Localization and translation for languages of sub-Saharan Africa are done within a double set of linguistic and sociolinguistic constraints, and they face two often conflicting trends, on the one hand globalization, and on the other hand the declared policies of promotion of language diversity. I will focus on the area of information technologies, which are both the tools for localization and translation in African languages and the means for developing them. I will present the problems encountered in translation and localization activities, and how these activities develop in the present context. I will review the presence of African languages in digital environments and propose an analysis of the dynamics of translation in which processes and practices interact along two axes, facilitation and complexification.