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Dear members of our informal Circle,

Webinar Series

After two successful webinars in our new series ’Conversations on Language Policy in Africa’, we are now taking a short break. The next one will take place on Friday, 9 January at 4 pm CET (that is also the time in Morocco, but  – check your time zone!)  Speaker will be Dr Yassine Boussagui of the Ibn Zohr University of Agadir, Morocco, who will talk about his article on Language Policy and Power Dynamics in Post-Independence Morocco.

After that, the conversations will take place on 6 February; 6 March; and 10 April.

Dear members of our informal Circle,

After a first successful webinar in our new series ’Conversations on Language Planning in Africa’, we are now preparing for the second in the series, which will take place on Friday, 7 November at 4 pm CET (that’s 5 pm in Johannesburg – check your time zone!)  Speaker will be Dr Menzo Thangi of the University of the Witwatersrand, who will talk about his article on Workplace Communication in banks in South Africa.

The series will take a break in December and continue in the new year, on 9 January, with Yassine Boussagui and Yamina El Kirat El Allame speaking on language policy in Morocco. After that, the conversations will take place on 6 February; 6 March; and 10 April.

Dear members of our informal Circle,

As announced, the first webinar in our new series will take place Friday, 3 October, at 4 pm CEST. The format will be a short talk, followed by the opportunity for dialogue – approximately one hour in total.

The webinar will be hosted by Initiative Afrique of the University of Bern (Switzerland) and will use MS Teams. Prior registration is required.

Moderator this time will be Dr Djouroukoro Diallo of the University of Bern. Our first speaker is Caroline Story of Texas State University. She will speak on Postcolonial Language Imperialism in Africa – The Latter-day Saints Missionary Program.

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…

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…

Dear members of our slowly-growing informal Circle,

We are busy making the last tweaks to the inaugural issue of the new Language Planning in Africa journal, but it is not quite ready yet – we hope to be able to share information on it with you very soon. Your help in promoting the Journal, once it is out, will be greatly appreciated!

New members since the last update:

• Dr Maryam Jaffar Ismail, The State University of Zanzibar (SUZA), Tanzania; and

Dear colleagues interested in the promotion of African languages,

There are a number of pots on our fire, so to speak, which we hope will lead to some interesting news in the months to come. But for now, there is nothing much to report, except that we are welcoming three new members to our Circle:

• Dr Budzani Gabanamotse-Mogara, University of Botswana;

• Dr Philpo John, Mkwawa University College of Education, Tanzania;

Dear members of our informal Circle,

Today, 21 February, marks the 25th anniversary of International Mother Language Day. This day helps to remind us (if indeed reminding is needed) of the importance of people’s languages for the preservation of their culture, for their economic development, for the efficiency of their educational systems and indeed for the full and authentic development of all the talents available to mankind.

For Africa, there is still a long way to go before indigenous languages get the status and use in official domains that would benefit the continent most. However, I think that most of us in the Circle believe this time will come – it is up to us to study, publish and be active for the best possible transition to an increased use of African languages in all domains.

There is a special celebration going on today at the UNESCO headquarters in…

Dear fellow advocates of African languages,

We hope this message finds you well at the start of this brave new 2025 and wish you all the best for the new year! A few small updates…

Call for book reviews

We are getting closer to publishing the inaugural issue of ‘Language Policy in Africa’. We are now looking for volunteers to do reviews of recent books that are related to language policy on the continent. Books that could be considered are, for example:

• Ndhlovu, F. & Makalela, L. (2021). Decolonising Multilingualism in Africa: Recentering Silenced Voices from the Global South. Bristol, Blue Ridge Summit: Multilingual Matters. https://doi.org/10.21832/9781788923361

• Kaschula, R. H., & Wolff, H. E. (Eds.). (2020). The Transformative Power of Language: From Postcolonial to Knowledge Societies in Africa. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108671088