Please refer to the documentation for installation
notes : doc/sympa/node4.html

Create a dedicated user sympa.sympa (and it's home directory and  run 

./configure; make; make install.  (you may have to use Gnu make).

If usefull, the make will propose that you upgrade some CPAN module.
In this case you'll need to be root.

If you get sources from cvs tree first run:

automake -a ; aclocal ; autoconf
   
   