ktravula – a travelogue!

WALC2013 – Call for Papers

Despite years of scholarly research a large percentage of the indigenous languages of West Africa have not been documented. Several of the languages are at the risk of being lost. Greater attention to diversity, environment and sustainability in the global discourse has not reflected much in terms of support for and development of indigenous languages. Although there is a heightened sense of activities and activism for language documentation, there has been no commensurate attention to the very important aspects of description, development, modernization and integration of local (West African) languages with global information infrastructure. This appears to be leading us once more to the ideological issue of resource exploitation. The critical question remains, how do we make West African Languages relevant and work for those who speak them? We are once more forced to rethink the role of the linguist and interrogate West African Languages Curricula in the face of emerging realities. The task of language documentation is particularly necessary so as to plan the future with the past, since information/ facts derived from such efforts can have positive impact on current and future linguistic endeavours.

The aim of the conference is to explore the different perspectives from which language studies reflects or impacts on the different aspects of human endeavour. In addition it seeks to foreground the various areas in which language and linguistics interface with diverse capacities and disciplines. Given the current realities of modern human life it seems increasingly compelling for Linguists to find common grounds with other disciplines while emphasizing language as a core human capacity. The conference brings together researchers and students in the various fields of language studies as well as aspects of professional life in which indigenous languages play a part. This is expected to motivate an exchange of ideas and promote discussions of, progress in and development of these areas in West African languages. We hope that through the conference participants will be able to consider the issue of sustainability in research and practice.
The sub themes of the conference include (but are not limited to):

Language Typologies
Morphology and Syntax
Phonetics and Phonology
Semantics, Pragmatics and Discourse
Language shift, maintenance and documentation
Language and education
Language policy and language management
Language, the media and ICT
Language and the community
Language and industry
Language and medicine
Language and governance
Language and Business
Language and Law
Language and poverty
Language and migration
Cross-border languages and regional cooperation
Cognitive corpus linguistics and Corpus-based computational linguistics
Language competition: Ex-colonial languages vs. indigenous West African languages
Literature, film and popular culture
Language, gender and power
Language, identity, culture and translation
Language, Peace and Conflict

Participants are invited to submit abstracts dealing with any of the sub themes and other related areas. They can be up to a maximum of 300 words long. It must be typed in a 12– point font and in both word and pdf file formats. Deadline for the submission of abstracts has been extended from 31 March, 2013 to 30 May, 2013.

Individuals and organizations who would like to present demos and organize workshops/special events should contact the LOC Secretary, Dr Oye Taiwo, Department of Linguistics and African Languages, University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria through the e- mail address: oyepaultaiwo@gmail.com.

Abstracts can be submitted through the following e-mail addresses: tayolamidi@yahoo.com. (Chairman, Abstract sub-committee: Dr Tayo Lamidi);oyepaultaiwo@gmail.com (Secretary, LOC: Dr Oye Taiwo)

More information can be obtained on the conference homepage at www.walc2013.com, the twitter page @WALC2013 and the Conference’s Facebook Page.

On WALC 2004

The burden of memory, and the surfacing of an old photograph taken in 2004, has imposed on me an unconscious returning to one of my memorable times on the University of Ibadan campus. I was a student in the final year of Linguistics, and the recently appointed secretary of an international conference of linguistics. It was called the West African Languages Congress (WALC 2004) Conference. As secretary (and volunteer webmaster), my responsibility included receiving and collating abstracts, communicating with conference participants via the internet, and updating the conference website as necessary. Needless to say, it was one of the most exhilarating, fascinating, moments of my student life in the university. For the first time, I realized that I wanted to work in linguistics.

The conference, chaired by Professor Ben Elugbe in collaboration with Alt-I and the Department of Linguistics and African Languages had the theme, “Globalization and the Future of African Languages.” The picture was taken most likely on our way to get palm wine somewhere on the outskirts of the university and the conference venues.

Photo by Olumide Abimbola.

Exhibition in Ibadan

There is an ongoing exhibition at the Institute of African Studies, University of Ibadan about “Nigeria at 50”. The photos there show the different celebratory events of the independence year 1960, especially those by “ordinary” citizens. There was one with a woman in an ankara wrapper branded with the independence logo, and with two small flags on the bag she carried on her head. There are also several other images of political leaders in different positions all around the country.

Along with the exhibition is a conference organized by IFRA, the Institute of African Studies, and the University of Ibadan where papers are being presented by participants from all around the world, including Sola Olorunyomi, David Oshorenoya Esizimeor, Adoyi Onoja, and Regane Buck Barden among many others.

The event has brought up valid questions about the need for record keeping about moments in our history. The conference with the exhibition ends on July 7th.

The Conference

This is my 200th blog post!

Now that I have spent the whole of Thursday holed up in the hotel attending one workshop to the other, I am beginning to think that these photos from my solo walk around the little town yesterday might be the only ones that I have of its interesting sites. Or not. Let me check. Yes, I’m right. This conference is all I have come here to do.

Meanwhile, the conference itself is very warm gathering of 409 Fulbrighters from 49 countries teaching hundreds of languages all over the country. I have met old friends who remember me, and those who don’t. I have also met new ones who had heard about me and those who hadn’t. There will be more conference sessions tomorrow, and more feeding sessions too, until Saturday when the conference officially ends. We have learnt about Social Networking for the Foreign Language Classroom, Writing for Publication in Foreign Language Journals, and Scenarios & Strageties: Addressing Individual Student Concerns. Tomorrow, there will be more… Before this conference ends, we will meet with some representatives from the State Department. No, I don’t think that there is a chance to see the Secretary of State, so that’s that, already crossed out.

But this was my lethargic Thursday put into good and productive use of my time, although now, the only thing that hasn’t changed is the tiredness I feel at the end of the day. I however learnt many things in the conference sessions today. One that stuck with me was a fact that forty Fulbrighters from eleven countries have been awarded the Nobel Prize since 1952. They include Jean-Marie Le Clézio (France, and Nobel Laureate for Literature in 2008), Henry Kissinger (USA, and Nobel Peace Prize 1973) and two time winner Linus Pauling (USA, and Nobel Laureate in Chemistry 1954).

Heading Eastwards II

The other thing that came with my ordered dinner of “fried rice”, soup and soda yesterday night was a pair of fortune cookies which I had not ordered for. They are chinese cookies “folded and baked around a piece of paper on which a saying or a prediction of somebody’s fortune is written.” (definition by Encarta) I’m not superstitious (all the time) but I take little fun in poking fun at the predictions of the cosmos. I never believed in zodiac signs, but I always read the predictions in the papers whenever I can. Don’t mind the fact that all the predictions for each zodiac sign are in one way or the other similar and could work for anyone with as much as a little dose of superstition. It’s the placebo effect, I guess. But I digress.

By now you already know that in about a few weeks, very very soon now, I will be heading to the East Coast of the country, again! Yea, I’m excited about it too. There are just so many things to see in Washington DC. I can’t wait to stand underneath the real Lincoln Monument. The small one we took pictures with at the Chicago Grant Park was an impostor. I’ve hoped to use the opportunity to do a little wandering around the neighbouring states as well: New York, maybe New Jersey, and Maryland. The last state, definitely, thanks to Ikhide Ikheloa who has promised me a ride from Washington DC to Maryland, warm beddings to lay my head on, plenty naija books to read and to steal, a new iPhone 3Gs and an unlimited supply of Ofe nsala, isi ewu and cow leg pepper soup! Ha, don’t even think of reneging on the promise, Baba!

Anyway, when I broke open the two blasted cookies yesterday, I was too much in a hurry to consume them that I ignored the “fortune” paper in them until after the cookies, the food and the “soup” were well digested. And when I was ready, I took a look and here was what I found: >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

“Travelling to the east will bring you great rewards.”

And suddenly, I’m a believer.

New York, DC, East Coast, here I come… at least after I finish devouring all the livestock of this Thanksgiving Week!

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