Bala, Freedom Onuoha & Abubakar OthmanKabafest · 2018
From Joyce to Ṣóyínká — Bloomsday Panel — with Dr. Adrian Paterson, moderated by Àdùkẹ́ Gomez · Embassy of Ireland, NigeriaJune 2020
On Nigeria's New Mother Tongue Language Policy in EducationBBC World Service · Dec 2022
Digital Indaba — Black Orpheus Digitally RevisitedYouTube · 2025
Dark Matters: Bias in Speech AIPioneer Works · 2021
How Should We Write Yorùbá?British Library Webinar · 2020
Yorùbá: Linguistic Vehicle or Value SystemAké Festival · 2019

Interviews Conducted

My Life in Translation — Chloé MartinezBest Literary Translations · 2026
Mahmood Mamdani in conversation on Slow Poison — Uganda's political history, colonialism, citizenship, and state powerHarlem Stage Gatehouse · NY Black & African Literature Festival · Sep 19, 2026
Conversations on Language — a series of six interviews conducted on Medium:Medium
Conversation with a Grammarian — Prof. Ayọ̀ Bánj ̣ọMedium
Conversation with a LecturerMedium
Conversation with a Language EngineerMedium
Conversation with a ConlangerMedium
Conversation with a PhilologistMedium
Conversation with a PolyglotMedium
Translation Conversations — Ibrahim Fawzy — on writing, translating, African literature, and writing in hard times · BostonVimeo · April 2025
My Life in Translation — Ibrahim FawzyBest Literary Translations · 2025
Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o on What It Means to Be KenyanGoogle Arts & Culture · 2019
"A Place is Illuminated in and by Absence" — Emmanuel IdumaBrittle Paper · 2019
"Home is Always a Slippery Word" — Namwali SerpellAké Review · 2015
"I Just Have Stories to Tell" — Nnedi OkoraforAfricanWriter · 2016