Encyclopaedia of Literature in African Languages – ELLAf

ELLAF proposes the creation of a documentation and research website on literatures in African languages, whatever their sociolinguistic status. The site will offer extracts or full versions of literary texts together with their French and/or English translation, whose presentation will obey a common protocol, with the aim of giving precise information on the contextualisation of each text, and on the circumstances of its creation and/or performance, while defining its genre.
The ten languages and literatures presented on the website right from the inaugural part of the project illustrate the complex situations and some of the difficulties they face:
– Swahili, a language of regional and international intercommunication, produces both oral literature and a particularly dynamic written literature,
– Malagasy, a language which has been taught since the colonial period, testifies to the long coexistence of oral and written literatures,
– Fulani, a transnational language, illustrates a very rich oral literature and an emerging written literature,
– Bambara in Mali and Wolof in Senegal show how the literary field is variously occupied by majority languages in particular countries,
– Oral and written literatures coexist in Igbo (Nigeria) and Boulou (Cameroun), two regional languages spoken by largely urban populations, while oral literatures prevail in rural areas (Zarma in Niger and Gbaya in Central African Republic), with the new media facilitating the dissemination of Boomu (Mali), a minority language.

Conception of the website : structure and contents ; preparation of data ; conferences on literatures in African languages ; collecting new data from field research.

Opening the Website by november 2015 ; international conference in september 2016 ; call for papers ellaf2016.sciencesconf.org; publication of the conference papers.

Collecting film data by field research ; participation to organizing several conferences ; publications on literatures in African languages (oral or written) by the members.

Executive summary

The « ELLAF » project, titled « Encyclopaedia of literatures in African languages » belongs to the SHS 3 thematic axis – Cultures, arts, civilisations.
ELLAf is the fruit of some ten years of study of literatures in African languages pursued by the LLACAN (UMR 8135 du CNRS) research group. This study led the group to draw the boundaries of a new literary field: that of oral and written literatures in African languages. The current project seeks to create a theoretical framework for this field, built on the links between orality, literary writing and literary writing in multilingual context. This new field hopes to contribute to the understanding of the working of literature and communication.

The Encyclopaedia of literatures in African languages (ELLAf) seeks to create a new tool which will take the form of a website, offering both a framework for theoretical reflection and a digital online library, bringing together oral and written literary corpora, whatever their sociolinguistic status. The website will include, right from the start, eleven languages and literatures characterised by different statuses and localisations in order to facilitate the study of literary creativity in African languages and an appreciation of its complexity. The site will, in particular, offer extracts or full versions of literary texts together with their French and/or English translation; their presentation will obey a common protocol, with the aim of giving precise information on the contextualisation of each text and on the circumstances of its creation and/or performance, while defining its genre. The website will be structured to present the languages and literatures relevant to the various texts included on the website and define the concepts they use; it will offer the possibility to pursue an in-depth analysis of those and develop an online journal. These features will in turn highlight the close-knit articulation between documentation ad research, central to the field.
ELLAf will be managed by Africanist researchers based in various disciplines and specialising in these literatures. The project will be supported by a research team mobilised within the LLACAN’s (2014-2018) scientific project and will thus benefit from a continuous reflection organised around regular seminars, workshops and fieldwork.

Literatures in African languages are seldom known yet rich, and bring together oral literatures and literatures written in several scripts. Beyond the interest they present in themselves and the necessity to record all existing literatures, they raise important questions on literary analysis and theory. Those focus in particular on the link between the status of the language and its capacity to produce literary texts, on the relationship between oral literatures and literary writing and the societal impact of our research.

The project is presented by two complementary partners: Ursula Baumgardt is a member of LLACAN (Black African Languages and Cultures, CNRS UMR 7594 headed by Martine Vanhove), a UMR specialised in African linguistics and literature; Xavier Garnier is a University Professor at Paris III; he is a member of the EA 4400 (CNRS-contracted), « Writings of modernity », headed by Alain Schaffner, and is particularly interested in written literatures in African languages.

All members are doubly qualified, bringing together a disciplinary specialism and an in-depth knowledge of the African languages mentioned above. Several scientific partners from the South are associated with the project, which is meant to expand the existing international cooperation.