Africa Department Staff

Head of Department

Associate Head of Department

Undergraduate Programme Convenor

Dr Alena Rettova (BA African Studies, BA African Language and Culture, BA Hausa plus another subject, BA Swahili plus another subject)

Please note that for Masters Students the Personal Tutor and Year Tutor is the MA Programme Convenor

Academic Staff

Graham Furniss

Professor of African Language Literature

Tel: +44 (0)20 7898 4366
Email: gf1@soas.ac.uk
Room: 110

Philip J Jaggar

Professor of West African Linguistics

Hausa language and linguistics; comparative Chadic.

Tel: 020 7898 4387
Email: pj@soas.ac.uk

Lutz Marten

Professor of General and African Linguistics

Bantu languages and linguistics; syntax; semantics; pragmatics; historical linguistics; language and society in Eastern and Southern Africa

Tel: 020 7898 4653
Email: lm5@soas.ac.uk
Room: 473
On Sabbatical:Term 1 2012

African film and video (particularly their intersection); filmic mediations of African performance arts (music, dance, theatre); literary adaptation in Africa; contemporary film theory and 'World Cinema'; exile/immigration and violence in relation to African screen media; structures of film production, distribution, and exhibition in Africa; use of African languages in film

Tel: 020 7898 4388
Email: ld18@soas.ac.uk
Room: 404
On Sabbatical:2012-13

Kai Easton

Senior Lecturer in African Literature and Diaspora Studies

Colonial and postcolonial studies, especially South African literature (the Cape, Wicomb, Coetzee); gender and the culture of travel; Indian Ocean diasporas; theories of fiction and history.

Tel: 020 7898 4373
Email: ke@soas.ac.uk
Room: 409
Office Hours: Tuesdays 11:00-12:00/Thursdays 15:00-16:00

Chege Githiora

Senior Lecturer in Swahili

Swahili and Gĩkũyũ Language and Linguistics. Translation and Literacy in African Languages. Culture and Society of East Africa, Latin America and the African Diaspora.

Tel: 020 7898 4395
Email: cg17@soas.ac.uk
Room: 412
On Sabbatical:2012-13

Martin Orwin

Senior Lecturer in Somali and Amharic

Somali language and literature; metrics and use of language in poetry; the relationship between language and music; Amharic.

Tel: 020 7898 4376
Email: mo1@soas.ac.uk
Room: 405
Office Hours: Mondays 11:00-13:00 / Thursdays 15:00-17:00

Kwadwo Osei-Nyame, Jnr

Lecturer in African Literature

Post-colonial writing with special reference to anglophone and francophone African writing and African American writing; comparative national literatures; African literature and nationalism; gender in literature; literature and society in Southern Africa; African cultural studies with reference to the Akan of Ghana and the Igbo of Nigeria; literature and human rights in Africa.

Tel: 020 7898 4377
Email: ko9@soas.ac.uk
Room: 402
On Sabbatical:Term 1 2012