Languages
The Department of African and African-American Studies at the University of Kansas regularly offers Arabic, Kiswahili, Wolof, Yorùbá, and Haitian Creole as its featured languages of the African and African Diasporic Language program.
The program prepares students for high global competency through professional-level proficiency in each language. The curriculum incorporates the World Readiness Standards for learning languages and the American Council of Teachers of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) proficiency guidelines. We offer student centered Instruction, and our instructors use the communicative and interactive teaching approaches which develop listening comprehension, speaking, reading, writing, and cultural awareness. Our students benefit from rigorous classes taught by expert language teachers, innovative technology, and cultural immersion activities to enhance the language learning experience.
AAAS offers two degree pathways in the African and African Diasporic Language program:
Arabic
Arabic, one of the fastest growing languages, is a Semitic Language spoken widely across Africa, the Middle East, and the Arabian Peninsula. It is the key to understanding the culture and history of more than 22 nations and more than 280 million speakers. Arabic is also the liturgical language of more than a billion Muslims around the world, and it is one of the six official languages of the United Nations. The study of the Arabic language and Arab culture allows students to develop an appreciation for the complexity of the many facets of the Arab world: its society, culture, history, arts, religions, and literary heritage.
Haitian Creole
Haitian-Creole is one of the two official languages of Haiti and has more than 10 million speakers. It is spoken widely in Haiti throughout the Caribbean basin, among Haitian-Americans in the United States, Canada, and France etc. It is recognized as an official French based Creole language in the Caribbean.
Kiswahili
Kiswahili is the most widely studied indigenous African language. It is spoken by various ethnic groups that inhabit several large stretches of the Indian Ocean coastline from southern Somalia to northern Mozambique, including the Comoros Islands. Up to 10 million people speak it as their native language, and over 130 million use it as either a first or second language in eastern and central Africa. Kiswahili is also a lingua franca of much of East Africa and the Democratic Republic of Congo. It is the national or official language of four nations, and it is the only language of African origin among the official working languages of the African Union. It is used in various international radio broadcasts such as the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), Voice of America (VOA), and Deutsche Welle (DW). It is also featured in popular films such as The Lion King and in cultural festivals like Kwanzaa. Kiswahili is taught in many academic institutions in the world from Japan in the East to Mexico in the West.
Wolof
Wolof is a West African language spoken mainly in Senegal, Gambia and southern Mauritania. The language has influenced the societies and economies of West Africans, and it has emerged through trade as a lingua franca also used in parts of Guinea, Guinea-Bissau and Mali. Wolof is known internationally through the popular work of acclaimed musicians and filmmakers, like Youssou N’Dour and Ousmane Sembène. There are over 10 million speakers of Wolof in West Africa, France, the U.S., and other parts of the world.
Yorùbá
Yorùbá is a West African language spoken mainly in Nigeria, Benin and parts of Togo and Sierra Leone. Yoruba is also spoken in areas of Brazil, Cuba, Venezuela, Trinidad, Tobago, and Haiti. The language has influenced the societies and economies of West Africans, and the Diaspora in a variety of ways. It is noteworthy that Yorùbá religious practices in the Western Hemisphere, such as Candomblé, Santeria have their roots in Yorùbá religion. There are over 20 million speakers of Yorùbá in West Africa, and other parts of the world.
