LLP Seminar Series: The Critical Citizen?: Quentin Williams, ‘In search of Kaaps: from slavery to linguistic citizenship futures’

The Language, Literature and Politics (LLP) research group's seminar series on ‘The Critical Citizen?’ presents Professor Quentin Williams on linguistic citizenship futures.

Register for 'In search of Kaaps' on Eventbrite.

About the talk

Kaaps is a latter-day language influenced by Khoe and San languages, creole Portuguese, Bazaar Malay, Kaaps-Dutch, Arabic and English. Its creole origins begin in the 1700s at the Cape Colony where travellers would hear the language of the enslaved informally used in the kitchen, on the streets, on farms and at religious gatherings, and would often describe them as uttering ‘peculiar noises’ (Shell, 1994).

In this talk, Professor Williams argues that the slave, creole biography of Kaaps involved the transformation of peculiar noises into a coherent description of its linguistic system that today requires our attention in order to chart the linguistic citizenship futures of the speakers.

This event will be held online via Microsoft Teams. If you have any accessibility requirements please contact Alice Rhodes (alice.rhodes@open.ac.uk).

Further information about this talk can be found on Eventbrite.

About 'The Critical Citizen' series

Responding to the widespread cynicism, disengagement and alienation citizens across the globe express towards official political cultures, this series investigates the idea of ‘the critical citizen’. What constitutes a critical citizen? And can a critical citizenry be (re-) activated as an antidote to contemporary political crises?

More information on the Language, Literature and Politics Research Group can be found on the FASS website.