The basic materials were collected by Yuji ANKEI (anthropologist) and Takako ANKEI (ecologist) during the years 1978-1990.

Creation of this database was encouraged by the Songola scholar, Dr. Faustin Luanga Mukela (World Trade Organization). He asked that the Songola vocabulary and detailed ethnobiological descriptions collected by the Ankei Family be made accessible to future generations. The compilation of this database was made possible thanks to a Kakenhi grant for the 2016 fiscal year from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) in Japan.

For each word, the translation and a definition are given in Swahili, French, and English for common words, and in Latin for plants and animals. The Songola dialects with seven vowels and with high/low tones are described according to the system used by Belgian scholars.

Some entities in the beginning of the list of words have sound files to show how Songola words and phrases are spelt and pronounced. More than 500 drawings on the plants and their usages are pasted on the entities. Watermarked, low-resolution pictures can be consulted. In case you wish to see or use some of the pictures without watermarks, please write an email to SongolaHeritage(at)gmail.com.