BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//events.la.psu.edu//EN CALSCALE:GREGORIAN BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:America/New_York BEGIN:STANDARD DTSTART:20201101T020000 TZOFFSETFROM:-0400 TZOFFSETTO:-0500 RRULE:FREQ=YEARLY;BYMONTH=11;BYDAY=1SU END:STANDARD BEGIN:DAYLIGHT DTSTART:20200308T020000 TZOFFSETFROM:-0500 TZOFFSETTO:-0400 RRULE:FREQ=YEARLY;BYMONTH=3;BYDAY=2SU END:DAYLIGHT END:VTIMEZONE BEGIN:VEVENT UID:15588-005a3e195c09aa0a9483a8f977c3ed28@events.la.psu.edu DTSTAMP:20260805T164605Z DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250802T090000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250802T110000 SUMMARY:African Studies Global Virtual Forum: Decoloniality and Southern Epistem ologies—Salikoko S. Mufwene DESCRIPTION:\nSalikoko S. Mufwene is the Edward Carson Waller Distinguis hed Service Professor in the Department of Linguistics\, the Department of Race\, Diaspora\, and Indigeneity\, and the College at the University of Chicago. He is also professor on the Committee of Evolutionary Biolo gy\, the Committee on Conceptual and Historical Studies of Science\, and the Committee on African Studies\, at UChicago. His research area is ev olutionary linguistics\, focused on the phylogenetic emergence of langua ges and language speciation\, especially the emergence of creoles and ot her cases of the indigenization of European languages in the colonies\, as well as language vitality. He has authored and (co-)edited dozens of books and has published hundreds of articles\, book chapters\, and book reviews. His latest publications include Migrations humaines et évolutio n linguistique (Éditions du Collège de France\, 2024) and Ecological Per spectives on Language Endangerment and Loss (Springer Nature 2025). He i s the founding editor of Cambridge Approaches to Language Contact and fe llow of the Linguistic Society of America\, of the AmericanPhilosophical Society\, and of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He assumed the Chaire Mondes francophones at the Clollège de France for the 2023–24 academic year.\n\n \;\n\nMay the real V. Y. Mudimbe stand up?\n\nMu dimbe was polymorphous and a real intellectual humanist and an enjoyable social being\, friendly and altruist\, though he may have appeared aloo f to those who did not know him\, such as when I was a college student a t the National University of Zaïre at Lubumbashi in 1970a. My opinion ch anged after I invited him to speak at a conference at UGA both to Annual Conference on African Linguistics and to philosophers\, in separate ses sions\, in 1990. The privilege of hosting him one evening at my house wi th some other Congolese helped discover what a warm human being he was a nd a kind of party “animateur” (in Congolese jargon)\, full of wit and h umor and making his audience laugh in response to his funny narratives.\ n\nSoon after he died\, I thought it was time I stopped postponing readi ng especially The Invention of Africa and The Idea of Africa as well as The Mudimbe Reader\, edited by Pierre-Philippe Fraiture and Daniel Orrel ls. I discovered that Mudimbe was a forerunner of the decoloniality inte llectual engagement. In the chapter “When was Africa discovered?” (in Th e Mudimbe Reader)\, he reminds us that the European explorers were not t he first to discover Africa\, although they reached parts of Africa that philosophers and historians of the Antiquity\, especially\, myth makers had imagined. Ancient Greeks\, who had traded across and around the Med iterranean knew not only of Egypt and Lybia (not the modern one) but als o the Nile River crossing Ethiopia and the Sudan. How Western Europeans painted Africa and Africans since the fifteentth century was at variance with narratives from Herodotus and other ancient Greeks. Western Europe an explorers and\, later\, colonizers racialized Black Africa in ways th at served “la mission civilisatrice” with little appreciation of African civilizations and cultural practices. On the other hand\, the Greeks’ n arratives were not necessarily factual\, some of the details were fed by myths that they built\, which became part of the common knowledge of th e time. After all\, they created their own gods and monsters! In this pr esentation\, I will share my reactions to “V. Y. Mudimbe.” This name is apparently his preferred self-identification since the Mobutu political philosophy of “authenticity” begun in the 1970s.\n\nFor more details: ht tps://events.la.psu.edu/event/afr-global-virtual-forum-salikoko-s-mufwen e/ X-ALT-DESC;FMTTYPE=text/html:

Salikoko S. Muf wene is the Edward Carson Waller Distinguished Service Professor in the Department of Linguistics, the Department of Race, Diaspora, and Indigen eity, and the College at the University of Chicago. He is also professor on the Committee of Evolutionary Biology, the Committee on Conceptual a nd Historical Studies of Science, and the Committee on African Studies, at UChicago. His research area is evolutionary linguistics, focused on t he phylogenetic emergence of languages and language speciation, especial ly the emergence of creoles and other cases of the indigenization of Eur opean languages in the colonies, as well as language vitality. He has au thored and (co-)edited dozens of books and has published hundreds of art icles, book chapters, and book reviews. His latest publications include Migrations humaines et évolution linguistique (Éditions du Coll ège de France, 2024) and Ecological Perspectives on Language Endange rment and Loss (Springer Nature 2025). He is the founding editor of Cambridge Approaches to Language Contact and fellow of the Lin guistic Society of America, of the AmericanPhilosophical Society, and of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He assumed the Chaire Mondes francophones at the Clollège de France for the 2023–24 academic year.

 

May the real V. Y. Mudimbe stand up?

Mudimbe was polymorphous and a real intellectual humanist and an enjoyable social b eing, friendly and altruist, though he may have appeared aloof to those who did not know him, such as when I was a college student at the Nation al University of Zaïre at Lubumbashi in 1970a. My opinion changed after I invited him to speak at a conference at UGA both to Annual Conference on African Linguistics and to philosophers, in separate sessions, in 199 0. The privilege of hosting him one evening at my house with some other Congolese helped discover what a warm human being he was and a kind of p arty “animateur” (in Congolese jargon), full of wit and humor and making his audience laugh in response to his funny narratives.

Soon afte r he died, I thought it was time I stopped postponing reading especially The Invention of Africa and The Idea of Africa as wel l as The Mudimbe Reader, edited by Pierre-Philippe Fraiture and Daniel Orrells. I discovered that Mudimbe was a forerunner of the decol oniality intellectual engagement. In the chapter “When was Africa discov ered?” (in The Mudimbe Reader), he reminds us that the European explorers were not the first to discover Africa, although they reached parts of Africa that philosophers and historians of the Antiquity, espec ially, myth makers had imagined. Ancient Greeks, who had traded across a nd around the Mediterranean knew not only of Egypt and Lybia (not the mo dern one) but also the Nile River crossing Ethiopia and the Sudan. How W estern Europeans painted Africa and Africans since the fifteentth centur y was at variance with narratives from Herodotus and other ancient Greek s. Western European explorers and, later, colonizers racialized Black Af rica in ways that served “la mission civilisatrice” with little apprecia tion of African civilizations and cultural practices. On the other hand, the Greeks’ narratives were not necessarily factual, some of the detail s were fed by myths that they built, which became part of the common kno wledge of the time. After all, they created their own gods and monsters! In this presentation, I will share my reactions to “V. Y. Mudimbe.” Thi s name is apparently his preferred self-identification since the Mobutu political philosophy of “authenticity” begun in the 1970s.

For mor e details: https://events.la.psu.edu/event/afr-global-vir tual-forum-salikoko-s-mufwene/

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