Update, July 2025
Dear members of our informal Circle,
Most of you will have seen it – on 23 May, we went public with the inaugural issue of the Language Planning in Africa journal, featuring an editorial on the relevance of language policy in Africa, an opinion piece by Salikoko Mufwene and seven peer-reviewed articles. Since then, it has been accessed more than 800 times, which we think is a great score for a publication of this type. We are working to further improve the Journal and to get it indexed and we welcome new submissions on an ongoing basis. We would especially like to welcome book reviews of relevant recent literature.
We’re very happy that we managed to keep the Editorial Team together and working in good spirits during the full 18-month preparation process. Recently, however, Dr Lynn Kisembe of Moi University (Kenya) has had to step down from her editor role. She will be succeeded by Dr Billian Otundo of Bayreuth University (Germany). We are very grateful to Lynn for her contributions and welcome Billian to the team! The Editorial Board of the Journal will meet at the end of August to provide further feedback and guidance, but your ideas and suggestions are welcome as well!
In order to enhance our understanding of some of the issues raised in the Journal (and to encourage some networking), we will be organising a new series of webinars, entitled ‘Conversations on Language Policy in Africa’. These will be short sessions of up to one hour, in which a Journal author will give a short talk about her/his article and related matters and there will be space for dialogue on the issues raised. They will be hosted in collaboration with the University of Bern’s ‘Initiative Afrique’. We are still working to finalize the line-up, but save the dates! All webinars will take place on Fridays, at 4 pm, on:
3 October 2025, 4 pm CEST
7 November 2025, 4 pm CET
9 January 2026, 4 pm CET
6 February 2026, 4 pm CET
6 March 2026, 4 pm CET
10 April 2026, 4 PM CEST
ECAS 25 Conference
Our Circle was present at the ECAS 25 Conference in Prague at the end of June, where we had a panel entitled ‘Belonging in Africa, belonging in the world - the role of language’. Fortunately, all Steering Committee members managed to attend, at least in part, but unfortunately, many Circle members who would have liked to be there did not manage to secure either funding, or visa, or both. Nevertheless, the Conference was a good place to meet and to make new acquaintances. We were able to hold an informal meeting of Circle for anybody interested, at which the Journal was presented.
New members
This time, we welcome three new members: Dr Angiachi Esene Agwara, University of Essex, UK, and University of Bamenda, Cameroon; Benjamin Olujohungbe, Augustine University, Ilara-Epe, Nigeria; and Dr Tom Sifuna, Masinde Muliro University of science and technology, Kenya.
New study
Some of you may be interested in a recent study by Circle member Dr Philpo John, who has studied English-language proficiency of primary school leavers in Iringa district, Tanzania. He finds that the Tanzanian educational system does not succeed in giving all children sufficient English-language skills so that they can profit from secondary education in English. His recommendation is to use local languages as well as Kiswahili more as medium of instruction.
If you have information of this type or other information you would like to share, just drop me a line!
Best regards,
Bert (also on behalf of Comfort, Taiwo and Sarita).
Congratulations and good work. Looking forward to ‘Conversations on Language Policy in Africa’ Webinars. Dr. P. John's work is very interesting and so relevant.