Maliki W.

I help AI companies, technology companies, research teams, and localization providers build and manage high-quality language data projects across Africa and other underrepresented language markets. I’m Maliki Woudouwa, an African Language & AI Data Specialist and CEO of BARIKAWORDS, a linguistic services company specializing in African languages, multilingual data collection, speech data, transcription, translation, localization, and linguistic quality assurance. What makes me different? I don't just translate words. I build and manage a linguistic teams and workflows required to deliver language projects at scale. Through BARIKAWORDS, I have worked with 100+ low-resource and underrepresented languages, connecting clients with native speakers, linguists, translators, transcribers, annotators, and language specialists. Our experience includes African languages such as Fulfulde/Fulani, Zarma, Yoruba, Wolof, Ngambay, Tumari Kanuri, Hassaniya, Bambara, Mossi, Luba Lulua, Baatonum, Tamasheq, Tagdal, Dyula, Ewondo, Dogon varieties, Lingala, Kpelle, Attié, Anyin, Siamou, Nobin, Dan, and many others. We have also supported projects involving Khmer, Burmese, Norwegian Nynorsk, Serbian, Amharic, Lao, Rohingya, Malay, Indonesian, Cebuano, and Tausug. What I can help your team deliver AI & Language Data - AI training data collection - Speech and conversational data - Multilingual data annotation - Linguistic data validation - AI-generated translation evaluation - Language identification and validation - Linguistic quality assurance (LQA) - Low-resource language data Speech & Audio Projects - Voice and speech data collection - Native speaker recruitment - Recording coordination - Audio quality control - Transcription and segmentation - Verbatim and normalized transcription - Conversational speech datasets Multilingual Language Operations - Translation and localization - Transcription - Proofreading and editing - Linguistic QA - Multilingual team recruitment - Project coordination - Production monitoring - Quality-control workflows From a few linguists to multilingual teams When a project requires more than one freelancer, I can coordinate the full linguistic operation through BARIKAWORDS. This can include: Client requirements → Linguist recruitment → Speaker recruitment → Training → Production → Quality Control → Linguistic Validation → Final Delivery This approach allows clients to work with one project lead instead of managing multiple translators, speakers, and language teams themselves. Why work with me? • Master's degree in Applied Linguistics • Experience working across African and international languages (low ressources languages) • Experience with AI language and speech-data projects • Access to multilingual linguistic networks • Experience coordinating distributed language teams • Strong understanding of African linguistic and cultural contexts • Focus on quality, consistency, deadlines, and client specifications • Ability to scale projects beyond a single language or freelancer Whether you need 5 hours of validated speech data, a multilingual translation team, native speakers for an AI training project, or a large-scale African language data operation, I can help you design and execute the workflow. If your project involves African languages, low-resource languages, speech data, AI training data, transcription, translation, localization, or linguistic QA, send me your requirements. Let's build the language data your technology needs. BARIKAWORDS — Low Ressource Languages. Quality Data. AI-Ready Solutions.