探花直播 of Cambridge - Carnegie Corporation of New York

Cambridge-Africa Programme: 58 institutions, 26 countries, and growing

lw355 — Mon, 06 Feb 2017 11:31:08 +0000

Having the chance to contribute to the pool of human knowledge depends a great deal on where you live in the world. Opportunities are skewed in聽favour聽of聽those who are better resourced聽and in favour of those who receive, and give,聽world-class training.

Knowledge lies at the heart of social and economic development, so countries with a thriving knowledge economy and good research infrastructure develop quicker; and the gap between those that don鈥檛 have these advantages grows ever wider. Among those lagging behind are many of the African countries.

And yet, explains Professor David Dunne, Africa has excellent researchers. He knows because for 30 years he鈥檚 been working in Africa with African colleagues on neglected tropical diseases: 鈥淚 realised that they were brilliant but they didn鈥檛 have the opportunities they deserved to make their unique contribution both to solving Africa鈥檚 challenges and to adding to the sum of global knowledge.

鈥淓ven in the best African universities, there is a chronic shortage of researchers with access to the resources they need to be internationally competitive and to mentor future researchers,鈥� he explains. 鈥淭here just aren鈥檛 enough of them.鈥�

鈥淚n parts of Africa, sometimes the choice seems to be between prioritising universal access to a basic education or investing in tertiary education and research scholarship. In reality, there is no choice,鈥� says Dunne. 鈥淏oth are absolutely essential.鈥�

Eight years ago, he realised that universities like Cambridge could help bridge this resource and mentorship gap in Africa in ways that would build research capacity 鈥渨hile avoiding the loss of indigenous talent that so often occurs when better opportunities are available outside of Africa.鈥�

Cambridge-Africa is the result. This聽探花直播-wide institutional聽structure is designed to make expertise and resources available to support African researchers working in Africa on聽African priorities.

Today, the Programme supports African researchers in 58 different institutions in 26 countries across the continent. Its various schemes link PhD, postdoctoral and group leaders with a network of over 200 Cambridge-based researchers.

Key to its success is a 鈥榤atchmaking鈥� model of partnership, as Dr Pauline Essah explains: 鈥淲e carefully match the research interests of African and Cambridge researchers. It means there are benefits for both parties, and the potential for equitable and sustainable long-term collaboration after the mentorship has finished.鈥�

She adds: 鈥淏eing an African myself, and having studied in an African university before studying and working in Cambridge, I know that it wouldn鈥檛 work if we were just trying to take what Cambridge has and plant it in Africa. Instead we are modifying and adapting it in response to the needs identified by our African colleagues.鈥�

Dunne and Essah began with targeting research in health: 鈥淲e saw this as an easy win on both sides 鈥� it meets one of Africa鈥檚 greatest challenges, and it gives wider geographic scope to Cambridge researchers.鈥�

They were surprised however by the scale of the response: 鈥淲e were pushing against an open door,鈥� says Dunne. Soon, scholars from archaeology to zoology, engineering to English, politics to plant sciences were joining the scheme. In 2015, the Programme was adopted as the 探花直播 of Cambridge鈥檚 official international strategy to support African academia across all subject areas.

鈥淎nd of course this is good for Cambridge too,鈥� says Dunne. 鈥淚t means our researchers have greater opportunities to collaborate globally and our students can experience working in Africa. It has helped make Cambridge a truly international 探花直播.鈥�

Speaking at the annual Cambridge-Africa Day symposium, Cambridge鈥檚 Vice-Chancellor Professor Sir Leszek Borysiewicz said: 鈥� 探花直播speed with which the Cambridge-Africa Programme has developed is phenomenal. We are trusted by our partners, and the Programme has buy-in from our academic community. This has been essential to the programme鈥檚 success. Today, it is no longer something done by a handful of enthusiasts. It is now something embedded in the 探花直播鈥檚 DNA.鈥�

Adds Dunne: 鈥� 探花直播first of the Cambridge-Africa fellows are now starting to fulfil their outstanding potential as researchers and leaders, providing mentorship to the next generation of young African researchers.鈥� To date, all 54 of the African PhD and postdoctoral researchers who have completed their fellowships are still working in sub-Saharan universities or research institutions.

鈥淯niversities are not just luxury items for wealthy societies,鈥� he says. 鈥淭hey are equally vital to the futures of low- and middle-income countries if those countries are to share in the advantages of knowledge creation.鈥�

Cambridge-Africa fellowship schemes are funded by the Wellcome Trust, the ALBORADA Trust, the Isaac Newton Trust and the Carnegie Corporation of New York.

To keep up to date with the latest stories about Cambridge鈥檚 engagement with Africa, follow #CamAfrica on Twitter.

Inset picture: Professor David Dunne and Dr Pauline聽Essah. Credit: Mark聽Miniszko.

We ask how a 'matchmaking' programme that teams up Cambridge and African researchers is making expertise and聽resources聽available to support Africans working in Africa.

Universities are not just luxury items for wealthy societies. They are equally vital to the futures of low- and middle-income countries if those countries are to share in the advantages of knowledge creation

David Dunne

Mark Miniszko

Dr Vincent Owino, now conducting research in Kenya, was awarded a seed grant from the Cambridge-Africa ALBORADA Research Fund

Fellowship schemes

ALBORADA Research Fund

Cambridge-Africa Partnership for Research Excellence (CAPREx)

Cambridge-Africa PhD Scholarship Scheme

Makerere 探花直播/Uganda Virus Research Institute Infection and Immunity Research (MUII)

Training Health Researchers into Vocational Excellence (THRiVE)

Wellcome Trust-Cambridge Centre for Global Health Research

探花直播text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. For image use please see separate credits above.

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" 探花直播Professor is World Cup": understanding 鈥榮ecret鈥� urban languages

pbh25 — Wed, 22 Apr 2015 12:56:30 +0000

Uganda has one of the world鈥檚 largest percentages of people under 30 鈥� more than 78% of its 37 million citizens, according to a report by the United Nations Population Fund. Many do not use the commonly spoken languages of Uganda (Kiswahili, English and Luganda) in everyday speech but instead express themselves in an ever-evolving street language called Luyaaye.

Originally a 鈥榮ecret language鈥� spoken by criminals, Luyaaye has grown in popularity because it鈥檚 seen as more playful and less traditional by many of its speakers, with its 鈥渏oyful鈥� use of English, Luganda and other languages.

Many of those who use Luyaaye are concentrated within Kampala, the capital city of a country that faces many challenges, including serious health problems. To combat these threats to health 鈥� and to get other social messages across 鈥� the government must communicate with its population effectively. This means using Luyaaye alongside the official languages, argue researchers from Africa and Cambridge who are working collaboratively as part of the Cambridge-Africa Partnership for Research Excellence (CAPREx).

Dr Saudah Namyalo from Makerere 探花直播 and Dr Jenneke van der Wal from Cambridge鈥檚 Department of Theoretical and Applied Linguistics have joined forces to understand how this increasingly popular, yet currently undocumented, urban language is built. 探花直播need is increasing, said Namyalo, as more people come to use forms of Luyaaye to communicate. 鈥淚t is currently classified as an Urban Youth Language but it is becoming more widespread and used by some older people.鈥�

Such languages are not unique to Uganda 鈥� elsewhere, forms of multicultural British English, the Dutch street language 鈥榮traattaal鈥� and the 鈥楥amfranglais鈥� of the Cameroon are all examples of languages that have evolved out of, and usurped, the country鈥檚 mother tongue in certain communities, explained Namyalo.

These languages are fast-moving in their appropriation of new words, often borrowing them from TV, films and music. 鈥淚 love the speed at which Luyaaye changes,鈥� she said. 鈥淔or instance, the World Cup was seen as a very positive thing. So world cup quickly became a shorthand for 鈥榓 good thing鈥� or 鈥榚xcellent鈥�.

鈥淔or a lot of people, Luyaaye is for fun 鈥� it is just for laughs! It often uses metonymy [calling something not by its own name but by a name linked to it] with surprising and comic results. So a Professor is someone with 鈥榮treet smarts鈥� who has learned to beat the authorities, to get away with anything.鈥�

However, the language also has its darker side. 探花直播growth of Luyaaye began in the 1970s during the Idi Amin reign. 鈥淚llegal trade grew and it is thought that the language provided a code to serve those people who were involved in trade between Nairobi and Kampala. It was mostly spoken by the illiterate, young business community,鈥� Namyalo explained.

Even today its past continues to influence its development as Luyaaye helps criminals conduct business and exclude the uninitiated from their ranks, said Namyalo. 鈥淜ampala is divided into five divisions and they are Luyaaye territories. If you are a criminal you are not supposed to cross into another territory 鈥� or you risk being burnt alive. 探花直播Luyaaye you use can show which division you are from or it can be used to uncover if you do not belong.鈥�

Namyalo points to these past links with criminality as a factor in the reticence of the establishment in accepting Luyaaye: 鈥淗igher society does not take the language, or those who use it, seriously. When you use Luyaaye you are thought of as uncultured, and yet it is the more meaningful language for the youth than Luganda or other formal languages used in Uganda.鈥�

She has begun the process of documenting this little-studied and evolving language, and would like to produce a dictionary. From her research, she now thinks of the language in terms of 鈥榣ayers鈥�, each layer representing a slightly different set of vocabulary. 探花直播secret language used by criminals is what she calls 鈥榗ore鈥� Luyaaye, while the second layer is spoken by the youth, and the outer layer is the 鈥榦rdinary鈥� Luyaaye, easiest to understand and popular with the general public.

Her work has so far concentrated on the lexical (word meaning) aspects of the language, but her collaboration with Van der Wal will allow them to examine the syntax (how sentences are constructed) of Luyaaye as compared with Luganda.

An expert in Bantu languages like Luganda, Van der Wal is also a member of a large-scale project to investigate the basic building blocks that underpin how languages of the world are structured 鈥� the Rethinking Comparative Syntax (ReCoS) project funded by the European Research Council and led by Professor Ian Roberts, also in the Department of Theoretical and Applied Linguistics.

鈥� 探花直播ability to speak a language is something very special 鈥� it is unique and part of what makes us human beings,鈥� explained Van der Wal. 鈥淚 want to find out what allows us to make grammatical sentences and how this varies between languages. For instance, unlike in some neighbouring languages, in Luganda you can say a word in two different ways: you can talk about eating rice (omuceere), but leave off the first vowel (mucheere) and it suggests you are only eating rice 鈥� it gives an exclusive focus on the rice.鈥�

Namyalo鈥檚 visit to Cambridge and Van der Wal鈥檚 recent visit to Uganda were funded by CAPREx and the Alborada Research Fund, both of which are initiatives within the umbrella Cambridge-Africa Programme at the 探花直播 of Cambridge. 探花直播Programme aims to strengthen Africa鈥檚 capacity for research by equipping African researchers with skills and resources, and to promote mutually beneficial, long-term collaborations with African researchers across a wide range of disciplines.

For Van der Wal, research in Africa with African academics has been vital for enabling her to carry out meaningful research: 鈥淚 loved working with Saudah in Uganda and listening to the languages as spoken. It was great to do field work together and get my hands dirty 鈥� well, get my ears dirty 鈥� and learn about yet another Bantu language.鈥�

Namyalo sees the project as vital for helping her country combat some of its most challenging difficulties. 鈥淧rogrammes have been carried out to spread information about AIDS but even with increased dissemination there was a decrease in the take-up of that information. When asked what would help, people said 鈥榮peak our language鈥�.鈥�

CAPREx is funded by the Carnegie Corporation of New York, the Alborada Trust and the Isaac Newton Trust

Inset image: Dr Jenneke van der Wal and Dr Saudah Namyalo

Research into a 鈥榩layful鈥� and increasingly popular urban language that grew out of the necessity for criminals to hide their true intent could help organisations in Uganda communicate better with the country鈥檚 huge young population.

When you use Luyaaye you are thought of as uncultured, and yet it is the more meaningful language for the youth than Luganda or other formal languages used in Uganda

Saudah Namyalo

Understanding 鈥榮ecret鈥� urban language

Rod Waddington

Strolling, Uganda

Luyaaye

While the basic syntactic framework for Luyaaye is Luganda, it borrows words from English, with dashes of Sheng, Kiswahili and Sudanese.

As well as borrowing whole words it also borrows suffixes and affixes such as the English 鈥搃ng which becomes 鈥搃nga in Luyaaye.

Quite often when speakers use English words they do not alter the spelling, so that front page is used to mean 'forehead' and blood used to mean 'brother' or 'sister'.

探花直播language also uses metaphor, thus okusunagitta literally means 'to play a guitar' but actually means 'to scratch', and I would like to kill a chimpanzee means 'I would like to go to the toilet'.

It also uses tricks like antonym 鈥� making the meaning the opposite of what is said, so okwesalaobuwero means 'dressed in old cloth' but actually means to be smartly dressed.

探花直播text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. For image use please see separate credits above.

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