Microsoft Windows 8 has now finally been made available in Rwanda’s main language Kinyarwanda. With 14 new languages added, Windows 8 now supports a total of 109 languages.
Way back in February 21, 2012, on the occasion of UNESCO’s International Mother Language Day, support for 14 new languages was announced. These included Sindhi, Pashto, Punjabi, Scottish Gaelic, Tigrinya, Central Kurdish, Belarusian, Wolof, Uyghur, Tajik, K’iche’, Valencian, Cherokee, etc. Windows 8 was released in October 2013 and the team has been working since then to produce the software in various other languages to cover the international market.
Jean Philpert Nsengimana, Minister of Youth and ICT on the occasion of release of Windows 8 in Kinyarwanda, said in a statement that Windows 8 in Kinyarwanda will help in building communication technology and information literacy in the country. He further added in his statement that this development will encourage country’s youth to learn about new products. He said that:
“It will help us in taking ICT to the common man. ICT has to be owned by every Rwandan and not be seen as a preserve by some”.
With this release Rwandans having minimal knowledge of either English or French will now be able to use the Windows 8.
Talking about this addition of languages in Windows 8, Microsoft said, “The application can support any of the languages with language interface packs as long as it supports one of 12 application certification languages”.
