22.3281, FYI: Book Call: Glocalisation of African Languages

Thu Aug 18 14:36:43 UTC 2011

LINGUIST List: Vol-22-3281. Thu Aug 18 2011. ISSN: 1068 - 4875.

Subject: 22.3281, FYI: Book Call: Glocalisation of African Languages

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1)
Date: 18-Aug-2011
From: Oye Taiwo [oyepaultaiwo at gmail.com]
Subject: Book Call: Glocalisation of African Languages

-------------------------Message 1 ---------------------------------- 
Date: Thu, 18 Aug 2011 10:36:08
From: Oye Taiwo [oyepaultaiwo at gmail.com]
Subject: Book Call: Glocalisation of African Languages

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Linguistics and the Glocalisation of African Languages for Sustainable 
Development

A Festschrift in Honour of Prof. Kola Owolabi 

Call for Proposals:

Proposals are hereby invited from scholars across the globe who may 
wish to contribute to a festschrift being planned in honour of Professor 
Kola Owolabi, a renowned linguist, who has been in the vanguard of 
engineering the indigenous Nigerian languages, particularly the Yoruba 
language, to meet the demands of the modern world. The festschrift is 
to address the broad theme: Linguistics and the Glocalisation of African 
Languages for Sustainable Development.

Background Information:

Globalisation has been described, in general terms, as a 
comprehensive term for the emergence of a global society in which 
economic, political, environmental and cultural events in different parts 
of the world have significance for people in other parts of the world. It 
describes the growing economic, political technological and cultural 
linkages that connect individuals, communities, businesses and 
governments around the world. Although it is expected that different 
countries should participate equally and consequently mutually enjoy 
the benefits of globalisation, the reality of the situation reveals 
lopsidedness in both the contributions to and benefits from the process 
by different countries.

As it were, the gains of the globalisation process have been in favour 
of the advanced countries of Western Europe, America and Asia and to 
a great extent to the detriment of the less developed countries of the 
world, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa. In terms of participation, the 
developed countries, beyond the indices of Gross National Product 
(GNP) have showcased, stable political polity, creative and adaptive 
technology, economic buoyancy and social security, reproductive and 
recycling consumerism and increased originality in human education 
and capacity for development. Their benefits have, of course, been the 
control of global power and dictation of modalities of economic 
production, distribution and consumption. In contrast, the less 
developed nations have been bedeviled by political instability; lack of 
creative or adaptive technology; economic indebtedness; social 
insecurity and evils of corruption; ethnic rivalries and religious bigotry; 
lack of basic amenities of social welfare; educational failure; and 
incapacitation of human development potentials. To a great extent, 
many of these and other problems of underdeveloped nations have 
been attributed variously to the circumstances of colonial and 
neocolonial history; bad and unpatriotic leadership; inconsiderate and 
greedy elite; and restless rustic and illiterate followership. So long as 
these problems persist, the benefits of globalisation shall continue to 
elude third world countries and they shall remain unequal partners in 
business, dancing to the tune of their superiors.

While interrogating the problems of underdeveloped/developing 
nations, linguists have come to the conclusion that language plays a 
major role in human and national development and, thus, cannot be 
neglected in attempting to find solutions to them. Being a peculiar 
creative resource for accessing the world, classifying, expressing, 
recording and re-creating the world, the extent to which it is well 
cultivated and utilised by individuals, groups and government 
determines the extent of advancement of the users. It has been 
observed that apart from developing their native languages for 
personal, local and national uses and harnessing the originality and 
inherent creative potentials, developed countries have utilised 
enormous resources to promote their languages across the world for 
dominant purposes. After consolidating the status of their languages as 
world languages, some developed countries have even gone a step 
further to acquire the languages of other peoples of the world in order 
to perpetuate dominance through multilingualism-multiculturalism. In 
contrast, the people of the less developed nations have jettisoned their 
native languages in favour of foreign ones for personal, social and 
national communication and are negotiating the world through the 
borrowed lenses of the foreign languages. As they fail to cultivate and 
use their languages purposefully, the languages suffer from attrition 
and die with all the inherent original values, beliefs and creative 
resources that should have benefitted the owners and the world. The 
owners thus, for lack of creativity, rehash opinions and make second 
rate contributions to the global world in different areas of knowledge. 
In the context of the above discussion, glocalisation implies that African 
languages (by implication, all languages in operation in Africa) are 
essential tools that can facilitate meaningful and sustainable 
development in Africa. To do this, the languages need to be 
operational, to be planned, to be engineered -  native/indigenous 
languages to be developed, utilized and promoted and foreign 
languages to be domesticated - to meet the demands of their 
immediate (local) and wider (international) contexts. Linguists and all 
those connected with language studies are major stakeholders in the 
business of ensuring enduring development in all ramifications, 
especially in the context of developing nations; hence the rationale for 
the focus of this festschrift.

Proposal Guidelines:

Prospective authors are to submit proposals (500words) on basic, 
applied, action and evaluation research on language policy, language 
planning, language advocacy and language implementation issues in 
respect of any of the following sub-themes:

- African languages in transition: historical, philosophical and cultural 
perspectives

- African languages vis-à-vis foreign languages in the continent: status, 
forms and functions

- The facets of African languages in social life: education, health, 
agriculture, law, fine art, science and technology, finance, 
administration, religion, politics and governance

- African languages and social communication: the media (electronic, 
print and symbolic), advertising, music and entertainment and conflict 
mediation

- Computerisation of African languages

- The nexus of African languages and literatures

- African languages and literatures pedagogy

- Language policy, planning, advocacy and implementation: Lessons 
from projects in (a) Africa and (b) outside Africa

- Translation/Interpreting in a multilingual context: challenges and 
prospects

Each proposal is expected to reflect research problem, aim/purpose 
and objectives, methodology (data base and theoretical perspective), 
expected findings/ demonstration/ application, conclusion and 
references.

The deadline for submission of proposals is 30 Novenber, 2011. 
Further information will be communicated to the authors of successful 
proposals thereafter.

Proposals are to be forwarded to any of the following:

1. Prof. Wale Adegbite, Department of English, Obafemi Awolowo 
University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria (adewaleadegbite at yahoo.com; 
aadegbit at oauife.edu.ng); 2348034840633, 2348058968456.

2. Dr  Ayo Ogunsiji, Department of English, University of Ibadan, 
Ibadan, Nigeria (ogunsijioa at yahoo.com); 2348033939032.

3. Dr Oye Taiwo, Department of Linguistics and African Languages, 
University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria (oyepaultaiwo at gmail.com); 
2348130821578, 234853506069. 

Linguistic Field(s): General Linguistics

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