To encourage Harvard faculty to collaborate on the new field, a faculty seminar will likely be implemented as well.

“It makes sense to come together and create a program in diaspora which will put us on the forefront of this emerging field,” Akyeampong says.

Learning the Lingo

In order to implement the degree program in African studies, Akyeampong says the department will have to introduce language training that “did not exist.”

In the new position of senior preceptor, John M. Mugane, who Harvard hired away from Ohio University at Athens, will lead the African language program.

Mugane, who is also the president of the African Language Teacher Association, says he was initially approached to assist in the search for candidates but became interested in the position after visiting the department.

“It was really refreshing that I didn’t have to explain what the necessary link [between African and African-American studies] is,” he says. “They were already asking even better questions, about how bringing in languages will strengthen some of the courses that are already offered.”

Mugane says he intends to establish programs for the major African languages, covering the widest possible geographic region, at first.

He will teach the East African languages of Swahili—previously the only sub-Saharan African language offered by the department—as well as Gikuyu, a language in which he is an expert.

Applications for the position of a junior preceptor who can teach at least two West African languages (Yoruba and Hausa, Mugane hopes) will be reviewed today, according to Akyeampong. The South African languages of Zulu and Xhosa will also be offered.

But Mugane’s great hope—“call me crazy,” he says—is that all 2,089 African languages will eventually be available for study at Harvard.

He intends to accomplish this feat with a self-instruction program revolving around a series of websites and computer software he has worked on since 1996.

“The challenge is to have a system in place whereby Harvard students are going to be able to learn a language of their choice...an environment where a student has access to a wealth of resources. All this information will be online,” he says.

Websites will offer basic reading materials, pronunciation exercises and film supplements, which students will study under the supervision of a language coach. Mugane himself will coordinate students’ progress.

Most significantly, the curriculum will involve two-hour weekly conversations and final examinations with native speakers, whom the department will locate using a database of African speakers Mugane has been building.