README.md

---
configs:
- config_name: tts_test_ewe
  data_files:
  - split: test
    path: tts_test/HF_test-ewe*
- config_name: tts_test_kin
  data_files:
  - split: test
    path: tts_test/HF_test-kin*
- config_name: tts_test_Asante-twi
  data_files:
  - split: test
    path: tts_test/HF_test-Asante-twi*
- config_name: tts_test_yor
  data_files:
  - split: test
    path: tts_test/HF_test-yor*
    
- config_name: tts_test_wol
  data_files:
  - split: test
    path: tts_test/HF_test-wol*
    
- config_name: tts_test_hau
  data_files:
  - split: test
    path: tts_test/HF_test-hau*
    
- config_name: tts_test_lin
  data_files:
  - split: test
    path: tts_test/HF_test-lin*
    
- config_name: tts_test_xho
  data_files:
  - split: test
    path: tts_test/HF_test-xho*
    
- config_name: tts_test_tsn
  data_files:
  - split: test
    path: tts_test/HF_test-tsn*
    
- config_name: tts_test_afr
  data_files:
  - split: test
    path: tts_test/HF_test-afr*
    
- config_name: tts_test_sot
  data_files:
  - split: test
    path: tts_test/HF_test-sot*
    
- config_name: tts_test_Akuapim-twi
  data_files:
  - split: test
    path: tts_test/HF_test-Akuapim-twi*


- config_name: slid_61_test
  data_files:
  - split: test
    path: slid_test/HF_merged_slid_test_61*
    
- config_name: asr_test_Akuapim-twi
  data_files:
  - split: test
    path: asr_test/HF_test-Akuapim-twi*
- config_name: asr_test_Asante-twi
  data_files:
  - split: test
    path: asr_test/HF_test-Asante-twi*
- config_name: asr_test_afr
  data_files:
  - split: test
    path: asr_test/HF_test-afr*
- config_name: asr_test_amh
  data_files:
  - split: test
    path: asr_test/HF_test-amh*
- config_name: asr_test_bas
  data_files:
  - split: test
    path: asr_test/HF_test-bas*
- config_name: asr_test_bem
  data_files:
  - split: test
    path: asr_test/HF_test-bem*
- config_name: asr_test_dav
  data_files:
  - split: test
    path: asr_test/HF_test-dav*
- config_name: asr_test_dyu
  data_files:
  - split: test
    path: asr_test/HF_test-dyu*
- config_name: asr_test_fat
  data_files:
  - split: test
    path: asr_test/HF_test-fat*
- config_name: asr_test_fon
  data_files:
  - split: test
    path: asr_test/HF_test-fon*
- config_name: asr_test_fuc
  data_files:
  - split: test
    path: asr_test/HF_test-fuc*
- config_name: asr_test_fuf
  data_files:
  - split: test
    path: asr_test/HF_test-fuf*
- config_name: asr_test_gaa
  data_files:
  - split: test
    path: asr_test/HF_test-gaa*
- config_name: asr_test_hau
  data_files:
  - split: test
    path: asr_test/HF_test-hau*
- config_name: asr_test_ibo
  data_files:
  - split: test
    path: asr_test/HF_test-ibo*
- config_name: asr_test_kab
  data_files:
  - split: test
    path: asr_test/HF_test-kab*
- config_name: asr_test_kin
  data_files:
  - split: test
    path: asr_test/HF_test-kin*
- config_name: asr_test_kln
  data_files:
  - split: test
    path: asr_test/HF_test-kln*
- config_name: asr_test_loz
  data_files:
  - split: test
    path: asr_test/HF_test-loz*
- config_name: asr_test_lug
  data_files:
  - split: test
    path: asr_test/HF_test-lug*
- config_name: asr_test_luo
  data_files:
  - split: test
    path: asr_test/HF_test-luo*
- config_name: asr_test_mlq
  data_files:
  - split: test
    path: asr_test/HF_test-mlq*
- config_name: asr_test_nbl
  data_files:
  - split: test
    path: asr_test/HF_test-nbl*
- config_name: asr_test_nso
  data_files:
  - split: test
    path: asr_test/HF_test-nso*
- config_name: asr_test_nya
  data_files:
  - split: test
    path: asr_test/HF_test-nya*
- config_name: asr_test_sot
  data_files:
  - split: test
    path: asr_test/HF_test-sot*
- config_name: asr_test_srr
  data_files:
  - split: test
    path: asr_test/HF_test-srr*
- config_name: asr_test_ssw
  data_files:
  - split: test
    path: asr_test/HF_test-ssw*
- config_name: asr_test_sus
  data_files:
  - split: test
    path: asr_test/HF_test-sus*
- config_name: asr_test_swa
  data_files:
  - split: test
    path: asr_test/HF_test-sw*
- config_name: asr_test_tig
  data_files:
  - split: test
    path: asr_test/HF_test-tig*
- config_name: asr_test_tir
  data_files:
  - split: test
    path: asr_test/HF_test-tir*
- config_name: asr_test_toi
  data_files:
  - split: test
    path: asr_test/HF_test-toi*
- config_name: asr_test_tsn
  data_files:
  - split: test
    path: asr_test/HF_test-tsn*
- config_name: asr_test_tso
  data_files:
  - split: test
    path: asr_test/HF_test-tso*
- config_name: asr_test_twi
  data_files:
  - split: test
    path: asr_test/HF_test-twi*
- config_name: asr_test_ven
  data_files:
  - split: test
    path: asr_test/HF_test-ven*
- config_name: asr_test_wol
  data_files:
  - split: test
    path: asr_test/HF_test-wol*
- config_name: asr_test_xho
  data_files:
  - split: test
    path: asr_test/HF_test-xho*
- config_name: asr_test_yor
  data_files:
  - split: test
    path: asr_test/HF_test-yor*
- config_name: asr_test_zgh
  data_files:
  - split: test
    path: asr_test/HF_test-zgh*
- config_name: asr_test_zul
  data_files:
  - split: test
    path: asr_test/HF_test-zul*



language:
  - afr  # Afrikaans
  - amh  # Amharic
  - bas  # Basaa
  - bem  # Bemba
  - dyu  # Dyula
  - ee   # Ewe
  - fat  # Fanti
  - fon  # Fon
  - fra  # French
  - fuc  # Pulaar
  - fuf  # Pular
  - gaa  # Ga
  - hau  # Hausa
  - ibo  # Igbo
  - kab  # Kabyle
  - kin  # Kinyarwanda
  - kln  # Kalenjin
  - kon  # Kongo
  - lin  # Lingala
  - loz  # Lozi
  - lug  # Ganda
  - luo  # Luo
  - mlq  # Western Maninkakan
  - nbl  # South Ndebele
  - nso  # Northern Sotho
  - nya  # Nyanja
  - orm  # Oromo
  - por  # Portuguese
  - sna  # Shona
  - som  # Somali
  - sot  # Southern Sotho
  - ssw  # Swati
  - swa  # Swahili
  - tir  # Tigrinya
  - tig  # Tigre
  - toi  # Tonga (Zambia)
  - tsn  # Tswana
  - tso  # Tsonga
  - twi  # Twi
  - ven  # Venda
  - wol  # Wolof
  - xho  # Xhosa
  - yor  # Yoruba
  - zul  # Zulu
  - zgh  # Standard Moroccan Tamazight
  - aka  # Akan (Akuapim/Asante Twi variants)
  - mos  # Mossi
  - umb  # Umbundu
  - din  # Dinka
  - sag  # Sango
  - mlg  # Malagasy

license: cc-by-4.0

tags:
  - automatic-speech-recognition
  - text-to-speech
  - spoken-language-identification
  - speech
  - audio
  - african-languages
  - multilingual
  - low-resource
  - benchmark
  - simbabench
  - simba

task_categories:
  - automatic-speech-recognition
  - text-to-speech
  - audio-classification

models:
  - UBC-NLP/Simba-S
  - UBC-NLP/Simba-M
  - UBC-NLP/Simba-H
  - UBC-NLP/Simba-W
  - UBC-NLP/Simba-X
  - UBC-NLP/Simba-TTS-twi-asanti
  - UBC-NLP/Simba-TTS-lin
  - UBC-NLP/Simba-TTS-sot
  - UBC-NLP/Simba-TTS-tsn
  - UBC-NLP/Simba-TTS-xho
  - UBC-NLP/Simba-TTS-twi-akuapem
  - UBC-NLP/Simba-TTS-afr
datasets:
  - UBC-NLP/SimbaBench
---




<div align="center">

<img src="https://africa.dlnlp.ai/simba/images/VoC_logo.png" alt="VoC Logo">

[![EMNLP 2025 Paper](https://img.shields.io/badge/EMNLP_2025-Paper-B31B1B?style=for-the-badge&logo=arxiv&logoColor=B31B1B&labelColor=FFCDD2)](https://aclanthology.org/2025.emnlp-main.559/)
[![Official Website](https://img.shields.io/badge/Official-Website-2EA44F?style=for-the-badge&logo=googlechrome&logoColor=2EA44F&labelColor=C8E6C9)](https://africa.dlnlp.ai/simba/)
[![SimbaBench](https://img.shields.io/badge/SimbaBench-Benchmark-8A2BE2?style=for-the-badge&logo=googlecharts&logoColor=8A2BE2&labelColor=E1BEE7)](https://huggingface.co/spaces/UBC-NLP/SimbaBench)
[![GitHub Repository](https://img.shields.io/badge/GitHub-Repository-181717?style=for-the-badge&logo=github&logoColor=181717&labelColor=E0E0E0)](https://github.com/UBC-NLP/simba)
[![Hugging Face](https://img.shields.io/badge/%F0%9F%A4%97%20Hugging%20Face-Models-FFD21E?style=for-the-badge&logoColor=181717&labelColor=FFF9C4)](https://huggingface.co/collections/UBC-NLP/simba-speech-series)
[![Hugging Face Dataset](https://img.shields.io/badge/%F0%9F%A4%97%20Hugging%20Face-Dataset-FFD21E?style=for-the-badge&logoColor=181717&labelColor=FFF9C4)](https://huggingface.co/datasets/UBC-NLP/SimbaBench_dataset)


</div>


## SibmaBench Data Release & Benchmarking

To evaluate your model on **SimbaBench** across all supported tasks (ASR, TTS, and SLID), simply load the corresponding configuration for the task and language you wish to benchmark.

Each task is organized by configuration name (e.g., `asr_test_afr`, `tts_test_wol`, `slid_61_test`). Loading a configuration provides the standardized evaluation split for that specific benchmark.

Example:

```python
from datasets import load_dataset

data = load_dataset("UBC-NLP/SimbaBench_dataset", "asr_test_afr")
```
```
DatasetDict({
    test: Dataset({
        features: ['split', 'benchmark_id', 'audio', 'text', 'duration_s', 'lang_iso3', 'lang_name'],
        num_rows: 1000
    })
})

```
``` python
data['test'][0]
```
```
{'split': 'test',
 'benchmark_id': 'afr_Lwazi_afr_test_idx3889',
 'audio': {'path': None,
  'array': array([ 4.27246094e-04,  7.62939453e-04,  6.71386719e-04, ...,
         -3.05175781e-04, -2.13623047e-04, -6.10351562e-05]),
  'sampling_rate': 16000},
 'text': 'watter, verontwaardiging sou daar, in ons binneste gewees het?',
 'duration_s': 5.119999885559082,
 'lang_iso3': 'afr',
 'lang_name': 'Afrikaans'}

```

## 📌 ASR Evaluation Configurations

| Config Name | Language | ISO | # Samples | # Hours |
|-------------|----------|-----|----------|--------|
| asr_test_Akuapim-twi | Akuapim-twi | Akuapim-twi | 1,000 | 1.35 |
| asr_test_Asante-twi | Asante-twi | Asante-twi | 1,000 | 0.97 |
| asr_test_afr | Afrikaans | afr | 1,000 | 0.87 |
| asr_test_amh | Amharic | amh | 581 | 1.12 |
| asr_test_bas | Basaa | bas | 582 | 0.76 |
| asr_test_bem | Bemba | bem | 1,000 | 2.15 |
| asr_test_dav | Taita | dav | 878 | 1.17 |
| asr_test_dyu | Dyula | dyu | 59 | 0.10 |
| asr_test_fat | Fanti | fat | 1,000 | 1.38 |
| asr_test_fon | Fon | fon | 1,000 | 0.66 |
| asr_test_fuc | Pulaar | fuc | 100 | 0.10 |
| asr_test_fuf | Pular | fuf | 129 | 0.03 |
| asr_test_gaa | Ga | gaa | 1,000 | 1.52 |
| asr_test_hau | Hausa | hau | 681 | 0.89 |
| asr_test_ibo | Igbo | ibo | 5 | 0.01 |
| asr_test_kab | Kabyle | kab | 1,000 | 1.05 |
| asr_test_kin | Kinyarwanda | kin | 1,000 | 1.50 |
| asr_test_kln | Kalenjin | kln | 1,000 | 1.50 |
| asr_test_loz | Lozi | loz | 399 | 0.91 |
| asr_test_lug | Ganda | lug | 1,000 | 1.65 |
| asr_test_luo | Luo (Kenya and Tanzania) | luo | 1,000 | 1.31 |
| asr_test_mlq | Western Maninkakan | mlq | 182 | 0.04 |
| asr_test_nbl | South Ndebele | nbl | 1,000 | 1.12 |
| asr_test_nso | Northern Sotho | nso | 1,000 | 0.88 |
| asr_test_nya | Nyanja | nya | 428 | 1.31 |
| asr_test_sot | Southern Sotho | sot | 1,000 | 0.82 |
| asr_test_srr | Serer | srr | 899 | 2.84 |
| asr_test_ssw | Swati | ssw | 1,000 | 0.93 |
| asr_test_sus | Susu | sus | 210 | 0.05 |
| asr_test_swa | Swahili | swa | 1,000 | 1.23 |
| asr_test_tig | Tigre | tig | 185 | 0.33 |
| asr_test_tir | Tigrinya | tir | 7 | 0.01 |
| asr_test_toi | Tonga (Zambia) | toi | 463 | 1.47 |
| asr_test_tsn | Tswana | tsn | 1,000 | 0.82 |
| asr_test_tso | Tsonga | tso | 1,000 | 0.99 |
| asr_test_twi | Twi | twi | 12 | 0.02 |
| asr_test_ven | Venda | ven | 1,000 | 0.92 |
| asr_test_wol | Wolof | wol | 1,000 | 1.19 |
| asr_test_xho | Xhosa | xho | 1,000 | 0.92 |
| asr_test_yor | Yoruba | yor | 359 | 0.42 |
| asr_test_zgh | Standard Moroccan Tamazight | zgh | 197 | 0.22 |
| asr_test_zul | Zulu | zul | 1,000 | 1.10 |

## 📌 TTS Evaluation Configurations

| Config Name           | Language        | ISO          | # Samples | # Hours |
|----------------------|----------------|-------------|----------|--------|
| tts_test_ewe         | Ewe            | ewe         | 66       | 0.29   |
| tts_test_kin         | Kinyarwanda    | kin         | 1,053    | 1.30   |
| tts_test_Asante-twi  | Asante-twi     | Asante-twi  | 64       | 0.18   |
| tts_test_yor         | Yoruba         | yor         | 40       | 0.13   |
| tts_test_wol         | Wolof          | wol         | 4,001    | 4.12   |
| tts_test_hau         | Hausa          | hau         | 124      | 0.24   |
| tts_test_lin         | Lingala        | lin         | 63       | 0.28   |
| tts_test_xho         | Xhosa          | xho         | 242      | 0.31   |
| tts_test_tsn         | Tswana         | tsn         | 238      | 0.36   |
| tts_test_afr         | Afrikaans      | afr         | 293      | 0.34   |
| tts_test_sot         | Southern Sotho | sot         | 210      | 0.33   |
| tts_test_Akuapim-twi | Akuapim-twi    | Akuapim-twi | 83       | 0.22   |


## 📌 SLID Evaluation

| Config Name   | Language Scope | # Samples | # Hours |
|--------------|---------------|----------|--------|
| slid_61_test | 61 Languages  | 21,817       | 34.36 |

---


## Citation

If you use the Simba models or SimbaBench  benchmark for your scientific publication, or if you find the resources in this website useful, please cite our paper.

```bibtex

@inproceedings{elmadany-etal-2025-voice,
    title = "Voice of a Continent: Mapping {A}frica{'}s Speech Technology Frontier",
    author = "Elmadany, AbdelRahim A.  and
      Kwon, Sang Yun  and
      Toyin, Hawau Olamide  and
      Alcoba Inciarte, Alcides  and
      Aldarmaki, Hanan  and
      Abdul-Mageed, Muhammad",
    editor = "Christodoulopoulos, Christos  and
      Chakraborty, Tanmoy  and
      Rose, Carolyn  and
      Peng, Violet",
    booktitle = "Proceedings of the 2025 Conference on Empirical Methods in Natural Language Processing",
    month = nov,
    year = "2025",
    address = "Suzhou, China",
    publisher = "Association for Computational Linguistics",
    url = "https://aclanthology.org/2025.emnlp-main.559/",
    doi = "10.18653/v1/2025.emnlp-main.559",
    pages = "11039--11061",
    ISBN = "979-8-89176-332-6",
}

```