Some interesting stuff coming up!
Dear members of our informal Circle,
After a positive and encouraging meeting of the Editorial Board of Language Planning in Africa, we are now ready to publish the first articles that will be part of issue 2, volume 1 of the Journal. We will announce them as soon as they appear. Publishing more articles will also mean that some of the larger indexing services will start to include the Journal. We welcome new submissions on an ongoing basis. We will be grateful if you look favourably on future requests to review submissions for the Journal! We are also more than open to book reviews of relevant recent literature.
As announced, we are organising a new series of webinars, entitled ‘Conversations on Language Policy in Africa’. The first one of these will be on Friday, 3 October 2025, starting at 4 pm CEST. The speaker is Caroline Story of the University of Texas, who will talk about her article, ‘Postcolonial Language Imperialism in Africa - The Latter-day Saints Missionary Program’. It discusses how and why missionaries are trained to do their work using certain languages – and not others. The session will be moderated by Djouroukoro Diallo of the University of Bern.
The next in the series will be on 7 November, held by Menzi Thango of the University of the Witwatersrand, on the use of African languages by banks operating in the Free State Province, South Africa. After that: 9 January; 6 February; 6 March; 10 April.
Upcoming edited volume
Be on the lookout for ‘Local Languages, Global Futures: Language, Learning, and Sustainability in Africa’. This edited volume will be published later this year by AVM-Verlag (Munich) and made available online in open access. It features eight chapters and an interesting editorial by Comfort Ojongnkpot, Doris Löhr, Taiwo Oloruntoba-Oju, Ayodele Yussuff and undersigned. It is based on papers presented at the 2023 European Conference on African Studies or at the 2024 Conference of the Association for African Studies in Germany. Contributions are by Feyi Ademola-Adeoye, Adédoyinsólá Ẹléshın, Emilisco Enoachuo, Sarita Monjane Henriksen, Tomoe Noguchi, Comfort Ojongnkpot, Omusula Omuholo and undersigned.
New members
This time, we welcome two new members: Dr Kristof Iipinge, University of Namibia, and Dr Uchenna Oyali, University of Abuja, Nigeria.
Share your favourite fun facts about African languages!
There is a Dutch initiative for a calendar aimed at promoting African languages to the wider public. They are collecting fun facts about African languages. All ideas and input are welcome! They are especially interested in:
words with a surprising meaning
Example: the Iraqw language of Tanzania has a word hhalahhali used for when you have a sixth finger on your hand.
words with an interesting etymology
Example: the Tswana language of Botswana has a word madi which means both ‘blood’ and ‘money’. This comes from an Arabic borrowing for ‘money’ which happened to be formally identical to the already existing word for ‘blood’.
riddles, proverbs and idioms
Example: the Tsonga language of South Africa has an expression ’to eat the bones of the head’, which means ’to think’.
words from African languages that were borrowed in a European language
Example: the word ‘safari’ is borrowed from the Swahili word safari meaning ‘journey’.
If you have a moment to spare, do share your favourite fun facts about African languages through this form. Thanks in advance! All contributions will be duly credited.
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).