This article discusses progress that has been made in the development of corpora in African Languages with a particular focus on advances in Southern Africa. Advances in developing corpora in African languages have been hampered by a lot of challenges. The biggest challenge has been a total disdain for African languages and lack of commitment in the development of African languages by some African governments. However, it is crucial to note that progress in technological advancement has created an imperative to intellectualize African languages so that they can contribute meaningfully in the knowledge economy. This imperative has again demonstrated that the development of corpora for African languages is important in order to develop the attendant human languages technologies necessary in the intellectualization process.