Activities

Abstract BantUGent talk Tom Bossuyt consessive conditionalsWhat? BantUGent research seminar co-organized with DiaLing
When? Friday 17 April 2026
Where? Lokaal 3.30 - Camelot, Blandijn, Campus Boekentoren
TIme: 14.00

Tom Bossuyt (University of Freiburg) on Conditional coding in ‘even (if)’ concessive conditionals: Bantu and beyond

Abstract

Upon invitation of Peter Coutros and Sara Pacchiarotti, Prof. Dr. Karen Lupo, SMU Distinguished Professor at the Department of Anthropology at Southern Methodist University (Dallas, Texas, USA) will give a talk titled Unsettling the Frontier: Rethinking Forager-Farmer Interactions in Prehistoric Central Africa. This is the second talk of the CongUbangi Lecture Series in Archaeology. The event is open to anyone interested. No registration needed. The talk can also be followed online via Zoom. Click here. For more information, please contact Peter Coutros at peter.coutros@ugent.be.

What? BantUGent research seminar in  collaboration with the Global and Regional Histories research group

When? Tuesday 16 June, 2026
Time: 14.00-16.00

Where? Faculteitsraadzaal, Blandijn, Campus Boekentoren

'From the Kingdom of Kongo to Congo Square: Kongo Dances and the Origins of the Mardi Gras Indians'

This presentation focuses on one of New Orleans’ most enigmatic performance traditions, the Mardi Gras Indians. By interpreting the tradition in an Atlantic context, Dewulf traces the “Black Indians” back to the ancient Kingdom of Kongo and its war dance known as sanga(mento). By comparing Kongo dances in Latin America, the Caribbean and Louisiana, Dewulf demonstrates that the dances on New Orleans’ Congo Square were part of a much broader Kongolese performance tradition. Dewulf’s groundbreaking research suggests a strong impact of Kongolese traditions on the development of African-American music, dance, and parading culture.

More info on the Bantu 11 webpage.

Submission Deadline: 28-Feb-2026

As part of the ERC-funded CongUbangi project, this colloquium aims at bringing together scholars from different disciplines interested in Ubangi, Bantu and Central Sudanic languages and language speaking-communities in northern Republic of Congo, southern Central African Republic and northern Democratic Republic of Congo. Spanning multiple ecozones within the Congo rainforest, this area is home to an intricate demographic configuration where Bantu (Niger-Congo) and Central Sudanic (putative Nilo-Saharan) speaking groups are interspersed with Ubangi groups. The internal relationships among groups lumped under the label “Ubangi” are unclear. While their individual Niger-Congo affiliation looks promising, this is based on very little evidence. Linguistic hallmarks of this area include multidirectional language shift, contact and linguistic enclaves.

The region’s linguistic diversity is matched with human genetic diversity. The few available studies suggest significant genetic differentiation among populations also having distinct cultural and/or linguistic backgrounds, but genetic sampling is insufficient compared to other parts of Africa, especially among Ubangi and Central Sudanic speakers. Further, nothing is known about admixture patterns which might reveal the dynamics of early contacts in the region.

Archaeological research within the region has been sparse, leaving large gaps in the history of pre-colonial populations and population movements. While a deep-seated hypothesis deprived of linguistic or archaeological evidence argues that Bantu were the first to settle in this region, the astonishing geographic fragmentation of Ubangi subgroups such as Mundu-Baka and Mbaic and of Central Sudanic subgroups such as Sara-Bongo-Bagirmi, suggests that these might descend from the earliest layers of occupation in the region. Likewise, ethnoarchaeological data has revealed a continuity between Early Iron Age communities and the Ubangi speakers that inhabit the region today, suggesting the possible antiquity of these groups in the region.

With this framework in mind, we welcome contributions from linguistics, genetics, archaeology and related fields dealing with:
- Phonological and/or morphosyntactic accounts of yet undocumented or poorly known languages of the region
- Language contact phenomena (esp. borrowings and vocabulary shared across different language families)
- Linguistic features spreading areally through contact
- Enclaved varieties (language islands)
- Language shift
- Language stratigraphy
- Reconstruction (and comparison) of proto-languages of Ubangi, Bantu and Central Sudanic subgroups
- Methods and challenges with internal classificatory attempts within Ubangi, Bantu and Central Sudanic
- Population genetics
- Metallurgy, including iron production
- Monumentality of Bouar and adjacent regions
- Pottery analysis (e.g., stylistic, formal, and petrology)
- Lithic studies of Late Stone Age (and/or earlier) materials
- Population movements, including the Bantu Expansion
- Ethnography (e.g., hunting/foraging, pottery and iron production)
- Interactions between autochthonous foragers and pottery-producing communities

Deadlines:
Abstract submission: Submit an abstract of maximum 500 words (excluding references and/or figures) in pdf format to ubancs@ugent.be by 28th February 2026

Notification of acceptance: 30th April 2026

For all questions, please contact the organizers at ubancs@ugent.be.