conference

Africa Knows! It is time to decolonise minds

Panel D28b (1 video; 3 papers, 2 withpdf files)

Title of panel:

Language history and its present relevance
[initiated by the African Languages Department of Leiden University, in collaboration with the ASCL]

Convenors:
Marieke van Winden (conference organiser, African Studies Centre Leiden);
Maarten Mous (Leiden University);
Azeb Amha (Leiden University);
Annachiara Raia (Leiden University).
Discussant:
Daniela Merolla (INALCO, Paris).

Stream: D: Cases of regional and disciplinary specifics
Start time: 4 December, 2020 at 9:00 (UTC+1)
Session slots: 1

Long abstract:
Language history is an important element of construction of pre-colonial history in Africa. In the last decades the appreciation for cultural diversity has grown substantially and with a growing interest in the past. Stories of origin have gained importance and many cultural festivals have been initiated. The interest in the past has the potential of highlighting differences and engendering discourses of belonging. Balanced language history with a central interest in language contact can engender interest and positive attitudes to the history of ones' neighbours. The panel is interested in papers that deal with current discourses about the past, specifically in communities in Africa, their literary and political dimension as well as their bases in language history. Language history, here includes historical reconstruction, contact linguistics, oral history, philology and manuscript culture.

3 Accepted papers:
1 pdf file present Word-game and linguistic borrowing in a Zargula song

2 pdf file present Oral genres as soures of knowledge in West Africa

3 no pdf file present Swahili intellectual history from Kenya's Lamu archipelago


* This conference took place from December 2020 to February 2021 *
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