The Republic of Chad, like many African countries south of the Sahara, is a multilingual state with about 140 indigenous national languages, plus two official languages, French and Arabic. The rate of adult illiteracy is around 70%.  Language is undeniably the primary source and the indispensable vehicle that has to be reckoned with in order to attain the objectives of national development. The citizen is the central agent of development. Therefore, appropriate conditions have to be created to enable the citizen's participation in the management of State Affairs, and by the same token preserve their languages. This presentation explores the linguistic problematic in Chad and its implications with the objectives of development.

Khalil Alio is a Professor of Linguistics at the University of N'Djamena in Chad Republic.  He is currently a Fulbright Visiting Scholar at UCLA.  Before receiving his Ph.D. in African Linguistics from Philipps-Universität at Marburg in Germany, he attended the Oxford branch of the English Study Center at Colchester in Essex, England and the University of Ibadan, Nigeria. He taught at the University of Maiduguri, Nigeria. He was Director of the UNESCO Chad National Commission. He was also Vice-president and later President of the University of N'Djamena. He produced three books and numerous articles on the linguistic situation in Chad. Among these are: Language, Democracy and Development: Prerequisites for  language planning in Chad; Bilingual Education In Chad: from Theory to Practice; Multilingualism and Culture in Chad. He has read various papers in conferences abroad and within Chad and has consulted on issues of language planning, Literacy for Islamic Development Bank, the Summer Institute of Linguistics and local government agencies.

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Cost : Free and open to the public.

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Sponsor(s): African Studies Center