The Development of Wits-VITS (Vernacular Innovations in Technology and Science) What is Wits-VITS? Founded by Professor Nnamdi Elleh, Wits-VITS is both a research portal and a clearing house for scientific concepts, ideas, theories, and knowledge across all fields of study. It is not a translation website for words and terminologies. It is a venue for investigating and sharing abstract and complex ideas that have been thought through in one’s own African language/languages before importing that concept into English text, or any national spoken language as the case may be in respective countries in Africa. It is well known in all disciplines in the academy that most scientific concepts and terms are taught and explained in non-African languages, and languages that are spoken by minority groups in different parts of the world are also excluded. This poses a huge problem in learning and comprehension for many African students and scholars. Wits-VITS is a global collective learning platform for addressing this problem. An example is how Latin, Greek, and other European languages, and terms we take for granted, have enriched 4
English language. Wits-VITS is a forum for integrating African languages to play similar roles across all the fields of study in the academy. Although Africans have been contributing to global experiences and popular cultures, Wits-VITS will specifically facilitate the infusion of African knowledge and terms, and information from other minority languages around the world into all the fields of study in the academy. We are inspired by the pioneering contributions from diverse perspectives by the African Studies Association on Keywords’ studies, and by Raymond Williams’ (1983) Culture and Society, and recently Gaurav Desai and Adeline Masquelier’s (2018) Critical Terms for the Study of Africa. Origin of the Programme for Architectural History at WITS: Wits-VITS was developed by Professor Nnamdi Elleh as a resource for teaching first year Architecture and Planning students in the School of Architecture and Planning (SoAP), University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. The students are highly motivated to learn that they are among the first group who would be developing and laying the foundations for the new ways of studying in architecture and planning in the continent.
