World Congress of African Linguists (WOCAL): A conference like no other
The 10th edition of the World Congress of African Linguists (WOCAL), hosted by Leiden University, will be held online from 7 – 12 June. Leiden University Centre for Linguistics (LUCL) researchers give us an insight into how important and special this event actually is.
WOCAL takes place every 3 years and is described as being the only truly international and pan-theoretical conference in the field of African linguistics. This assembly of linguists working on African languages and linguistics is held alternately in Africa and in the rest of the world. Since the 1994 inaugural congress (Swaziland), WOCAL has been hosted in Germany (twice), Togo, the USA, Ethiopia, Brazil, Cameroon, Japan, and Morocco.