Home is not Egumbo: Language, Identity and Web Design

We analyse some of the ways that English shapes technology production in Namibia by critically reflecting on translations in designing the first fully bilingual Oshindonga website. We show that English, and symbols linked to English, perform in technologists' lifeworlds, felt-experiences and identities. Our reflections add to literature on mismatches between 'universal' paradigms and local ways of knowing. More significantly, they inspire deeper exploration of how language constrains design possibilities. Design research rarely remarks on linguistics in constructing technology or technologists. Yet, relationships between English and technology production exclude and inhibit the involvement of social, intellectual and emotional capitals in innovation.