Panel 3: African Arabic-Script Languages

The Arabic script has a centuries-long history as a supra-regional script used to write numerous African languages. This panel will examine these languages and their relationship with the manuscript medium. Possible topics include, but are not limited to orthography, the typology of scripts, the sociolinguistics of reading, and genre- or text-specific linguistic features.

Moderator: Anne Katrine Bang, Professor of History, Department of Archaeology, History, Cultural Studies and Religion, University of Bergen – Bergen, Norway

Keynote Paper: The Handwritten Tradition in Africa by Seyni Moumouni, Director of the Institute of Research in the Human Sciences (I.R.S.H.) – Abdou Moumouni University of Niamey, Niger
(Presentation Recording – Original)    (Presentation Recording – English Interpretation)

Selected Paper: A Connecting Power of Grammar: Old Kanembu tafsīr and Kanuri/Kanembu poetry by Dmitry Bondarev, Head of West Africa projects, Centre for the Study of Manuscript Cultures, University of Hamburg – Hamburg, Germany
(Presentation Recording – Original)    (Presentation Recording – English Interpretation)

Selected Paper: Collecting and Digitizing Arabic and Pulaar Manuscripts from Taal Families in Senegal and Southwestern Mali by Mohamed Mwamzandi, Assistant professor, Department of African, African American, and Diaspora Studies, University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States, and Samba Camara, Assistant professor, Department of African, African American, and Diaspora Studies, University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States
(Presentation Recording – Original)    (Presentation Recording – English Interpretation)

Selected Paper: From the ‘Sacred’ to the ‘Profane’: the Yoruba Ajami Script and the Challenges of a Standard Orthography by Amidu Olalekan Sanni, Professor of African and Middle Eastern Studies at Fountain University – Osogbo, Nigeria
(Presentation Recording – Original)    (Presentation Recording – English Interpretation)