ALMA Advisory Board

ALMA Coordinators

John Hutchison, Boston University Coordinator of ALMA since 2002, Hutchison has worked as the African Language Coordinator at Boston U. since 1980, where he is an Associate Professor of African Languages & Linguistics. He works principally in West Africa on the cultural and linguistic reform of education systems and on the promotion of the local language publishing industry there.

Ousseina Alidou, Rutgers University Director of African Languages & Literatures in the Department of Africana Studies, Alidou works on women's literature in the languages of Niger and is an activist promoting the use of African languages in African education systems. Her current research interests include African women's literary and expressive cultures, comparative women's narratives (Afro-Islamic and Francophone Experience), and African Muslim women and the politics of agency and cultural production.

Yuusuf S. Caruso, Columbia University Caruso is the African Studies Librarian at Columbia University and works with the Digital Library for International Research, where ALMA documents are housed.

Issa Diallo, University of Ouagadougou Professor Diallo is the Director of the National Commission of the Fulfulde language of Burkina Faso, and holds a faculty position in the Department of Linguistics at the University of Ouagadougou. He has done extensive research on literacy, establishing an experimental literacy program for pastoralists. His work also focuses on language contact.

James Essegbey, University of Florida Essegbey specializes in descriptive linguistics and language contact. He is interested in descriptive, documentary and theoretical linguistics, especially in the domain of syntax, semantics and pragmatics; contact linguistics; language and culture; Kwa languages of West Africa, especially Gbe (i.e. Ewe, Gen, Aja and Fon), Akan, and Ghana-Togo Mountain languages; and creole studies.

Henriette Ouedraogo Ilboudo, Radio Rurale, Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso Director of the Rural Radio Services of the national radio station in Ouagadougou, Ilboudo is an activist for women and for local languages. She is the founding editor of a women's newspaper in Moore.

Kassim Kone, State University of New York-Cortland Tenured Associate Professor of Anthropology at the State University of New York at Cortland, Kone completed his PhD at Indiana University on the role of the proverb in Bamana society in Mali under Michael Jackson. He is a renowned scholar of Mande studies and Vice-President of MANSA.

Fallou Ngom, Boston University Fluent in a number of West African languages, Professor Ngom is currently conducting comparative research on Ajami literatures of several Muslim ethnic groups of the Senegambian region. He also works in Forensic Linguistics with a focus on refugees and asylum seekers from West Africa. This new field uses Language Analysis as a way of determining the accurate national origin of some asylum seekers in many Western countries

Donald Z. Osborn, Bisharat ! Donald Osborn is the Founder and coordinator of Bisharat!: A Language, Technology, and Development Initiative that has a significant website for encouraging the use of African languages on the worldwide web. He has developed a listserv for scholars of African languages, has been instrumental in the pioneering of Wikipedia sites for African languages, and is a crusader for African languages in information technology.

Leigh Swigart, Brandeis University Swigart is a former director of both WARC and WARA. She was instrumental in bringing WARA to its present seat in the African Studies Center at Boston University. Now the Director of Programs in International Justice and Society at the International Center for Ethics, Justice and Public Life at Brandeis University, she has linked ALMA to the human rights movement and with Hutchison and Yanco developed proposals for the translation of the human rights documents of the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights into 30 West African languages for which funding is pending.

Ex-officio member:

Jennifer Yanco, West African Research Association Currently the US Director of WARA, Yanco received her PhD from Indiana University . Her doctoral research focused on language contact and bilingualism among Hausa and Zarma speakers in the Nigerien city of Niamey. She has since taught in the African Languages Program at Boston University and has served as a Fulbright lecturer in linguistics at the University of Niamey. Her area of specialization is West African languages.

ALMA Authors

ALMA Authors Below are sample photos and brief biographies of some of the authors whose work is or will be included on the ALMA site.

Mme. Koniba Sanogo (Mali) Mme. Sonogo is an experienced Malian educator who has been involved in the Bamanan language schools of Mali for decades. Her anthology of Bamanankan folktales, poems and riddles is to be included in the ALMA website.

Amadou Tamba Doumbia (Mali) Amadou Tamba Doumbia is an academic who has been assigned to the University of Mali's (Bamako) highest research institute, the CNRSH. He is a devoted scholar who works on the documentation of his first language, Bamanankan, and has written a number of publications in that language.

Ndane Seelenke Jallo (Guinea) Ndane Seelenke Jallo is one of the principal leaders of a non-governmental organization known as AGUIPELLN: Association Guinéenne pour l'écriture et la lecture en langues nationals, that works on the promotion of Guinean language publishing, writing and reading. Individually he also works on Pulaar language literacy and publishing in Guinea (Conakry) and has one of his works on the ALMA website. He has a long experience in literacy work and is one of the editors of an important Pulaar language newspaper known as Dud'al.

Dramane Traore (Mali) Dramane Traore is a civil servant who has worked at Mali's national literacy service for decades and has focused on his first language, Bamanankan. In addition to his civil service, Traore is the most prolific self-published author in an African language that the ALMA project has encountered in Africa. He has published over 100 titles in Bamanankan, many on his own and some with the support of non-governmental organizations. Two of his works are represented on the ALMA website. Interestingly, there has been such demand for some of his titles for adult education and training that they are now being offered to the public in translation into several other Malian languages as well.

Youssoufou Diallo (Mali) Youssoufou Diallo is an activist who works in literacy, editing, and on representing and voicing the interests of rural populations in Mali. He is the founder and editor of a Bamanan language newspaper called Dibifara that is to be represented on the ALMA website.

Youssouf Haaidara (Mali) Youssouf Haaidara returned to Mali in 1993 from Russia with a doctorate degree in linguistics and a thesis on the lexicography of his first language, Songhay. His dictionary and his collection of stories by Mahamane Tindirma that he edited are to be included in the ALMA website. Haidara was initially assigned to the adult literacy service upon his return but soon became involved in the experimental school program, introducing Malian languages as medium of instruction in the primary school system. He eventually became one of the principal actors and leaders in the 10-year PRODEC Educational Reform Project funded by The World Bank.

Salif Sogoba (Mali) Salif Sogoba is an officer of a Malian non-governmental organization, CALAN, which is a group of dedicated Malians devoted to pursuing the advancement and the promotion of the use of Malian national languages in public forums in both oral and written form. The group has collectively edited and promoted various publications in Malian languages, including their Nsiirinw! Nsanaw! Ntenntenw! (2000. Bamako: Société Malienne d'Edition), a collection of tales, texts and riddles in Bamanankan that has been subscribed to the ALMA website.

http://www.aiys.org/aodl/public/access/alma_ebooks/index.php