Department Head: Ghirmai Negash
B.A., M.A., Urye Universiteit, Amsterdam
M.A., Urye Universiteit, Leiden
Ph.D., Leiden University
Specialization: African Literature
Email: negash2611@yahoo.com

 

Background

The Department of Eritrean Languages and Literature (ERLL) at the University of Asmara is a new department, having started as a "unit" in 2000. In its first two years various preparations were made by the Arts Program, the most important of which was the development of five courses (two each for Tigrinya and Arabic and one general linguistics course). In the fall of 2001, ERLL started offering courses as electives to students from various departments of the university. Most of its students came from the departments of Journalism and Mass Communication, English, and Anthropology and Archaeology. The courses proved a success, and, as figures show, it especially helped Journalism and other graduates of the year 2002 and 2003 to increase their chances of employment in the country's mass media and other ministries.

In June 2003, the first full-fledged, degree curriculum of ERLL was approved by the University Senate. It is planned that ERLL will grow into a full department within the next 3-5 years, and become a regular teaching and research department when fully operational.

 

Why Study ERLL?

The study of Eritrean languages and literature provides students with scientific knowledge of languages, literacy, cultural awareness, and reading and writing skills. Opportunities to study critical theory, and linguistic and literary histories of Eritrean languages and literatures are also provided; so too are specialized courses in individual languages (including Giiz) and the different oral traditions of the people of Eritrea. While providing a good base for professional development in those fields, the program also presents, at the same time, intellectual challenge and artistic pleasure.

At the national level, the starting of the department will also help vitalize the languages and literatures of Eritrea. It will give a boost to the languages spoken by the people of different regions of the state, and help in realizing the country's cherished goal of promoting the growth of the languages of different ethnic groups, so that they can function effectively as the medium of instruction in schools.

Apart from helping realize these cherished socio-cultural goals of the state, the department will, moreover, work towards preventing language disasters, such as linguiside and linguicism, which has been the bane of several newly emergent nation states. Special efforts will be put for protecting and developing the Eritrean languages that are relatively underdeveloped, by encouraging their study and also attending to materials production.

The department also aims, in collaboration with other institutions, to create a national archive of all the extant literature within the country, including its precious heritage of oral literature.

Last but not least, the department's curriculum is meant, too, to create the right kind of atmosphere for stimulating creative work in all the languages of the country, and thus, contribute to enrich the literary and cultural life of the country as a whole.

 

Objectives of ERLL

The objectives of the department can be summarized thus:

1. To conduct and promote teaching and research on Eritrean Languages, Literature, and Culture
2. To establish scientific knowledge in those areas on a methodologically empirical and epistemologically critical basis
3. To establish mutually beneficial links with national and international educational and research institutions concerned with the teaching or with the dissemination of knowledge of the languages and literatures of Eritrea
4. To equip students of the department with a systematic and analytical knowledge of their area of specialisation.

 

Focus Areas

The three concentration areas of the department are:

• Linguistics/Language Study
• Literature
• Oral Traditions

 

Major and Minor in ERLL

Students have considerable freedom to determine their choices from the program offered by ERLL. They have the option of either registering for a Minor or a Major program in the department. The proposed ERLL curriculum requires students to complete 8 ERLL courses for a Minor, and a total of 18 courses (16 core courses and 2 electives in major area) plus the senior paper in the fourth year for a Major.
Students can also take ERLL courses as "electives".

On the other hand, students who major in ERLL are free to choose their minors from any field of their interest. The following are some of the possibilities: Journalism, English, Anthropology and Archaeology, History, and Sociology and Social Work.