This year’s Southeast African Language Forum was hosted at ETSU from Oct. 29-31. The 15th annual meeting, themed around African languages in the global economy, featured student presentations.
The Southeast Africa Language Forum is a nonprofit organization dedicated to teaching and promoting African languages in the United States. This year was the first time ETSU hosted the event.
Traditionally, it is hosted at universities with African language programs; however, Martha Michieka, associate dean of student affairs for the Department of Literature and Language, dedicated her attendance to the forum, inspiring ETSU to host.
The event was supported by the Office of Professional Development and the Department of Literature and Language.
“I received support from every angle and that made it such a great success,” Michieka said.
Michieka said this year’s forum was the most attended event she has seen for the organization. With more than 77 people in attendance, there were more presentations than usual, allowing participants to choose which ones to attend.
Presentations from international ETSU students ranged from interdisciplinary topics, such as economics and public health.
The event’s success is not just measured by attendance; however, Michieka said the happiness it brought to campus and the opportunities it provided for students were the true gains.
“People were happy, we had a good meal together, we sang and our own students participated,” Michieka said. “We had some students reciting poetry, we had a student storytelling, we had student volunteers play African drums.”
A key moment for Michieka was listening to the keynote speaker, John M. Mugane from Harvard University’s department of African and African American Studies. Mugane’s presentation explored how Africa’s living languages can transform the AI age into an era of shared knowledge, inclusion, and multilingual collaboration.
The message inspired Michieka to create opportunities for students who want to learn African languages before they study abroad.
“What they do at their school is find someone to work with a student, one on one, and get that student to learn a little bit of the language before they can travel,” said Michieka. “I thought, we do not have an African language program here, but that is doable.”
Another significant part of the event for Michieka was seeing diverse cultures represented on campus through traditional African attire.
“A few people have told me how wonderful it was to walk out in the Culp and see all the colors,” said Michieka. “It was beautiful.”
Michieka hopes the forum’s impact on campus will be long-lasting, fostering communication between students and representatives from different universities.
“I hope that people had an opportunity to greet someone from a different context, find out what they are doing and what research they are working on,” Michieka said.
