Koen Bostoen – Page 9 – BantUGent – UGent Centre for Bantu Studies

Lorenzo Maselli gives a talk at the Tokyo African Linguistics Knot on November 14, 2022

Within the program of his exchange research stay in Tokyo as part of the FWO-JSPS-funded collaborative project between ILCAA and BantUGent on “The Past and Present of Bantu Languages: Integrating Micro-Typology, Historical-Comparative Linguistics and Lexicography“, Lorenzo Maselli (BantUGent) gives a talk on his PhD research at the Tokyo African Linguistics Knot.

Date and time: Nov 14, 2022, 18:00-19:00 (JST), 10:00-11:00 (CET)Title: Phonetic and phonological reconnaissance of the Mai-Ndombe (DRC): case studies into close-quarter sound variation

Zoom: to be obtained via Daisuke Shinagawa (ds@aa.tufs.ac.jp)

BantuGent research presented for Kinshasa University delegation at UGent

Prof P. Kapagama & Prof G. Mvumbi Lelo in charge of international partnerships at Kinshasa University visited Ghent University for a meet and greet at Het Pand on Thursday 20 October 2022 from 14h-16h30. Peter Coutros (BantUGent), Guy Kouarata (BantUGent), and Koen Bostoen (BantUGent) briefly presented ongoing BantuFirst research in the DRC in close collaboration with Prof. Igor Matonda from Kinshasa University (UNIKIN). Vicky Van Bockhaven from the African Studies Department also talked about the ongoing Afrisurge and Congolines projects she is supervising in collaboration with Congolese universities (e.a. Université de l’Uélé).

Koen Bostoen contributes chapter on Kongo Kingdom to secondary school history textbook (Dutch)

Koen Bostoen (BantUGent) co-authored a chapter on the Kongo Kingdom for a Belgian 4th grade secondary school textbook (Dutch) on the history of the 16th century. In an accompanying video he explains in Dutch how scholars reconstruct ancient African history and how they rely on language sources for this endeavor.

Peter Coutros back from new BantuFirst archaeological fieldwork along the Kwilu and Kasai Rivers

Peter Coutros (BantUGent, BantuFirst project) has just returned from an archaeological field mission in the DRC. Between August 16 and September 29, Dr. Coutros and Prof. Igor Matonda Sakala (UniKin & BantUgent associate) returned with their team to the Kwilu and Kasai Rivers for continued research and community outreach. This year, they were conducting survey of new areas as well as returning for more intensive investigations at locations identified during the 2021 mission. More than 50 new sites were identified – dating from the Middle Stone Age through the Early Iron Age – and excavations were conducted at numerous sites along the two rivers.

A ceremony led by the village elders at Mashita Mbanza prior to excavations.

Prof. Matonda [center] overseeing the second year of excavations at Kikundi along the Kwilu River.

The team and community members at Bagata Mukea standing over trench 1 after excavations.

Team member Arnold Mabuaka [Institut des Museés Nationaux de Congo] taking depth measurements during excavations at the village of Mfubakwan.

Jean-Pierre Donzo & Marie-Faustine Beloko on BantuFirst fieldwork in Sankuru province (DRC)

From September 13 until October 4, 2022, Prof. Jean-Pierre Donzo (ISP-Gombe, Kinshasa & BantUGent) & Marie-Faustine Beloko (ISP-Gombe, Kinshasa) carry out a BantuFirst fieldwork mission amongst several Batwa or Pygmy communities in the Lomela territory of DRC’s Sankuru Province. They aim at inventorizing and mapping the different Batwa languages in that part of the DRC and collecting audo recordings of basic lexical and grammatical data in those Bantu languages. It is an exploratory mission to prepare a more in-depth documentation project.

Marie-Faustine Beloko upon arrival in Lodja

Jean-Pierre Donzo upon arrival in Lomela after three days of travel by motorbike

Jean-Pierre Donzo & Marie-Faustine Beloke working with Loonga speakers in Lodja

Jean-Pierre Donzo with Lokeka Batwa consultants not far from Lomela

Mandela Kaumba Mazanga successfully defends her PhD thesis on Kongo pottery

On 6 September 2022, Mandela Kaumba Mazanga successfully defended in Brussels her PhD thesis titled Production et circulation de la céramique des trois derniers siècles dans l’aire kongo : une approche combinée des données ethnographiques, muséales et archéologiques. Her joint UGent-ULB PhD project co-supervised by Koen Bostoen (BantUGent), Pierre de Maret (ULB) and Olivier Gosselain (ULB) started as part of the ERC-funded KongoKing project. Following her successful defense, Mandela Kaumba Mazanga resumed her professional activities at the Department of Historical Sciences of Lubumbashi University (DRC).

Hilde Gunnink and co talk about the population history of Southern Africa at the 23rd ALASA Conference

At the 23rd Biennial International Conference of The African Languages Association of Southern Africa, which takes place at the University of the Western Cape September 21-24, Hilde Gunnink (BantUGent), Natalia Chousou-Polydouri (University of Zürich) & Koen Bostoen (BantUGent) will give a talk titled “The population history of Southern Africa: insights from linguistic subclassification“. The full draft program is available here.

Sara Pacchiarotti and Koen Bostoen talk on Bantu Expansion at ISP-Gombe in Kinshasa

On August 29, 2022, Sara Pacchiarotti (BantUGent) and Koen Bostoen (BantUGent) were invited at the Institut Supérieur Pédagogique de la Gombe in Kinshasa to talk about BantUGent research on the Bantu Expansion. Their talk was titled “L’occupation ancienne de l’Afrique centrale par les Bantouphones: recherches linguistiques et archéologiques“. Prof. Jean-Pierre Donzo (ISP-Gombe & BantUGent associate) animated the talk and the lively debate that followed.

Venue at the central library of ISP-Gombe

Sara & Koen meeting with the Director-General Prof. Gertrude Ekombe Ekofo

Sara Pacchiarotti & Koen Bostoen on fieldwork and teaching mission in Kikwit (DRC)

From August 6 until August 30, 2022, Sara Pacchiarotti & Koen Bostoen are on a BantuFirst mission in the DRC. They mainly stay with Prof. Joseph Koni Muluwa (ISP Kikwit & BantUGent associate) in Kikwit where they are doing linguistic fieldwork on several West-Coastal Bantu languages, most notably Eastern and Western Ngwi (B861). They also teach classes in Methods in Linguistic Research (Sara) and Comparative Bantu Linguistics (Koen) at the MA1 students of the English and African Cultures program at the Institut Supérieur Pédagogique de Kikwit. In Kinshasa they work with Prof. Jean-Pierre Donzo Yugia (ISP-Gombe & BantUGent associate) on other West-Coastal Bantu languages, mainly Northern Boma (B82).

Sara Pacchiarotti teaching Methods in Linguistic Research at ISP-Kikwit

Home languages of students in Koen Bostoen’s Comparative Bantu class

Sara Pacchiarotti with some students of her Methods in Linguistic Research class at ISP-Kikwit

Eric Lamur, Freddy Empenge, and Alain Ntuntu (left-to-right) transcribing Ding, Ngwi and Lwer data respectively at Joseph Koni Muluwa’s house

BantUGent deplores the death of Prof. Timothée Mukash Kalel

In the morning of Monday August 15, 2022, Prof. Timothée Mukash Kalel (1946-2022) passed away at the Munkole hospital in Kinshasa at the age of 75. He was a lecturer at the Institut Supérieur Pédagogique of Kikwit and Kikwit University (UNIKIK) before leaving for Paris, where he obtained his PhD degree in Linguistics at Université Paris III, Sorbonne Nouvelle in 1982. Later on he became a professor in African Linguistics at the University of Kinshasa (UNIKIN), where he mainly taught and did research on the syntax of Bantu languages. He is well-known for the research he did on his first language Kanyok on which he published several works, amongst others Dictionnaire kanyòk-français (2012) and Essai de grammaire kanyòk, L32 : phonologie, morphologie, syntaxe (2013). Between 1995 and 2005 he was the Permanent Secretary of the Congolese Observatory of Languages and since 2006 he had been the General Commissioner of the African Languages Festival in the DRC. On April 22, 2022, we were happy to welcome him as an online external assessor during the PhD defense of Michel Onokoko at Ghent University. BantUGent deeply regrets his passing and expresses heartfelt condolences to Prof. Mukash Kalel’s family on their loss.