Overview

Welcome to Vulavula

Vulavula is Lelapa AI's language API for African languages. It gives your applications the ability to transcribe speech and translate text in languages like isiZulu, Sesotho, Afrikaans, South African English, and African French — with more languages added regularly.

You can integrate via our REST API, use the Python SDK, connect through no-code integrations like Zapier and Turn.io, or deploy our models on-prem for private workloads.

Products

Speech-to-Text

Transcribe audio files to text, with optional speaker diarisation and automatic language identification.

Translate

Translate text between English and a growing set of African languages, including isiZulu, isiXhosa, Sesotho, and Swahili.

See the full list of supported languages and features on the Language Support page.

Get started

Create an account and get your API key

Sign up at vulavula.lelapa.ai, then generate an API key from the API Keys section. Every request is authenticated by passing this key in the X-CLIENT-TOKEN header — see Authentication for details.

Make your first request

Translate a sentence from isiZulu to English:

Code
curl --request POST \
  --url https://api.lelapa.ai/v1/translate/process \
  --header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  --header 'X-CLIENT-TOKEN: <YOUR_API_KEY>' \
  --data '{
    "input_text": "Lo musho ubhalwe ngesiZulu.",
    "source_lang": "zul_Latn",
    "target_lang": "eng_Latn"
  }'


Code
{
  "translation": [
    { "translated_text": "This sentence is written in Zulu." }
  ]
}

Build with the full API

Follow the Speech-to-Text guide or the Translate guide, or browse the complete API Reference.

Each API key includes 100 free calls, and keys expire every 90 days — regenerate them from the platform. To go beyond the free tier, check out our plans.

Explore

Python SDK

Skip the boilerplate and call Vulavula from Python.

No-code integrations

Connect Vulavula to your workflows with Zapier or Turn.io.

Code examples

Starter projects and samples on GitHub to get you running fast.

Get help

Join our Discord community to connect with other builders and our team
Email us at [email protected]
Follow release notes to stay up to date with new models and features

Last modified on July 13, 2026

Authentication