On September 6, 2022 (4pm CET), Mandela Kaumba Mazanga (BantUGent, ULB, UNILU) defends her PhD dissertation titled “Production et circulation de la céramique des trois derniers siècles dans l’aire kongo : une approche combinée des données ethnographiques, muséales et archéologiques”, which she wrote under the co-supervision of Prof. Koen Bostoen (BantUGent), Prof. Pierre de Maret (ULB) and Prof. Olivier Gosselain (ULB). The jury members are Prof. Placide Mumbembele (Université de Kinshasa, Institut des Musées Nationaux du Congo), Prof. Inge Brinkman (UGent), and Prof. Alexandre Livingstone-Smith (RMCA, ULB). The joint UGent-ULB PhD research of Mandela Kaumba Mazanga was financed by the ERC-SG KongoKing project. To attend the defense online, please click here.

Le 6 septembre 2022 (16h CET), Mandela Kaumba Mazanga (BantUGent, ULB, UNILU) soutiendra sa thèse de doctorat intitulée “Production et circulation de la céramique des trois derniers siècles dans l’aire kongo : une approche combinée des données ethnographiques, muséales et archéologiques”, qu’elle a rédigée sous la co-directeurs des Professeurs Koen Bostoen (BantUGent), Pierre de Maret (ULB) et Olivier Gosselain (ULB). Les membres du jury sont le Prof. Placide Mumbembele (Université de Kinshasa, Institut des Musées Nationaux du Congo), la Prof. Inge Brinkman (UGent), et le Prof. Alexandre Livingstone-Smith (RMCA, ULB). La recherche doctorale de Mandela Kaumba Mazanga a été faite en co-tutelle entre l’UGent et l’ULB et a été financée par le projet ERC-SG KongoKing. Pour participer à la soutenance en ligne, veuillez cliquer ici.

On September 6, 2022,  Mandela Kaumba Mazanga defended her PhD dissertation at Brussels University. It was the completion of her joint PhD project between UGent and ULB as part of the KongoKing project. At the occasion of her PhD defense, BantuGent and CARAM co-organized a Meet the PhD Jury event with Prof. dr. Placide Mumbembele (IMNC-UNIKIN, Kinshasa), one of the jury members. He talked on the Congolese mask that was recently brought back to the DRC as part of the royal mission of Belgium’s King Philippe. The recording of this talk is available below in two parts.

Part 1

Part 2

Participation is free, but please register here.

Day-1

Venue Day-1: Faculty Council Room on the first floor of the Blandijn building (Campus Boekentoren, building 05.03, Blandijnberg 2, 9000 Ghent)

Online Venue Day-1: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZcsc-yrqzkuHNWdNjlMtiauNDQtqA2R7f5N

(please visit the preceding URL for pre-registration) 

Session 1: 10:00-12:00

Guy Kouarata (BantUGent): “The loss of Proto-Bantu *ng and the subgrouping of the Teke (B70) Languages”

Makoto Furumoto (ILCAA) and Yasunori Takahashi (Kobe University): “Emergence of the conjoint/disjoint distinction in Kimakunduchi”

Daisuke Shinaagwa (ILCAA): “Internal variation of negation systems and historical branching of Kilimanjaro Bantu languages”

Session 2: 13:00-15:30

Gastor Mapunda (UDSM): “Updating the Ngoni-Swahili-English Dictionary Project”

Sifra Van Acker (BantUGent): “The Introduction of sugarcane in Central Africa: Historical-Linguistic Insights from West-Coastal Bantu”

Jeffrey Wills (Ukrainian Catholic University): “Venda doublets and Kalanga contact”

Barbara Westerveld (BantUGent): “NLP and ML as research methods for African Linguistics”

Session 3: 16:00-18:00

Yuka Makino (ILCAA/JSPS): “Lamba in Doke’s era and the present day Lamba”

David Kopa wa Kopa (ULB, UNIKIS) and Birgit Ricquier (ULB): “Contact linguistique au Bas Lualaba, au présent et au passé”

Iris Kruijsdijk (ULeiden) and Maarten Mous (ULeiden): “The complex history of Mbugwe (F34, Tanzania)”

Day-2

Venue Day-2: Room 1.14 on the first floor of the Blandijn building

Online Venue Day-2: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZwpdeGtrD4qHtSfBFgi-kLnwNoNLJt2Owd2

(please visit the preceding URL for pre-registration)

Session 4: 10:00-12:00

Ndongo Koza Josué (ISP-Gombe, Kinshasa) and Jean-Pierre Donzo Bunza (ISP-Gombe, Kinshasa): “La syllabe fermée en ngɔng de Katika (Bantu B864)”

[Marie Faustine Beloko (ISP-Gombe, Kinshasa) and Jean-Pierre Donzo Bunza (ISP-Gombe, Kinshasa): “L’évolution des consonnes de lɔɔnga, langue bantu de la cuvette centrale de la RD Congo”]cancelled

Sara Pacchiarotti (BantUGent): “Melodic H tone in Ngwi (Bantu B861, DRC)”

Session 5: 13:30-15:30

[Mary Zacharia Charwi (UDSM): “Morphosyntactic Analysis of Subject Marker Position in Bantu Verb Structure”]cancelled

Minah Nabirye (BantUGent): “Syntactic Reduplication in Lusoga”

Hilde Gunnink (BantUGent): “Inclusory conjunction in Bantu and beyond”

Koen Bostoen (BantUGent): “Causative/inchoative verb alternations in Ngwi (West-Coastal Bantu, B861) and the relics of the Proto-Bantu verbal derivation system”

Session 6: 16:00-17:00

General discussion: “Wrap-up and perspectives for outcome of the project”

This event is organised and financially supported by the FWO-JSPS Bilateral Project “The Past and Present of Bantu Languages: Integrating Micro-Typology, Historical-Comparative Linguistics and Lexicography”*. It is co- orgenised by the UGent Centre for Bantu Studies (BantUGent) and ILCAA’s core project of linguistics “Description and Documentation of Language Dynamics in Asia and Africa: Toward a More In-depth Understanding of the Languages and Cultures of People Living in Asia and Africa (DDDLing)”.

* ‘The Past and Present of Bantu Languages: Integrating Micro-Typology, Historical-Comparative Linguistics and Lexicography’ is a bilateral joint research program funded by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) in association with the Research Foundation – Flanders (FWO)

On April 22, 2022 (2pm CET), Michel Onokoko (BantUGent) defends his PhD dissertation titled “Éléments de description de la phonologie et de la morphologie du cíbìnjì cyà ngúsú, langue bantoue (L231) du Kasaï Central, R.D. Congo”, which he wrote under the co-supervision of Prof. Koen Bostoen (BantUGent) and Prof. Joseph Koni Muluwa (ISP Kikwit – BantUGent). The jury members are Prof. Timotee Mukash Kalel (Université de Kinshasa), Prof. Maud Devos (Royal Museum for Central Africa, Tervuren & UGent), Dr. Rozenn Guérois (LLACAN, CNRS, Paris), and Dr. Guy Kouarata (UGent).  The president of the jury is Prof. Jo Van Steenbergen (UGent) and the secretary Prof. Gilles-Maurice de Schryver (UGent).

This event can also be followed online through MS Teams. More info: koen.bostoen@ugent.be

The ceremony will be followed by a reception (near the Faculty Council, Blandijnberg 2, first floor)

Le 22 avril 2022 (14h00 CET), Michel Onokoko (BantUGent) soutient sa thèse intitulée “Éléments de description de la phonologie et de la morphologie du cíbìnjì cyà ngúsú, langue bantoue (L231) du Kasaï Central, R. D. Congo“, qu’il a rédigée sous la co-direction du Prof. Koen Bostoen (BantUGent) et du Prof. Joseph Koni Muluwa (ISP Kikwit – BantUGent). Les membres du jury sont le Prof. Timotee Mukash Kalel (Université de Kinshasa), la Prof. Maud Devos (Musée royal de l’Afrique centrale, Tervuren & UGent), la Dr. Rozenn Guérois (LLACAN, CNRS, Paris) et le Dr. Guy Kouarata (UGent). Le président du jury est le Prof. Jo Van Steenbergen (UGent) et le secrétaire le Prof. Gilles-Maurice de Schryver (UGent).

Cet événement peut également être suivi en ligne via MS Teams. Plus d’informations : koen.bostoen@ugent.be

La cérémonie sera suivie d’une réception (près du Conseil de la Faculté, Blandijnberg 2, premier étage).

On May 20, 2022 Prof. Jeroen Dewulf, Professor at the UC Berkeley Department of German & Dutch Studies and also active in the fields of African Studies and Latin American Studies, visits BantUGent for a public talk. Title and abstract below. A recording of the talk is available here.

Flying Back to Africa or Flying to Heaven? Competing Visions of Afterlife in the Lowcountry and Caribbean Slave Societies

This study presents a new interpretation of the famous folktale about enslaved Africans flying home, including the legend that only those who refrained from eating salt could fly back to Africa. It rejects claims that the tale is rooted in Igbo culture and relates to suicide as a desperate attempt to escape from slavery. Rather, an analysis of historical documents in combination with ethnographic and linguistic research makes it possible to trace the tale back to West-Central Africa. It relates objections to eating salt to the Kikongo expression curia mungua “to eat salt”, meaning baptism, and claims that the tale originated in the context of discussions among the enslaved about the consequences of a Christian baptism for one’s spiritual afterlife.

On April 1, 2022, Bruna da Silva (BantUGent) defends her PhD dissertation titled “Specialised Digital Frame-Based Lexicography from the Perspective of Dictionary Use Research”, which she wrote under the co-supervision of Prof. Gilles-Maurice de Schryver (BantUGent) and Rove Luiza de Oliveira Chishman (Vale do Rio dos Sinos University, Brazil). The jury members are Dr. Tanara Zingano Kuhn (University of Coimbra, Portugal), Prof. Larissa Moreira Brangel (Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil), Prof. Timothy Colleman (Ghent University, Belgium), and Prof. Sandro José Rigo (UNISINOS University, Brazil).

This event takes place via video-conferencing, with Teams.

This talk examines the art of the Rwandan kingdom in the Great Lakes Region of eastern Africa, investigating how environmental and political conditions in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, including encounters with European missionaries and colonial powers, shaped artistic creativity in Rwanda. Ultimately, the talk will consider the following questions: How was the image of the kingdom transformed by Rwandese artists? What can material objects reveal about Rwanda’s heritage and state formation? How and why did artwork impact Rwandan and European perceptions of the kingdom more broadly? The talk draws, in part, from images and objects held in the archives and collections of the Smithsonian Institution, including photographs and films taken by White Fathers missionaries in Rwanda. Through object-based examinations and archival research, this talk examines how Rwandese artists rendered images of power and prosperity through works depicting cattle and reflecting surrounding landscapes that shaped both Rwandan and European notions of the kingdom.

Talia Lieber is a PhD Candidate in the Department of Art History at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), where she specializes in the arts of the African continent. Originally from Washington, D.C., Talia earned her M.A. degree in Art History from UCLA (2019) and her B.A. in International Relations and Art History from Tufts University (2013). Her dissertation research on the art of Rwanda has been generously supported by the Smithsonian Institution, the Fulbright Program, and UCLA. She has assisted with African art exhibitions at the National Museum of African Art, the Baltimore Museum of Art, and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and served as Co-Editor-In-Chief of Ufahamu: A Journal of African Studies.