The Rise of AfricaNLP: Contributions, Contributors, and Community Impact (2005–2025)

Tadesse Destaw Belay, Kedir Yassin Hussen, Sukairaj Hafiz Imam, Ibrahim Said Ahmad, Isa Inuwa-Dutse, Aabr, Grigori Sidorov, Iqra Ameer, Idris Abdulmumin, Tajuddeen Gwadabe, Vukosi Marivate, Seid Muhie Yimam, Shamsuddeen Hassan Muhammad

Abstract: Natural Language Processing (NLP) is undergoing constant transformation, as Large Language Models (LLMs) are driving daily breakthroughs in research and practice. In this regard, tracking the progress of NLP research and automatically analyzing the contributions of research papers provides key insights into the nature of the field and the researchers. This study explores the progress of African NLP (AfricaNLP) by asking (and answering) research questions about the progress of AfricaNLP (publications, NLP topics, and NLP tasks), contributions (data, method, and task), and contributors (authors, affiliated institutions, and funding bodies). We quantitatively examine two decades (2005–2025) of contributions to AfricaNLP research, using a dataset of 1.9K NLP papers, 4.9K contributing authors, and 7.8K human-annotated contribution sentences (\texttt{AfricaNLPContributions}), along with benchmark results. Our dataset and AfricaNLP research explorer tool will provide a powerful lens for tracing AfricaNLP research trends and hold potential for generating data-driven research approaches.

Submission Number: 56