Koen Bostoen (BantUGent) and Hilde Gunnink (BantUGent) have a chapter titled “The Impact of Autochthonous Languages on Bantu Language Variation: A Comparative View on Southern and Central Africa” in the newly published Cambridge Handbook of Language Contact: Volume 1: Population Movement and Language Change, edited by In S. Mufwene & A.M. Escobar.
The 9th International Conference on Bantu Languages (Bantu 9) was held at the Malawi University of Science and Technology in Blantyre from 7 to 10 June 2022. The program included several research papers involving BantUGent researchers (bold):
Hilde Gunnink (BantUGent) has obtained a three-year senior postdoctoral grant from the Research Foundation – Flanders (FWO) for a research project titled “Language contact and linguistic reconstruction: (pre)historic Bantu-Khoisan interactions in Southern Africa in a historical linguistic perspective“. It is a follow-up of her current FWO-funded junior postdoctoral project titled “Language contact between migrating Bantu speakers and resident Khoisan speakers in southern Africa” (2018-2022).
On June 4 at 4.30pm (CET) Inge Brinkman (BantUGent) gives an online talk titled “Formal Education Policies in the Kongo Kingdom of the 16th Century” for the Kongo Academy, a platform created in December 2019 by a group of intellectuals interested in promoting the Kongo culture through research, education and training, cultural events and partnerships with institutions and individuals interested in Kongo culture, history, and language. For more information on the event, including the Zoom link and passcode (738070), see here. The recording is available here (passcode: Na%.Y6wi).
The British novelist Lola Jaye has a new historical novel out. It is titled “The Attic Child” and was published by Pan MacMillan. The novel retells a true story from the Congo. Dikembe, one of its main characters, is inspired by Ndugu M’Hali (ca. 1865-1877), also known as Kalulu, who was Henry Morton Stanley’s servant. Ndugu tragically died during an expedition on the Lualaba River. Lola Jaye consulted Maud Devos (RMCA & BantUGent) and Koen Bostoen (BantUGent) for access to certain historical language sources and for advice on Bantu language use in her novel.
On the occasion of the launch of the Trilingual Dictionary of Kaaps, the Ghent Center for Afrikaans and the Study of South Africa (GAZ) organizes on May 18, 2022 (1pm-2.30pm) a webinar on “Kaaps, language variation and the future of Afrikaans” in which also Gilles-Maurice de Schryver (BantUGent) participates.
Online participation is possible.
On Monday May 2, Dr. Mary Charwi from the University of Dar es Salaam arrived in Ghent for a three-month research stay at BantUGent, which is co-financed by the Global Minds Fund of Ghent University and the Commission Scientific Research (CWO) of the UGent Faculty of Arts and Philosophy. With Prof. Koen Bostoen and his team she will work on an Ethnobotanical and Ethnolinguistic Study of Kuria Medicinal Plants. Kuria is a Bantu language spoken in the Mara region of Northern Tanzania, adjacent to Lake Nyanza/Victoria.
Prof. Joseph Koni Muluwa (ISP Kikwit – BantUGent), former post-doctoral researcher and visiting professor at Ghent University, has recently been promoted to the position of General Academic Secretary (“secrétaire général académique“) of the Institut Supérieur Pédagogique of Kikwit (DRC), i.e. Vice-Rector for Education Policy.
On May 3 at 4.15 pm (CET), Koen Bostoen (BantUGent) gives a talk for the digital Colloquium of African Linguistics and Languages of the Humboldt University Berlin on the research he did with Sara Pacchiarotti as part of the BantuFirst project, i.e. “Erratic velars in West-Coastal Bantu: Explaining irregular sound change in Central Africa”. More info is available here.